Introduction to the Special Issue: Homelessness in Canada

Abstract

In February 2009, over 700 people gathered for more than three-days at ‘Growing Home,’ Canada’s second national conference on housing and homelessness (www.nhc2009. ca) to explore causes and solutions to this urgent problem. Conference delegates included those who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness, their families, policy analysts, political activists, politicians, professionals, scholars, those in the affordable housing community, and concerned citizens generally. Over 140 academic papers and workshops were delivered by the country’s leading researchers and homelessness-serving practitioners. There is an enormous scale of homelessness in advanced industrialized countries such as Canada. In a country of over 34 million people, between 150,000 and 300,000 are homeless, and various levels of government commit from $3 – $6 billion to supporting those on the streets. There are structural issues that can increase the risk of homelessness, including threats to income such as a rise in unemployment, low assistance levels for those with disabilities and seniors, lack of social housing and rent supports, insufficient affordable housing, and too many precarious jobs (involving job insecurity, low wages or high risks of ill health). Then there are events in a person’s life