Abstract
This qualitative study examines the risk of homelessness amongst recent immigrant and refugee populations in the Greater Toronto Area by analyzing the various barriers which hinder newcomer access to adequate and affordable housing. This study incorporates the framework of Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) to understand the oppression, marginalization, and exclusion that many recent immigrants and refugee claimants experience within Toronto’s housing and rental markets and subsequently, how this initiates their cycle of homelessness. The findings of this study are informed by two semi-structured, informal interviews with housing and settlement workers in order to provide a working insight onto the issues that are affecting their newcomer clients on a daily basis. This study identifies challenges within Toronto’s housing market and highlights solutions put forth by housing and settlement workers. Similarly, this study examines initiatives put forth by the municipal government to address the barriers to accessing adequate and affordable housing.
Highlights
This study incorporates the framework of Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) to understand the oppression, marginalization, and exclusion that many recent immigrants and refugee claimants experience within Toronto’s housing and rental markets and subsequently, how this may initiate the cycle of homelessness
As the introductory chapter notes, this study will incorporate the theory of Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) to understand the ways in which recent immigrants and refugee claimants may experience marginalization and exclusion in the housing and rental markets, and subsequently, the ways in which this marginalization may initiate the cycle of homelessness
As much of the literature in this study has identified, income and affordability are one of the main barriers that recent immigrants and refugees experience in their search for adequate and affordable housing (D’Addario et al, 2007; Greene, 2013; Khosla, 2004; Murdie, 2010; Paradis, 2010; Vakili-Zad, 2004)
Summary
The notion of a home is more than just a physical structure containing four walls and a roof. For the purposes of this research, this study uses the Canadian Homelessness Research Network (2012) definition of homelessness which refers to the situation of an individual or family without stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it. Gaetz poses an important question when he asks, “if we are still confronting the issue today, after all these years, and if the problem seems to be getting worse, do we really know as much as we think we do?” (Gaetz, 2010; 33) By delving into this issue, my research project will attempt to answer three major questions: (1) What are the barriers that recent immigrants are encountering which lead to the risk of homelessness?
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