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Housing & the Rise of
Homelessness J. David Hulchanski
Cities Centre & Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto
TDSB Futures Conference, May 2011
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Introduction & Overview Causes? Solutions?
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Homeless-ness – an abstract concept
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David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 1 of 17
Homeless-ness – an abstract concept
5 6
Cause & Solution
! Housing
! Income
! Support Services
“The one thing all homeless people have in common is a lack of housing…. Homelessness may not be only a housing problem, but it is always a housing problem; housing is necessary, although sometimes not sufficient, to solve the problem of homelessness.” – Cushing Dolbeare, 1996
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Policy & Program Response
1. Prevention " Housing; Income; Support Services
2. Maintenance " Emergency Shelters and Services
3. Elimination " Housing; Income; Support Services
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3 Dimensions of Houselessness
1. Absolute Houselessness people sleeping outdoors or in shelters
2. Concealed Houselessness people temporarily housed with friends
3. At Risk of Houselessness people at grave risk of losing their housing
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 2 of 17
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Length of Time Houseless
1. One Time Only
2. Episodic
3. Long Term
Defined in terms of Housing Stability
Obtaining & Keeping Adequate Housing
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FUTURE: Three Scenarios
1. HLN becomes routinized
2. HLN is no longer a problem
3. HLN problem worsens
Society, Sept./Oct., 1998
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The Past: Evolution of ‘the Problem’
What kind of problem is homelessness?
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Industrial & Urban Development The “Vagrancy” Problem Emerges
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 3 of 17
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Public Begging: Vagrancy Laws
– American Journal of Sociology, 1929 14
‘Vagrants’ – Oxford English Dictionary
“One of a class of persons who having no settled home or regular work wander from place to place, and maintain themselves by begging or in some other disreputable or dishonest way; an itinerant beggar, idle loafer, or tramp.”
The Vagrancy Act of 1824: `idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds, incorrigible rogues and other vagrants'.
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Municipal Lodging Houses
– American Statistical Association, 1929 16
Toronto’s 1934 Bruce Report The “Urban Slum” Problem Emerges
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 4 of 17
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Transition: ‘Old’ & ‘New’ Homelessness
Pre-1980s studies ! No mention of contemporary house-lessness ! Skid Row residents: Male, Housed ! e.g., 1960 SPC and 1977 City of Toronto
Post-1970s studies ! No mention of traditional Skid Row ! Houseless, Destitute Men, Women, Children ! e.g., 1983 SPC & Metro Toronto studies
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1960 Social Planning Council Study
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1960 Social Planning Council (SPC) Study ‘Skid Row’ Communities Develop
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1960 SPC Study
Shelter Beds in Toronto = 900
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 5 of 17
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1960 SPC Study
Not a Homogeneous Group of Men
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1977
Report by
City of Toronto Planning Board
November 1977
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1977 Planning Board Report
1977 Hostel Capacity = 983
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1977 Planning Board Report
Skid Row Population had Housing
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 6 of 17
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1977 Planning Board Report
Skid Row Housing: Flophouses
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1977 Planning Board Report
Skid Row Housing: Rooming Houses
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1977 Planning Board Report
The Social Function of Skid Row
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1981
U.N. Declares 1987 the I.Y.S.H.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 7 of 17
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The Present: The ‘New Homelessness’
People without housing
Complete destitution: moneyless, houseless, foodless
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1983
People Without Homes: A Permanent Emergency
Report by the Social Planning Council Of Metro Toronto, 1983
No Place To Go: Homelessness in Metropolitan Toronto
Report by
Metro Toronto, 1983
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1983 People Without Homes: A Permanent Emergency
Report by
Social Planning Council of Metro Toronto
January 1983
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1983 SPC Report
Problem: Low-cost Rental Housing
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 8 of 17
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1987 IYSH Canadian National Conference
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1987 IYSH C.C. Social Dev.
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1987 IYSH Ontario Government
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Federation of Canadian Municipalities
1991 – Big City Mayors’ Caucus
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 9 of 17
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1996
Irwin Anderson Mirsalah-Aldin
Kompari Eugene Upper
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The
“H******”
word
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1998
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 10 of 17
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Jan. 1999 Toronto Mayor’s Task Force
Recommendation #1
Never Implemented
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2001 U.S. Economists
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The Future
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CONTEXT Growing Income Gap
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 11 of 17
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CONTEXT Declining Middle Income Group
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CONTEXT Role of National Government
Canada 39%
Canada 53% 1992
36%
1984
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CONTEXT Canada: Program Spending
1993
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The Future of Homelessness: Three Options 1. Homelessness can become a routine, normal part
of our social and political landscape.
2. Homelessness can cease to be a problem, as we make progress in changing and compensating for the homeless making processes that are at work.
3. Or homelessness, as well as other manifestations of poverty, can become much worse as our support systems are further weakened and our public priorities remain elsewhere.
The seeds of each scenario exist in the present.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 12 of 17
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Homeless Makers & Making Processes
! Homelessness does not occur in a social or political vacuum.
! The events that make people homeless are initiated and controlled by other people.
! The primary purpose of these activities is not to make people homeless.
! Homelessness occurs as a side effect. Rene I. Jahiel, ed. 1992. Homelessness: A Prevention-Oriented Approach. The Johns Hopkins University Press 50
“Looking pitiful is important …”
“I learned that looking pitiful is important when panhandling.
So it's better to be sitting -- literally and figuratively down and out.“
– John Stackhouse The Globe and Mail
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Homelessness: An Occupation “He concluded that homelessness, for many, is
an occupation, a way to exploit a deep well of public sympathy
and ignorance, and a way of liberating oneself from the stress,
effort and sacrifice required by work and family life.”
# “How to beg for $750 million: The friends of the homeless panhandle Ottawa for a mega-handout they probably don't need,” Report Newsmagazine, February 7, 2000 (and in Alberta Report and B.C. Report).
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Human Rights of the Homeless: ‘trampled without regard or regret’
“Homelessness is the predictable result of private and public-sector policies that exclude the poor from participating in the economic revolution, while safety nets are slashed in the name of ‘global competitiveness’.
“The principles of economic and social rights – an integral part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... – are trampled without regard or regret.”
– Philip Alston, Chair, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva in “Hardship in the Midst of Plenty,” The Progress of Nations 1998, NY: UNICEF.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 13 of 17
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 An Adequate Standard of Living
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UN Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
UN Human Rights Report, 1998
“The Committee is gravely concerned that such a wealthy country as Canada has allowed the problem of homelessness and inadequate housing to grow to such proportions that the mayors of Canada's ten largest cities have now declared homelessness a national disaster.”
“The Committee urges the State party to implement a national strategy for the reduction of homelessness and poverty.”
2006
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We know what to do.
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David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 14 of 17
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Emergency Declaration Homelessness a National Disaster, 1998
“We call on all levels of government to
declare homelessness a national disaster
requiring emergency humanitarian relief.”
$ Toronto Disaster Relief Committee $ National Housing and Homelessness Network
About $3.5 Billion
All three levels of Government Federal, Provincial & Municipal
Solution
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1% Solution – Federal Share, $2 Billion
(1) Supply
About $1 billion to provide capital funding for the provision of 20,000 to 25,000 new social housing units a year.
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1% Solution – Federal Share (2) Affordability
About $500 million a year for rent supplements for about 160,000 households.
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1% Solution – Federal Share (3) Supportive Housing
About $125 million a year for 10,000 new supportive housing units.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 15 of 17
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1% Solution – Federal Share (4) Rehabilitation
About $125 million a year to double rehabilitation funding for 30,000 units.
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1% Solution – Federal Share (5) Emergency Services
About $250 million a year on services and shelter for homeless people.
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National Campaign
About $3.5 Billion
1% of the budgets of all three
levels of Government
Federal, Provincial & Municipal Solution National Campaign
2003 –
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Final Observations
! “It is not sufficient to ask what it is about the homeless poor that accounts for their dispossession.
! “One must also ask what it is about ‘the rest of us’ that has learned to ignore, then managed to tolerate, and now seeks to banish from sight the evidence of a present gone badly awry.”
– Kim Hopper, HLN Old and New, 1991.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
Page 16 of 17
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Final Observations
“When machines and computers, profit motives
and property rights, are considered more
important than people, the giant triplets of
racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are
incapable of being conquered.” – Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence, Riverside Church, New York City,
April 4, 1967.
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Final Observations
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a
beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which
produces beggars needs restructuring…
“A nation that continues year after year to spend
more money on military defense than on
programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual
death.” – Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence, Riverside Church, New
York City, April 4, 1967.
David Hulchanski, University of Toronto
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