A homeless person is more than a body on the street; it is a human being, an individual with a personal story, a life of experience and struggle, and a person with inherent human rights. To help personalize the homeless, the Invisible TV Project is in Canada, touring coast-to-coast-to-coast to gather the stories of people who are experiencing homelessness. Advocate, and creator of Invisible People TV, Mark Horvath, has brought his social media strategy to Canada to help break down stereotypes of the homeless, and raise awareness of the problem.
Horvath launched the project in 2008 in the United States to capture images of homelessness across the US, and share the stories with a wider audience in the hopes of creating greater understanding about the issues. This is the first international trip for Invisible People TV and is being organized by the Calgary Homeless Foundation in partnership with the Community Action Community, which, by September, would have helped to bring Horvath to 34 Canadian cities.
A skilled communicator, Horvath has tapped into the realm of social media to help spread his message, and currently has over 12,000 followers (see @hardlynormal, or @invisiblepeople on Twitter). “This will be my third major road trip with InvisiblePeople.tv and the goal remains the same: To make the ‘invisible people’ in society more visible by bringing them out of the shadows where they are ignored,” says Horvath, who was once homeless himself. “We’re using video and social media to expose the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions of people face each day.”
Having experienced homelessness himself, Horvath has turned to social media as a way to advocate for housing and the rights of individuals. He has successfully self-funding Invisible People TV with small grants, and media attention helping to bring in support for the project.
In Canada, the housing and homelessness situation has often been referred to as a crisis. A report from the Wellesley Institute titled Precarious Housing in Canada released last year estimated that between 150,000-300,000 people are visibly homeless, while another 450,000-900,000 are considered “hidden homeless” – meaning they are living in overcrowded housing, or couch surfing. In addition to this, 1.5 million Canadians are considered to be in “core-housing need” – which implies that these households pay 30% or more of their income on shelter.
In an effort to correct this emergency, last year a key piece of legislation was introduced in the House of Commons and was at the final reading before the election. Bill C-304, An Act to Ensure Secure, Adequate, Accessible, and Affordable Housing, would have re-instated a federal housing strategy (the last one being scrapped in the early 90s), and enshrined housing as a human right into our domestic law. This move would have offered citizens facing housing issues or homelessness the opportunity to legally challenge their situation based on human rights laws.
At the international level, Canada has already committed to respecting housing as a human right by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. What has been lacking in recent years is the commitment within Canada to have these rights recognized legally in Canadian courts.
Horvath’s trip offers a glimpse into the stories of people on the streets across the country. It reminds us that homelessness is not acceptable, and that individuals facing this challenge are people with emotions, needs, wants, and fears like the rest of us. Humanizing homelessness will hopefully help people understand the many facets that cause it, and why, when we work together, a solution is not only possible, but desirable.
Invisible People TV may be in your city in the eastern part of the country soon. Upcoming scheduled tour stops are:
Winnipeg, Manitoba – August 8-9
Thunder Bay, Ontario – August 11
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – August 13
Toronto, Ontario – August 19-22
Ottawa, Ontario – August 28-30
Montreal, Quebec – September 1-3
Fredericton, New Brunswick – September 5-6
Halifax, Nova Scotia – September 8-9 & Sept. 14
St. John’s, Newfoundland – September 11-12
