You will likely notice in the video segments that follow, that we often prefaced this question by calling it “the big one.” After the camera stopped recording in one interview, the conversation continued as one researcher raised an interesting query about whether people’s responses might differ depending on the stage of their career. Would people who are newer to the field have more optimism or see the hurdles as insurmountable? Would people who are more established in their career feel compassion fatigue (you remember that from the Social Work chapter, right?), or would they be eager to build on the networks and connections they have developed? After seeing the collection of responses together, we can certainly attest that people at all stages of their career remained passionate about ending homelessness. Whether they felt we were on the right track as a country, is something we will let you explore for yourself.

Before you begin this concluding chapter, we encourage you one last time to consider the question before exploring the range of responses. After all that you have learned, what is your opinion? Can we end homelessness? If so, how? Use the space below to record your thoughts. You may write as little or as much as you wish to answer these questions.

How to complete this activity and save your work: Type your response to the question in the box below. When you are done answering the question navigate to the ‘Export’ page to download and save your response. If you prefer to work in a Word document offline you can skip right to the Export section and download a Word document with this question there.

Homelessness is a complicated issue. However, when we asked the researchers the final question about whether we can end it, and if so how, the answers were surprisingly clear. Although they picked up on different themes or said things in different ways, their responses collectively identified four key priorities that need to be addressed before we can end homelessness in Canada. These priority areas are overlapping and have to be implemented together to be effective. To end homelessness, we must: [1] recognize housing as a human right and create deeply affordable housing to ensure that right is met, [2] implement individualized choice-based supports following the Housing First principles to ensure people’s unique needs are met, [3] hold the government accountable for their social policy choices in the past, present, and future, and [4] prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place by implementing systemic change.

In this chapter, we explore each of these priority areas by focusing on the researchers’ responses. We would like to note that in writing this chapter and presenting the material, we made the choice of which theme to include each researcher in. This does not mean that they only argued for that priority, but rather that we felt they made a strong case for it in their response. As you will see, the researchers all provided thoughtful responses that spanned across many of the priority areas. The choice to assign them to one theme or another was ours. We invite you to join us in exploring each of these priority areas and seeing firsthand the responses we received to the questions: Can we end homelessness and, if so, how? 

The idea that housing is a human right is a simple concept, but it had not been officially recognized in Canada until recently with the implementation of the National Housing Strategy (Government of Canada, 2017) and passing of the affiliated National Housing Strategy Act (Government of Canada, 2019). We have seen throughout this book that a lack of housing is a social determinant that is at the root of many challenges, traumas, and hardships associated with homelessness. Implementing the legislation and seeing housing realized as a human right in Canada will require thoughtful consideration; much of this work has already begun (Biss & Raza, 2021; CERA & NRHN, 2021; Porter, 2021; Schwan, Vaccaro, Redi, & Ali, 2021). What we heard from researchers is that we must stop thinking of housing as a commodity that generates wealth, and instead begin to invest in developing deeply affordable housing as a human right.

We have selected four researchers who included this priority in their discussion about ending homelessness in Canada. Here we invite you to watch the responses of Dr. Jonathan Greene, Dr. Naomi Nichols, Dr. Abe Oudshoorn, and Dr. Kaitlin Schwan. You may watch them, in any order you wish, by clicking on the images, which will open the videos in a new window. We encourage you to also review the key takeaways in the box that follows! As you watch the videos, try to keep the other priorities in your mind as well, to see if you can pick up on how they intersect with one another.

Creating deeply affordable housing is an essential measure for ending homelessness, but we must also ensure people with complex needs have access to individualized supports grounded in Housing First principles, such as choice, social inclusion, cultural reflexivity, and anti-discriminatory practice. You may recall from the chapter Politics, Policy, and Housing in Canada, that Housing First is an effective approach that prioritizes getting people housed, without readiness requirements, and then offers wrap-around supports based on what clients themselves identify as needing (Aubry, 2020). Housing First was originally designed for adults with mental illness (Chung et al., 2018) but can be adapted, such as for youth (Gaetz, Walter, & Story, 2021), women (Oudshoorn, Forchuk, Hall, Smith-Carrier, & Van Berkum, 2018), Veterans (Forchuk, Richardson, Atyeo, & Serrato, 2021), and Indigenous persons (Distasio, Zell, & Snyder, 2018).

We have selected seven researchers to include within this priority theme because they each discussed the importance of Housing First and/or respecting the unique identities and support needs of individuals. Here we invite you to watch the responses of Dr. Katrina Milaney, Dr. Jeff Karabanow, Dr. Erin Dej, Dr. Alex Abramovich, Dr. Naomi Thulien, Dr. Rebecca Schiff, and Jessica Rumboldt. We would like to remind you that to view them you can simply click on the images which will open a new window. Be sure to read the key takeaways in the box that follows. As you watch, see if you can also identify the other three priorities throughout these videos as well.

[3] Holding the government accountable for social policy, past, present, and future

Over the past several years, there have been positive steps forward in federal policy for housing and homelessness. Notably, we have seen Canada’s National Housing Strategy (Government of Canada, 2017), National Homelessness Strategy (Government of Canada, 2018), and National Housing Strategy Act (Government of Canada, 2019). However, while these are promising initiatives, we cannot forget that the lack of affordable housing and current rates of mass homelessness have resulted from policy decisions made in the 1980s and 1990s. Governments must recognize that the choices they make, through the policies they implement, have a direct impact on homelessness rates in Canada. Governments at all levels [Federal, Provincial / Territorial, and Municipal] need to be held accountable to learn from the past, and from other nations, what measures reduce homelessness, and which do not.

Here we present videos from eight researchers who spoke about the role of the government in needing to have the will to change, learning from past decisions, and looking to other countries for guidance. Here we invite you to watch the responses of Dr. Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff, Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly, Dr. John Ecker, Dr. Nick Kerman, Dr. Nick Falvo, Dr. Stephen Hwang, Dr. David Firang, and Dr. Tim Aubry. Again, we note that you can watch these in any order by clicking on the image and that you should also review the key takeaways in the document that follows. As you watch, be sure to continue thinking about all four priorities that we need to achieve to end homelessness in Canada, as they are all interconnected and will emerge in these videos as well.

[4] Preventing homelessness from occurring through systemic change

In the Introduction to this book, we posed the question, “What is homelessness?” and learned about the Canadian Definition of Homelessness (Gaetz et al., 2012) which includes people who are precariously housed and those at-risk of losing their housing. These terms reflect individuals who might have some degree of housing, but it is not suitable for long-term habitation, or they are at risk of losing it if they experience a sudden change like a job loss or relationship breakdown. Instead of placing all of our focus on helping people once they are unsheltered or emergency sheltered, we need to look further upstream. There is a growing body of research and advocacy work that demonstrates the importance of making the shift towards prevention (Dej, Gaetz, & Schwan, 2020; Gaetz; 2020; Gaetz & Dej, 2017). Preventing homelessness before it begins is arguably the best way to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness. To achieve this goal, systems-level changes are needed, particularly related to discharge from public institutions and by implementing eviction-prevention measures to keep people from losing their housing.

The videos below are from seven researchers who all spoke about the importance of prevention as a priority for ending homelessness in Canada. Here we invite you to watch the responses of Dr. Stephen Gaetz, Dr. Tyler Frederick, Dr. Bernie Pauly, Dr. Bill O’Grady, Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, Dr. Sean Kidd, and Dr. Kelli Stajduhar. To watch these videos, simply click on the images. We also remind you to check out the key takeaways for each video in the document that follows. As you watch them, we encourage you to continue thinking about these four priorities for ending homelessness in Canada, and how they intersect with one another.