This presentation examines the steps necessary to end homelessness in Kingston and Canada. Michael Shapcott, Director of Housing and Innovation www.wellesleyinstitute.com Follow us on twitter @wellesleyWI

1. Ending
homelessness
in Kingston and
across Canada:
What’s the plan?
Michael Shapcott
The Wellesley Institute
Queen’s University, October 2013

3. Housing and
homelessness:
Measuring the need

4. State of Homelessness in Canada
2013: Canadian Homelessness
Research Network / Canadian
Alliance to End Homelessness

5. Shelter usage: 818 people in 2012
up 25% over 2011
Avg. stay: 28 nights
up from 22 days in 2010
What about
Kingston?
-
10,389 renter households paying
30% or more for housing (47.8%)
Private rented housing:
!
!
7,277 owner households paying
30%or more for housing (15.6%)
296 vacant units in 2013
Affordable housing
wait list: general wait
time - 6m to 8 years
!
Avg. market rent: $1,054
up 37% since 2013
inflation rate: 19%
!
-
Renter h/h income
2003 - $44,600
2011 - $32,100
28% decrease
-

6. How did we
get so many
precariously
housed?

8. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital

9. “The health of Toronto must necessarily mean the health of
its citizens. It must mean, too, the continued progress and
development of Toronto along desirable lines. ...but I fear,
in all candour one must confess that this city, in common
with every large city, has acquired inevitable ‘slum
districts’... You will probably say: “But Toronto
has few such areas and they are not of
great extent!” I say, and I think you will
agree with me, that Toronto wants
none of them, and that the Toronto
of the future which we like to
contemplate will have none of them.”
!
Dr. H.A. Bruce
Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario
1934

10. s ood
um o g
sl nt
to d i
o n e es
or rm m
T fo o
ns h
ra
t

11. Bad housing makes you sick!
Homelessness:
Increased morbidity
Increased premature mortality
Contextual:
Individual / neighbourhood deprivation
networks / friends / crime
Socio-economic:
Affordability / energy
Transportation / income / jobs
Mental health:
Alarming rates... especially
Clinical depression and anxiety
Control / meaning
Collective efficacy
Biological / physical:
Chemicals, gases, pollutants
Design (accidents) / crowding

12. Good housing good for health!
Physical and mental health:
Better health outcomes /
decreased health care utilization
Environment / physical infrastructure:
New housing, repairs, heating, noise,
indoor + outdoor environmental issues,
allergens, water + sanitation
Community safety:
Reduced recidivism among
people leaving incarceration
Affordability interventions:
Income-based housing subsidies

13. Making the
connections
Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital

14. Wellesley Urban
Health Model

15. Social exclusion...
...cultural adequacy:
The equity lens

16. Systems thinking:
How interconnections
in complex, dynamic
world impact our lives
and our health

17. “After 20 years of continuous decline, both inequality and
poverty rates have increased rapidly in the past 10 years,
now reaching levels above the OECD average.”
OECD (2008), Growing Unequal? : Income Distribution and
Poverty in OECD Countries

19. ity
al
qu
Ine

20. ivate
d pr
ty an
uali
k e ts
Ineq
mar
sing
ou
each
h
or r
out
sing
crea
in
95%
of
Cana
dians
live i
home
n
s in p
rivate
owne
rship
renta
/
l mar
kets

22. Selected policy recommendations for OECD
countries from Divided We Stand
• Reforming tax and benefit policies is
the most direct instrument for increasing
redistributive effects. Large and
persistent losses in low-income groups
following recessions underline the
importance of government transfers and
well-conceived income-support policies.
• The growing share of income going to
top earners means that this group now
has a greater capacity to pay taxes. In
this context governments may reexamine the redistributive role of
taxation to ensure that wealthier
individuals contribute their fair share of
the tax burden.

23. OECD social
expenditures
Canada
32nd out of 34
Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital

24. ‘Social spending in Canada relies more on
public services (education, housing,
health, etc.) than on cash transfers, such
as unemployment and family benefits.’
OECD, 2011

25. How recent spending + tax policies
favour highest income households
Survey of Household Spending 2011

26. Federal housing investments as a
percentage of GDP)
1.20%
1.10%
1.00%
0.90%
0.80%
0.70%
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
0.50%
1989
0.60%
Government Revenues and Expenditures 2009

27. When the feds cut a dollar in housing
investments… matching funds from
provinces, territories, municipalities,
community and business are lost

28. Ontario Public Accounts

29. $3,250
$3,000
$2,750
$2,500
$2,250
$2,000
$1,750
17
20
16
20
15
20
14
20
13
20
12
20
11
20
10
20
09
20
08
20
20
07
$1,500
Federal housing investments
(in millions)
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 2012

30. 626,300 homes in 2007
492,500 homes in 2017
Loss of 133,800 homes
22% of entire stock
650000
600000
550000
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
450000
2007
500000
Federally subsidized homes
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 2012

31. Four observations:
!
!
1.Housing insecurity deep / persistent
2.Costly to people, communities,
economy, government
3.Federal housing / homelessness
investments eroding
4.No comprehensive national plan

32. 1993
-­‐
feds
cancel
new
social
/
affordable
housing
funding
1995
-­‐
Ontario
cancels
new
social
/
affordable
housing
funding
1996
-­‐
feds
start
to
download
most
exis<ng
housing
to
P
/T
1998
-­‐
Ontario
starts
to
download
housing
to
municipali<es

33. Municipal housing investments
(in dollars)
$1,900,000,000
$1,400,000,000
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
$400,000,000
2000
$900,000,000
Government Revenues and Expenditures 2009

35. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital
John Peters Humphrey:
‘Father of modern international human rights system’

36. International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights
!
Article 11
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize
the right of everyone to an adequate standard of
living for himself and his family, including adequate food,
clothing and housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions. The
States Parties will take appropriate steps
Toronto 1911:
to ensure the realization of this right...
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital

37. City of Kitchener (2010)
Ontario Municipal Board
Discriminatory municipal bylaw on spatial separation
!
“Statutory tribunals empowered to decide questions of law are presumed
to have the power to look beyond their enabling statutes in order to apply
the whole law to a matter properly in front of them.... The presumptive
power to look beyond the tribunal's enabling statute is triggered simply
where a tribunal (with the authority to decide questions of law) is
confronted with "issues... that arise in the course of a case properly
before” it....”
Victoria (City) v. Adams (2009)
BC Court of Appeal
Municipal bylaw criminalizing activities
associated with homelessness
Toronto aid in
“The use of international instruments to 1911: the
interpretation of the meaning and Founding of
scope of rights under
Wellesley Hospital
the Charter, and in particular the rights protected under s.
7 and the principles of fundamental justice, is wellestablished in Canadian jurisprudence.”

38. Practical
proposals:
The Mexico
City Charter

39. !
National Survey on Housing:
!
• 71% want national housing plan
• 66% want increased fed funding
• 73% want increased focus on
homelessness

40. !
1.4.3 - Planning authorities shall provide for an appropriate range
and mix of housing types and densities to meet projected
requirements of current and future residents… permitting and
facilitating all forms of housing required to meet the social,
health and well-being requirements of current and future
residents, including special needs…
!
Affordable means in the case of rental housing,
the least expensive of:
!
1. a unit for which rent does not exceed 30% of gross annual
income for low and moderate income households; or
!
2. a unit for which rent is at or below the average market rent…

41. !
Municipalities are required to:
!
• develop and implement 10-year plans to end
homelessness and ensuring adequate housing for all
• consult widely
• ensure measurable, improved outcomes
• report annually on progress

42. Does
Kingston’s
plan meet
the tests?

43. !
Discuss… does Kingston’s plan:
!
• set targets to meet housing needs of everyone?
• ensure measurable, improved outcomes?
• identify the tools / funding required to meet the
named outcomes?
• report annually on progress?

44. www.wellesleyinstitute.com
Thank you!