pbusulwa's blog

Prevention Matters! A New Expert Panel Series Hosted by the COH

The homelessness sector already knows that the only way to truly solve the problem of homelessness is to shift towards preventing it before it happens. In fact, in our recent Youth Homelessness Prevention Needs Assessment survey, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness found that 90% of people working in the sector are very supportive of prevention. However, many people still need more clarity about what prevention entails and how to do it.

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Youth Reflections from the International Transitions from the Child Protection Symposium: “Nothing about us without us.”

As young people with lived experience in government care, we appreciated the International Transitions from Child Protection Symposium’s honest look at the child protection system. The Symposium shed light on ongoing issues that we’ve experienced and continue to hear about from young people in care today. We were grateful that many of the presenters spoke their truth rather than sugarcoating things. This resonated.

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How Can We Move Black Youth out of Homelessness?

A new transitional housing project in York Region aims to create the conditions for change.

360°kids is a non-profit organization that works to prevent homelessness by helping youth at risk, or in crisis, transition to a state of safety and stability. This blog will discuss the Black Youth Housing project, an upcoming initiative led by 360°kids which will explore what housing model works best to support Black youth who are experiencing homelessness in York region.

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Exploring International Rent Bank Models for Eviction Prevention

Programs that provide emergency financial assistance to households at-risk of eviction due to rental or mortgage arrears, or a sudden inability to pay rent, exist globally. ‘Rent Banks’ (as we call them in Canada) are an important homelessness prevention strategy when people face evictions, or are at imminent risk of losing their housing due to structural/systems failures.  In different jurisdictions, these programs' eligibility, governance and funding vary widely.

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Prison: A Homelessness Factory

Cultivating Curiosity 

Talking about prison is taboo—Canadian society deals with it far less than is common in other jurisdictions (eg., the United States). Most people in Canada don’t know anything about how the prison system works or what conditions in it are like if they or a loved one haven’t experienced it. 

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Homelessness among Indigenous peoples

I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness and have just released Chapter 6, which focuses on homelessness experienced by Indigenous peoples—especially in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The PDF version of the full chapter is available here.

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