ekaplan's blog

While schools can be a powerful site of homelessness prevention, they are also a potential site of harm for many young people, particularly youth with disabilities and mental health struggles, youth from poverty, Indigenous youth, Black youth, and youth navigating homophobia and transphobia. However, youth see schools as an important site where homelessness prevention can happen.

We make up the collective and, therefore, have the power to make the system better for all.

It is as if people do not care about women veterans’ homelessness. We leave them jobless, homeless, and vulnerable to violence – despite fighting for Canada’s freedom. 

November 11th is Remembrance Day—a day to acknowledge the bravery and sacrifice of those who risk their lives to serve our country.

Overview: The Home in the City Project

There are diverse understandings and complex power relations within governance relationships. This is demonstrated through the intersectional communities formed among individuals accessing housing services, providing services, and advocating for services. The relationships that hold these communities together are impacted by formal and informal decisions about how we respond to community issues – this is what we call governance.

In Quebec, homelessness has become a significant social issue. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the homelessness sector saw a surge in the number of people seeking our services. According to the 2015 and 2018 point-in-time counts, homelessness was already on the rise in Quebec before the onset of the pandemic and most people in the sector believe it has further increased since then.

The rates of youth who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity are increasing exponentially across North America. Recent research has demonstrated that 6,000-7,000 youth, aged 13-24, are experiencing housing insecurity on any given night in Canada.

When the news or social media discusses issues related to homelessness, most often we are hearing from Canada’s major cities – Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary, for example.

With the 2022 National Conference on Ending Homelessness less than a month away, I am excited to discuss a doctoral research project I have been working on. This research project seeks to create a framework to address anti-Black racism in the housing and homelessness sector. This blog will provide an overview of the goals, methodology and implications of the research.

CTV News published an article on September 2, 2022, asking Canadians if student loan debt should be forgiven. This question was posed right after U.S. President Joe Biden announced that his administration would provide up to US$20,000 in student loan “forgiveness” for 40 million low-and middle-income borrowers. 

Disponible en version française

How many organizations across Canada offer Shelter Diversion (SD) and Eviction Prevention (EP) programs and what's the key to their success? That’s what our new project aims to discover, with your help! Tell us about your SD or EP program, so that together we can create tools to help other communities implement successful SD and EP programs to prevent and end homelessness.