Did you know that in Canada one-fifth of all households experience extreme housing affordability issues – with 18% of all renters (over 730,000 households) experiencing severe housing affordability problems, threatening their security of tenure? Or that it’s estimated that approximately 235,000 people in Canada experience homelessness each year?
A few weeks ago, along with hundreds of other organizations and individuals, CWP participated in shaping Canada’s National Housing Strategy by submitting a formal written response to the Let’s Talk Housing online consultation process. The focus of our submission was the need for a human rights framework to be implemented in the strategy. Here’s a peek at what we said in our report:
Across Canada there are various housing programs and policies, but none that use a human rights framework. Canada’s National Housing Strategy must commit to understanding, and responding to, housing as a human right. This requires a paradigmatic shift that ensures housing is seen as more than a physical structure, but rather the ability to live in dignity with access to clean water, be in good health, to connect with community and establish roots, feel safe and secure, and live near services such as schools, hospitals and transport. The human rights framework ensures this by recognizing those who are homeless and inadequately housed – the most vulnerable in society – are treated as rights-holders, both in program development and practice. This approach, once entrenched in policy and law, will then guide all future decisions about housing and evaluate options from the perspective of how they will interact with the rights of individuals.
To read CWP’s full submission, click the image below.
