Search Library
Organization: The Wellesley Institute
Publication Date: 2009
While everybody is affected by a pandemic, everyone is not affected equally. People with compromised health face greater risks, and those with less income have less ability to take the practical steps to mitigate their risk. For instance, people living in homeless shelters with dozens or even hundreds of others cannot simply “stay at home and avoid contact with others” – which is advice commonly given during pandemics.
Pandemic planning, and emer...
Organization: The Wellesley Institute
Publication Date: 2006
Toronto’s homeless street count and needs assessment has generated plenty of controversy. This Wellesley Institute backgrounder, prepared by Michael Shapcott, looks at the issues and concerns about counting the homeless.
Publication Date: 2012
There is an extensive body of academic, policy-related and community based literature that describes the powerful nature of housing as a social determinant of population health. The relationship that exists between poor housing (or a lack of housing) and poor mental and physical health is well-documented. From structural to social issues, there are a myriad of concerns that surface including (but not limited to): density of housing; internal cond...
Publication Date: 2012
Canada’s federal government has failed to meet the housing commitments that it made to the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of 2009. That’s a key observation in the Wellesley Institute’s submission to the upcoming United Nation’s review of Canada’s international human rights obligations, set for early in 2013. Canada has signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and numerous other international legal...
Publication Date: 1999
Ontario Finance Minister Ernie Eves delivered an optimistic Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review in the Ontario Legislature today. The picture is not so rosy for homeless people and low-income households in Ontario. Hundreds of thousands of homeless and low-income tenants suffer under provincial policies The Ontario government's massive cuts to housing spending and programs have helped generate an "unprecedented" housing cr...
Publication Date: 2007
Ontario’s affordable housing crisis remains deep and persistent. More than 600,000 households (that’s more than 1.5 million women, men and children) are in core housing need, and many more are directly affected by a shortage of homes and high housing prices. The affordable housing crisis affects the personal health of individual Ontarians, it disrupts communities and it is a drag on the economic health of the province. The costs of the affordable...
Publication Date: 2007
Everyone in Canada has the right to a safe, secure, adequate and affordable home. The federal government is obliged in international law to ensure people have a home. That, in short form, is the international right to adequate housing as set out in numerous treaties and other legal instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights o...
Publication Date: 2007
National Housing Day is November 22, 2007 – which marks the day in 1998 when the mayors of Canada’s biggest cities declared homelessness a “national disaster”. Nine years on, senior levels of government have failed to deliver on agreements and commitments for new housing spending, and few new affordable homes have been built in recent years.
Publication Date: 2008
A look at Toronto's 2008 operating budget, its 10-year housing strategy, and the need to reverse urban development trends.
Publication Date: 2008
Review of three key federal programs affecting housing and homelessness with a focus on key issues and solutions.
Publication Date: 2008
A Wellesley Institute backgrounder looking at the income and housing census figures and Canada’s growing income inequality.
Organization: Wellesley Institute
Publication Date: 2006
Homelessness in Toronto has been growing rapidly, almost six times faster than the overall population. In 1960, there were 900 beds in the city’s shelter system and 1.6 million people living in Toronto. By 2006, Toronto had 4,181 shelter beds in a city of 2.6 million. The face of homelessness is changing as more families and children line-up for shelter. Homelessness is the most visible sign of a larger urban crisis: The lack of affordable housin...