Ottawa is all talk, no action on fix for housing crisis
Declaring shelter human right would force Change
One of the most important steps yet to be taken toward a society which fully respects the dignity of its citizens is the codification of a reasonable standard of living as an enforceable (and enforced) right. And this week’s news has offered both a reminder of the continued demand that our political leaders live up to that standard, and an all-too-familiar indication that the people who hold power are falling far short of the mark.
On the promising side, the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness has responded to consultations into a federal housing strategy by leading a coalition of dozens of organizations and individuals in a push to declare housing a fundamental human right.
The coalition’s open letter to the federal government rightly recognizes that the process of giving effect to a right to housing involves two key elements.
First, there’s the need to develop and fund a plan to ensure the availability of housing where it’s lacking, particularly among communities that face specific barriers to housing. And second, there’s a need to enshrine an enforceable right to housing in law to ensure that recalcitrant governments can’t abandon their obligations or their constituents.
Unfortunately, there’s been little sign of meaningful governmental action in response — and every reason to worry that the federal Liberals plan to fall short on both counts as they cobble together a national housing strategy.
The Trudeau government hasn’t responded directly to the open letter. Instead, the Liberals’
The Liberals have provided only stopgap funding to respond to the atrocious state of housing facing Indigenous people.
most recent comments on housing following a long-standing pattern of mentioning a right to housing in purely aspirational terms, while complaining that they doesn’t want the responsibility of giving effect to such a right in practice.
What’s worse, the federal government’s response to one of the most obvious aspects of Canada’s housing crisis signals the continued chasm between the Liberals’ lofty rhetoric and their minimal willingness to apply it in reality.
Since taking power, the Liberals have provided only stopgap funding to respond to the atrocious state of housing facing Indigenous people, especially those living on reserves. In the face of vastly higher rates of overcrowding and needs for major repairs as part of an infrastructure gap estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, Justin Trudeau’s government has budgeted only a tiny fraction of the amount needed to approach fair access to adequate housing.
In its most recent announcement this week, the federal government has now set aside a paltry $30 million toward a new Indigenous housing initiative. And that funding is dedicated only to an “innovation challenge” which will force communities and organizations to compete for severely limited resources.
In other words, instead of recognizing adequate housing as a human right, the Liberals see it as nothing more than a lottery prize. And their first term in government will end with millions of Canadians continuing to be treated as losers in a cynical game of “Who Wants To Have A Safe Place To Live?”
For the moment, that means an international commitment to end homelessness by 2030 looks to be yet another entry on the list of long-term targets which are intended to serve as cover for short-term inaction, only to be discarded when it’s clear that it’s too late to meet them. And it will take far more pressure around the impending federal election to push Trudeau and his party either to invest the time and resources needed to address Canada’s chronic housing and homelessness issues — or to be forced to make way for a party which is prepared to rise to the challenge.