Government cuts led to current housing crisis
Re: Re: Misguided compassion can lead to
dehumanization, letters, July 31 In his letter to the editor, Ben Inglis cites Christopher Rufo of the Documentary Foundation and the American, rightleaning Discovery Institute, that 80 per cent of the homeless have addictions and 30 per cent suffer from serious mental illness. This is not the diagnosis of a cause but a description of its symptoms. Inglis suggested mandatory treatment (involuntary hospitalization) of persons with either mental health issues or substance addictions, along with a housing strategy upon completion of “treatment.”
This solution to homelessness is demeaning, comes close to the violation of human rights and simply does not work, as proven repeatedly by the Housing First approach; that is, first provide stable housing and from this stability and security, add in any treatment and other help. No “treatment” lasts unless a person has a secure home. Lots of front line experience and good research confirm this.
Failures of our economic system based on endless growth and profit-taking from public good creates human casualties in addiction, mental illness and poverty. Despair and demoralization ensue. Treatment/institutionalizing “downstream” is not the answer. Changing the housing supply system upstream is.
That system began to dry up the supply of housing affordable to lower incomes in the mid-1990s with the ascendance of neo-conservatism. In 1993, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien began withdrawing federal funding to provinces for nonprofit organizations supplying social (rent-geared-to-income) housing. Ontario Premier Mike Harris downloaded its oversight and maintenance to municipalities, and opened the door to the private sector to make money on the backs of under-resourced households and individuals.
Successive government policies tipped provision of social housing away from the non-profit sector and into the private, for-profit sector — a chance to profit from poverty. Lost was housing as a human right, as integral to human health and the public good as to GDP. Rent-geared-to-income ended. Construction of new rental units came under the misnamed “affordable” housing program which allows private sector developers to design construction financing low enough to make a profit while keeping rents under 20 per cent, then later 10 per cent, of average market rent — both far higher than RGI rents and the ability of most persons on social assistance or minimum wage to afford. It also became harder for developers to make profit.
So the supply greatly decreased while higher-end rentals grew. Homelessness skyrocketed and the casualties keep appearing downstream.
Cheryl Lyon, Douglas Avenue