tgulliver's blog

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association – an active partner of ours at the Canadian Homelessness Research Network – posted a great infographic on National Housing Day, Nov. 22nd titled “The State of Housing in Canada”. The infographic highlights key points on affordable housing data across the country and builds on past research, including their affordable housing fact sheet from 2011.

This post is part of our Friday "Ask the Hub" blog series. Have a homeless-related question you want answered? E-mail us at thehub@edu.yorku.ca and we will provide a research-based answer.

During our Tweet Chat in October the following question was raised by Social Medicine BC:

What is National Housing Day? Where did it originate? What happens on that day? 
Zenia Castanos 
Toronto, ON

Holly Notsolightly recently asked on Facebook “how does anyone with $0 income pay even $25 for rent? or eat? or, indeed survive?”

She was referencing a post by OrgCode which looked at the Tower project in Rhode Island and mentioned that subsidies allow the rent to be as low as $25 for someone without an income.

This week the four full-time Homeless Hub staff members, one of our students and our post-doctoral visiting fellow attended the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness' first National Conference on Ending Homelessness. We were gratified by the overwhelming support and thanks that we received for our work.

Today's featured question is: Why should cities count homeless people?

A decade ago I was the poster child against counting homeless people. When the City of Toronto first proposed its Point in Time (PiT) count I was working at the Church of the Holy Trinity and was on the Steering Committee of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. I actively fought the implementation of these counts feeling like they wouldn’t be accurate and would further marginalize people experiencing homelessness and likely lead to a reduction in funding.

Last week I was fortunate to be part of two different events related to Aboriginal Homelessness. The first, hosted by the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council, brought together researchers, front-line service providers and community members to discuss housing and homelessness needs of Aboriginal communities. The second, hosted by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, was a two-day event in Calgary, AB with researchers, local community agencies and national Aboriginal service organizations.

The Homeless Hub was talking about World Homeless Day this week. I haven’t heard of this before. What is it?

Ree Lanoue 
Mandeville, Louisiana

Thanks for your question Ree. I hadn’t heard of it either until this week. World Homeless Day started on October 10^th, 2010 and has been recognized annually on 10/10.

Today’s Ask the Hub is a little bit different. Rather than responding to a question that we receive from you, the readers, I’m answering one that has been on the minds of many of us here at York University and in academia across the country. "How should we respond/react to the August 16th arrests of Professor John Greyson and Dr. Tarek Loubani in Egypt?”

Buddy, can you spare a dime job?

Dear Homeless Hub,
How can a woman with children who is experiencing homelessness look for work?

Rob Evans
Scarborough

Dear Rob,