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Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press
Publication Date: 2018
The book contains four sections covering a range of topics that service providers inquire about most often. Part 1: Approaches and Interventions describes specific approaches to addressing the mental health and substance use challenges of youth experiencing homelessness. Topics include the community reinforcement approach and motivational enhancement therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, mindfulness approaches, trauma-informed care, ecologicall...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2017
There are many ways to think about what policy can and should achieve, and what its role should be in furthering public interests at the government, community and institutional levels. If the goals of good public policy include justice, the defence of human rights, and the enhancement of inclusion, respect and well-being for individuals and communities, a question to be asked is how does—or, more importantly, how should—policy address the needs a...
Publication Date: 2017
This study was designed to provide a representative description of the mental health of youth accessing homelessness services in Canada.
It is the most extensive survey in this area to date and is intended to inform the development of mental health and addiction service and policy for this marginalized population.
Publisher: Canadian Observatory On Homelessness
Publication Date: 2016
In the context of growing concerns about the seeming inevitability of an influenza pandemic, all levels of government in Canada, as well as a broad range of institutions, have been working to develop disaster management plans. The H1N1 pandemic of 2009–2010 put such plans to the test in many ways, as governments, institutions and community agencies had to respond, either through rolling out existing plans, or by developing ad hoc strategies. Home...
Publication Date: 2016
While there has recently been considerable research and public investment in strategies to address homelessness in Canada, food charity remains the primary response to hunger, with little evaluation of current efforts and no initiatives to develop more effective approaches. Using data from a 2010–2011 survey of charitable food assistance in five Canadian cities, this study was undertaken to describe charitable meal provisioning in each city and t...
Publication Date: 2015
We need to not only bear witness to the words of people who have experienced homelessness but also act against cultural indifference. We need to listen and learn about the endurance needed while contending with the violence of the system…the deaths—or more accurately—murders. As ex-homeless/academic I have to think that there needs to be an audience for these words so that i/we/you can work against the indifference that perpetuates homelessness....
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2015
Think about the child who spins madly in order to make themselves dizzy or experience euphoria; the student who says “I can’t face this class without another big cup of coffee;” the professional who ends the day with a glass (or two) of wine or bourbon. Engaging in practices that are pleasurable, mind altering or stimulating—including the use of substances—is not unusual in any society. For most people, and this includes the majority of individua...
Publication Date: 2014
The Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN) was established to create a stronger link between homelessness research, policy, and practice. The knowledge mobilization strategy of the CHRN encompasses engaged scholarship, networking, and innovative dissemination practices. Part of the learning of the CHRN has been the need to reimagine and redefine the traditional relationship between content creation and dissemination. Using a “design thinki...
Publication Date: 2013
Anti-social behaviour statutes are proliferating in western societies, yet little statistical analysis has been conducted on their enforcement patterns and trends, particularly in Canada. A study of the Ontario Safe Streets Act enforcement in Toronto shows a 2,000 percent increase in tickets from 2000 to 2010, with most being issued downtown to homeless individuals. Further research shows that this increase is not the result of increasing crime r...
Publication Date: 2013
In “Varieties of Punitiveness in Europe”, O’Sullivan sets out to review on-going debates on the use of criminal justice systems as a strategy to manage homelessness. That is, he explores the question of how do we understand exclusionary measures such as the enactment of laws targeting people who are homeless, as well as specific policing practices intended to restrict the use of public spaces, in terms of the neoliberal turn of the past quarter c...
Organization: Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN)
Publication Date: 2012
Ce qui devient clair est que le statu quo est en réalité très coûteux. Cela peut sembler contre-intuitif de suggérer qu’il est moins coûteux et plus rentable de fournir aux sans-abri les logements et les soutiens dont ils ont besoin, plutôt que de simplement leur apporter des soutiens d’urgence tels les refuges d’urgence et les soupes populaires. Cependant, la recherche passée en revue dans le présent document indique que c’est effectivement le c...
Publication Date: 2010
The successful integration of immigrants and refugees into a new society is based on their attainment of several basic needs, one of the most important of which is affordable, suitable and adequate housing. In recent years, there has been increasing attention paid to the role of housing in the integration process. This has prompted examinations of the links between access to affordable housing and the residential concentrations of newcomers and m...
Publication Date: 2007
I worked at Shout Clinic for seven years in the 1990s. Shout Clinic is a health centre for street youth in Toronto. My time there was amazing. It was an exciting place to work. The staff were incredible and, most importantly, the young people I met - who were homeless - changed the way I view the world. I don’t know how I would react if I ever became homeless, but I do hope that I would be as courageous as those young people.
One of my roles at...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
The evidence for the success of Housing First as a strategy for addressing homelessness is well established by extensive research in Canada and elsewhere. Housing First clearly works, even for the most challenging, chronically homeless individuals and families. Yet in spite of the apparent success of Housing First in many communities, there are barriers to buy-in and implementation. Claims such as ‘It's a fad or a trend’, or ‘It’s an American mod...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
Key Messages:
The staff team has been documenting the key lessons learned in the implementation of a Housing First program. A set of 10 lessons are included in this case study.
Several experts in Housing First –from Canada and the US– have informed the development and adaptation of the model in Lethbridge.
Lethbridge was one of the first cities in Canada to develop a Plan to End Homelessness in 2009 and are coming up to the end of the initial fiv...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
Key Features of the Calgary Homeless Foundation model:
Provides a detailed look at “systems-response” and integrated services.
Has one of the longest histories in Canada of supporting housing first programs.
As a foundation it supports a number of Housing First programs but doesn’t provide direct service delivery.
Has some of the most robust data on successes due to the length of history and foresight.
Messages clés :
L’étude trace un portrait dé...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
In recent years, Housing First has emerged as a key response to homelessness in many parts of the world including the United States, Europe and across Canada. It is considered to be a highly significant policy and practice innovation that has had a dramatic impact on how homelessness is addressed. As the popularity of Housing First grows and takes deeper root across Canada, there is a growing interest in understanding how it works, and how it can...
Publication Date: 2006
Although the magnitude of homelessness in Canada remains poorly documented, there is broad consensus that the problem has grown in size and complexity in recent years. According to the Toronto Report Card on Housing and Homelessness 2003 (City of Toronto, 2003), about 32, 000 individuals - an increase of 21% since 1990 - stayed in emergency shelters across the city in 2002. When all those who sleep in indoor or outdoor public places or stay tempo...
Publication Date: 2006
This edition of the Canadian Review of Social Policy brings together a sampling of papers presented at the Canadian Conference on Homelessness, held at York University in 2005. Over 700 people gathered at this first large-scale conference on homelessness in Canada, with delegates and presenters coming from all regions of Canada, as well as from abroad. The diversity of content was far reaching, demonstrating the breadth of knowledge and expertise...