stephanie's blog

Today, August 1st, is Emancipation Day. It’s a day to recognize Canada’s history of slavery and discrimination. This date was chosen because August 1, 1834, marks the abolishment of slavery across the British Empire. In 2021, the House of Commons voted unanimously to designate August 1st as Emancipation Day. 

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) continues to evaluate the design and use of assessment tools within the homelessness sector, to ensure that communities have access to the best, most evidence-based resources. This blog shares our recent reflections on assessment tools and processes. It also highlights key findings from a national survey on assessment tools launched by the COH in the fall of 2021.

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

Recent decades have seen the emergence of a worrying pattern: environmental initiatives – that are protected from criticism in public and political discourses – are being awarded large funding contracts despite their inability to tackle the issues they are intended to address. This article looks at one of these publicly-funded greening initiatives, Ville en Vert,  and highlights the wider socio-economic impacts of their urban greening projects in Montreal.

In support of the launch of the This Is Not Home (TINH) Project, below is an excerpt from a spoken word poem written by Shayla, a Lived Expert Advisor to the project, through the West End Womens' Resource Centre, Winnipeg, MB. Shayla is a writer, storyteller, and a Spoken Word artist/wordsmith.

I am pleased to announce a major update to the Homelessness Learning Hub today! We have given the site a full refresh – with a new look, new learning opportunities, and new ways to connect with sector experts and peers. Not everything is new, though. The site is still dedicated to providing free, professional development training and support to the homeless-serving sector.

How has COVID-19 impacted the mental health and substance use patterns of young people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness? This is one of three questions our team of researchers, knowledge users, and collaborators – including members with lived expertise – is setting out to understand. 

COVID-19 has revealed a lot of inequities. For people that are homeless, it has shown how lack of housing puts people’s health and safety at risk due to inability to enact prevention measures. Handwashing and housing are basic protections against COVID-19 and in themselves, harm reduction interventions. In Canada, almost 80% of Canadians use some type of substance.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has shone a harsh light on the inequities and inadequacies of Canada’s social and economic safety net to protect and support young people at-risk of or experiencing homelessness. The issue of youth homelessness and housing instability, which was largely out of public view, has now been thrown into sharp focus as communities grapple with how to ensure that everyone can be protected from the virus and access even the most basic of needs.