Since 2017, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada have been implementing and evaluating three program models that are situated across the continuum of prevention, in 10 communities and 12 sites in Ontario and Alberta. Among these is an early intervention called Youth...

COVID-19 is radically reshaping many aspects of people’s financial health in America, including their housing security. The economic fallout is disproportionately impacting communities of color due to systemic inequities related to race, housing, employment, and more. As the protections put in...

There were 85 shelters for victims of abuse that had ties to First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities or organizations operating across Canada in 2017/2018. These Indigenous shelters, which are primarily mandated to serve victims of abuse, play an important role for victims leaving abusive...

The Prosperity Now Scorecard is a comprehensive resource featuring data on family financial health and policy recommendations to help put all U.S. households on a path to prosperity. The Scorecard equips advocates, policymakers and practitioners with national, state, and local data to...

The Pandemic Response and Recovery Toolkit is intended to assist System Leaders plan and navigate the next steps in their community’s response and recovery as it pertains to people experiencing homelessness and people supported in housing programs. The Toolkit outlines phases and action steps –...

This report highlights mostly B.C.-based research and includes key information, facts, and statistics to answer common questions that neighbours, local government, and other stakeholders may have about supportive housing. The easy-to-read question and answer format also includes infographics to...

Ending homelessness in Canada requires partnerships across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Preventative measures, and providing safe, appropriate, and affordable housing with supports for those experiencing homelessness is needed.  This paper provides a series of joint...

Across Canada, homelessness has always existed but with the creation of statistical reporting across the country the awareness of the pressure this puts on Canadian society is more apparent. The statistics on homelessness are staggering and understanding the path to homelessness, included by those...

Without a Home, conducted by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness in partnership with A Way Home Canada, surveyed 1,103 youth experiencing homelessness across Canada. Youth in 42 different communities and nine of the 10 Canadian provinces, as well as Nunavut Territory, completed the self-report...

Being homeless, whether briefly or for an extended period of time, can be profoundly distressing for whoever undergoes the experience. This portrait is the result of an exploratory study on homelessness in 13 communities representing five First Nations in Quebec. The report identifies the principal...

This study provides information on the number of Canadians who reported that they ever had to temporarily live with family, friends, in their car, or anywhere else because they had nowhere else to live—a situation referred to as ‘hidden’ or ‘concealed’ homelessness. It also examines the...

Recent point-in-time homeless counts in Metro Vancouver and City of Vancouver indicate a growing number of people experiencing homelessness in our community. Despite government investments in social housing and rent supplements, more people are homeless in Metro Vancouver than ever before....

Despite progress on many fronts, the number of people becoming homeless in Canadian cities was not declining. As a consequence, there has been a discernable shift in municipal responses to homelessness in recent years. Inspired by policy innovations in the United States, a number of cities are now...

In the ongoing national debate over economic opportunity and rising inequality, one important factor is consistently overlooked—the price of housing in elite urban cores. Kotkin’s essay deepens our understanding of inequality and challenges the conventional wisdom about how and where we should...

Children need stability to thrive. But across the United States, more and more children are facing the most extreme form of instability and poverty—homelessness. In no place is this more evident than in New York City, where one out of every eight children attending public school in SY...

Using data from the 2014 Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS), this study examines the gap in the financial knowledge of men and women and how the difference varies across socioeconomic characteristics such as age and education. It also provides additional insight into the financial...

The rise of economic inequality has become a staple of policy debates and stump speeches. Less visible is the way the rise has altered the landscape of America’s urban neighborhoods. Two books should help change that. Matthew Desmond, an urban sociologist at Harvard, has delivered a jolt with...

From October 1, 2009 through the end of June 2012, over 4,500 San Francisco residents received homelessness prevention or rapid re-housing services from the federally funded Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Administered by SF-HSA, the program provided case management,...

Increasingly, the notion of “Housing First” has been promulgated internationally as the turnkey solution to homelessness. In Canada, government investment in Housing First has become de rigueur from coast to coast. This paper proposes the extension of Housing First as a guiding philosophy...

Deficits in appropriate and affordable housing may also interact with other forms of exclusion, creating cycles of increased exclusion and risk. In the current study, we consider the interaction between homelessness and access to mainstream financial services. The conceptual model proposes that,...

This report quantifies the benefit of the ILA model through a return on investment calculation. Feedback from current partners of the ILA was also gathered in an attempt to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the model in order to evaluate the potential of bringing these benefits to scale. This...

The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has documented 1,650 acts of violence against homeless individuals by housed perpetrators over the past 17 years (1999-2015). These crimes are believed to have been motivated by the perpetrators‘ biases against people experiencing homelessness or...

The toolkit was developed to assist other Canadian communities that are interested in adopting the Housing First approach. Primarily based on the experiences of the At Home/Chez Soi project, we have assembled tools and resources that are practical and user-friendly for groups and communities...

Welcome to the first in a series of planning guides on the Expiry of Operating Agreements. Housing Services Corporation has been working for a number of years on the issue of expiring agreements. We see this Guide as a living document. We hope that this Guide will become a trusted resource for you...

The Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program was established by Section 554 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 to help residents of public housing and participants in the Housing Choice Voucher program become self-sufficient through education, training, case management,...