stephanie's blog

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.

Those of us who have travelled alongside young people transitioning out of homelessness know how difficult this journey can be. Once housed, they must face the colossal task of pressing forward in the face of monumental social and economic inequities. 

The desire to address inequalities and exclusionary practices within homelessness policy led Wales to become the first country to attempt to fully reorient homelessness services toward prevention and to make preventive services universally available. At the heart of the Welsh approach is a legal duty that requires municipal authorities to assist anyone who is at risk of homelessness, or who has become homeless, and seeks help.

Today we celebrate the launch of the Making the Shift (MtS) Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab. Making the Shift is a Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) with an initial investment of $17.9 million over five years from the Government of Canada’s Research Tri-Council.