Blog Post by Suzanne Swanton, Co-Chair, Wellington-Guelph Housing Committee
Views expressed are the author’s own.

Last week, students at the University of Guelph and across the country slept rough for five days to raise awareness and donations for youth homelessness. Inevitably there are pros and cons to such charitable campaigns.   On the positive side they raise money and open the conversation within our community to better understand homelessness for youth and the general population. There is no debating that many individuals and families benefit from these charitable activities.  On the problem side, emulating the experience of sleeping rough can perpetuate stereotypes and present a very narrow understanding of homelessness.

So you may ask, is homelessness even an issue we need to be concerned about in Guelph-Wellington?  How do we know if we have a problem?  Do charitable activities bring us closer to solving homelessness?

For the purpose of this piece, let’s put the statistics aside and consider a number of scenarios that most of us can relate to.  Perhaps you, a friend or family member had difficulty finding a place to live because there were only approximately two out of every hundred apartments available to rent (1.9% vacancy rate) in 2013 in Guelph.  Maybe you’re homeless because you can’t find a barrier free apartment you can afford.  You’ve lost your job and suddenly the clock is ticking on your Employment Insurance that doesn’t cover the bills.  You’re leaving your home with your kids to get out of an abusive relationship.  You’re staying temporarily with friends, working two minimum wage jobs and can’t afford your own place.  Perhaps you are receiving social assistance, disability or a senior’s pension and living well below the poverty line.  You’re new to Canada and trying to get yourself and your family established with a place to live but don’t have a Canadian credit history.  Maybe landlords won’t rent to you because you’re poor, you’re experiencing mental health issues, or you don’t have a good credit rating.  You confront any of the above situations (not an exhaustive list) and now face a 2-9 year wait for rent-geared-to-income housing depending on the location and type of unit needed.

If we’re well housed, we can appreciate the seriousness of these situations particularly for those with a low or modest incomes, but we can look around Guelph-Wellington and feel somehow reassured.  “If this is a problem in my community I don’t see it”.

If you remain unconvinced and need the numbers, the depth and breadth of research on this issue will astound; and indicates the scope of homelessness, rural and urban, across Canada. 

So what do people do if they can’t find a place?  Well, they couch surf, live with family or friends, rent a place too small or inadequate for their needs, live in makeshift accommodation, go to a shelter, or sleep rough if all else fails.  By definition, and hopefully its common sense, that these experiences all suggest homelessness, whether you define it as risk of homelessness, precariously housed or absolutely homeless.  Homelessness is a continuum of risk, stress and insecurity with negative outcomes for health and well being at all points along the continuum.

And here’s where the shift from charity to justice is made:  if the root causes of homelessness are associated with a limited supply of affordable housing, high rents and low social assistance rates to name a few, then the solutions need to be about reducing inequality, ensuring a living wage, investing in creating affordable housing, raising social assistance rates, etc.  As you may know, charitable solutions may ease, but do not eradicate poverty and homelessness.

I challenge those who participated in, or donated to, 5 Days for the Homeless to also put your energies into local, provincial or national campaigns that address the root causes of poverty and homelessness such as:

And check out what’s happening locally on housing issues through the work of the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination and the Wellington Guelph Housing Committee (WGHC).  Stay tuned for the April 4, 2014 launch of the 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan for Guelph Wellington.   Also, please join us for the Living Wage and Housing Community Conversation on April 16.

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