Seventeen Years Without a Housing Program

Much like the Stanley Cup, Canada hasn't had a federal housing program since 1993 but we still have hope.

Saturday, May 22, 2010, mid afternoon. After 40 minutes, the Philadelphia Flyers lead the Montreal Canadiens 2-0. The Canadiens, once a hockey dynasty, haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993 – and two days from now, they will be eliminated once again. But on this Saturday afternoon, Montreal fans from across Canada are keeping the faith, believing that they can come back, defeat Philadelphia, advance to the finals, and maybe even – dare we hope? – bring home the Cup, after 17 long years.

On CBC, instead of the usual threesome of shouting white guys, Ron MacLean hosts Ken Dryden, Canadiens goalie of the golden years and 2006 candidate for the federal Liberal party leadership.

Predictably, talk turns from hockey to politics (though of course, it’s hard to tell one from the other, what with grand themes like national unity, immigration, and violence permeating debate in both spheres). Of the Liberal party, Dryden says, “Like any organization, whether it’s a team, a company, a party, a country, you have to have a strong central understanding of yourself. What is it that makes you proud? What is it that you’re about? What is it that gets you up in the morning?” He acknowledges that his party drifted away from this understanding during its long years in government.

It’s interesting he should mention that, since 1993 was not only the last time the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, it was also the year that finance minister Paul Martin announced that the Government of Canada would eliminate spending on new social housing. This announcement heralded the end of a set of federal housing programs that had been in existence since the 1940s. It also signalled a turning away from values that the Liberal party had once held dear – values like recognizing housing as a human right, which Martin had promoted in a report years earlier when he was housing critic.

In May 1993, while so many of us were cheering our winning team, Canadian human rights advocates were bringing information about Canada’s housing cuts to a United Nations review of Canada’s compliance with the UN Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. The Committee reviewing Canada stated in its final report, "Given the evidence of homelessness and inadequate living conditions, the Committee is surprised that expenditures on social housing are as low as 1.3 per cent of government expenditures."

A lot has changed since 1993. The Canadiens no longer play at the Forum, and they haven’t won a Stanley Cup in a long, long time. In 1995, the federal government eliminated the Canada Assistance Plan, a social assistance funding policy requiring that provincially-administered welfare programs provide for an adequate standard of living. Provincial governments, including Ontario’s, moved quickly to take advantage of the cost-cutting opportunities, slashing welfare rates and instituting punitive new regulations. In the wake of the cuts to social housing and social assistance, homelessness and inadequate living conditions have increased dramatically: a recent report by the Salvation Army estimates that one in nine Canadians have been homeless or come close to it. Social programs that used to protect the vulnerable and uphold human rights – what we used to be considered fundamental Canadian values – have disappeared.

Other things, though, haven’t changed much since 1993. Successive federal governments have failed to implement a national housing strategy, leaving Canada the only nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development without one. The proportion of federal monies spent on housing is still less than two per cent. And UN committees continue to express grave concerns about poverty and homelessness in Canada.

But now, 17 years later, like the Canadiens, we have the chance to turn things around. By a momentous coincidence, spring 2010 is witness to the two most important legal initiatives to eliminate homelessness that Canada has seen since the 1980s when the homelessness crisis began.

The first, Bill C-304, an act to implement a national housing strategy, was adopted at committee on March 22, and may be voted on before Parliament breaks for the summer. Miraculously, the bill, first introduced by Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies, has received the support of the majority of Parliament. Though a Bloc Québécois amendment that would have allowed for an opt-out clause for Quebec was overruled, Quebec housing advocates are hopeful that Bloc MPs will continue to support the bill. They point out that any national housing strategy developed after passage of the bill would, of course, have to recognize Quebec’s distinct status.

The second, a constitutional challenge on homelessness, was launched May 26 at Ontario Superior Court in Toronto. Brought with the assistance of housing advocates by a group of people who have been homeless, the challenge asks the court to recognize that homelessness is a violation of human rights. They argue that homelessness violates two sections of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Section 7, which guarantees the right to “life, liberty, and security of the person,” and Section 15, which guarantees freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and other grounds. This will be a difficult argument to refute. A recent national study by University of Toronto professor of medicine Stephen Hwang shows conclusively that the mortality rate among people who are homeless and precariously housed is significantly higher than that of people who are housed, even those with very low incomes. Research also confirms that across Canada, aboriginal people and people with physical and mental disabilities are vastly over-represented among those who become homeless.

The success of either, or both, of these initiatives would usher in a new era in Canada, in which federal and provincial governments would be compelled both to alter the policies that cause homelessness and to implement policies to prevent it. Some might argue that this would be less a new era than a return to a time when Canadians had, to paraphrase Ken Dryden, a strong understanding of what we believe in. After all, John Peters Humphrey – a key author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which the right to adequate housing was first enshrined – was Canadian.

The Canadiens didn’t manage to make it to the finals in 2010, but we can’t afford to let our chance slip by. Far too many Canadians have died, and countless others have endured years of hunger and danger on the streets, while our governments have sometimes seemed indifferent to the principles of human worth and dignity. We’ve got to keep the faith and insist that Canada can come back, restore our common values, and maybe even – dare we hope? – establish a program to eliminate homelessness in Canada, after 17 long years.