Ottawa can fix its homelessness crisis if it wishes

The `right to live in tents' doesn't cut it. Let's do better

In 2023, 8,656 people stayed at least one night in a homeless shelter in Ottawa, according to city data on shelter use. In 2018, 7,937 people were reported as experiencing homelessness, according to the city's 10-year housing and homelessness plan — and that was 23 per cent higher than in 2014.

More statistics to digest from the homelessness plan: In 2018, 3,984 individuals accessed shelter for the first time — up 42 per cent from 2014. And according to the city's estimates, there are currently 2,832 people “experiencing homelessness.” These are people in shelters, on the streets or in encampments.

Which all goes to say that homelessness in the nation's capital is getting worse. People end up in shelters, on the streets or in tent encampments because they have no place to call home. The problem is not shelters or encampments. And the answer is not a new right to live in encampments. We lose the plot if we go in that direction because it will be yet another Band-aid that confines vulnerable people to perpetual misery.

We don't need to give people a right to live in tent encampments. We need to give them a right to decent housing. The fundamental issue here is the failure of governments to provide adequate housing. That is what we should be demanding.

It boggles the mind that in a wealthy country of 40 million, there are a mere 35,000 homeless, yet we can't find a way to take care of them.

And in Ottawa, where the federal government resides and where the city government has an annual budget of $5 billion, politicians talk big but can't seem to find enough money to house local homeless.

People don't choose to be homeless. Asked in a 2021 city survey for the causes of their homelessness, 26 per cent said they didn't have enough income for housing; 16 per cent pointed to substance abuse; 13 per cent mentioned conflict with a landlord; 12 per cent gave spousal or partner conflict as the reason; and 10 per cent mentioned unsafe housing. Some 32 per cent of the homeless were Indigenous, even though they make up four per cent of the city's population.

Carolyn Whitzman, a University of Ottawa professor and housing and homelessness expert, says it's obvious that the road to ending homelessness runs through supportive and affordable housing where people who have mental-health, substance-abuse or other problems can get help.

The trouble is, we are not building anywhere near enough housing — not the city, not the province and not the federal government — for the vast middle-class, let alone for the homeless, who are at the bottom of the pyramid. Ottawa has its 10-year housing and homelessness plan (which we will discuss next week) but the housing targets are nowhere near what's needed. In the scheme of things, building affordable, rental social housing is always an afterthought for governments.

Even though Ottawa likes to boast that it was the first to declare a housing and homeless emergency, which it did in 2020, homelessness has gotten worse, not better. Like the rest of Canada, the city is not building enough new affordable housing, and much of the older stock is being lost to gentrification. Think Ottawa's Herongate neighbourhood, where some 200 affordable rental homes were demolished for high-end rentals.

This is part of the reason some despair that ending homelessness is an impossible task, certainly not something we can achieve in the foreseeable future. But Whitzman is adamant that homelessness can be ended, and last year sent a report to the city on how to do it. She laid out a number of steps on everything from how to fast-track non-profit housing, to utilizing available land and making zoning changes to ensure rapid development approvals.

“Ending homelessness is not impossible at all. Ottawa, like other cities, has the resources to end homelessness, but what is missing is political will,” Whitzman says. “It's probably impossible for municipalities alone to end homelessness, but with all three levels of government working together, it is not impossible.”