HOUSING CRISIS IN CANADA by Toni-Lee Danso

 Canada continues to face a housing crisis due to a variety of things. This has resulted in many people turning to the parks and streets as their home as well as turning to crime to support their own well-being and make a living. This has also resulted in more people, particularly women, remaining in unsafe homes and situations that they cannot flee because they have nowhere to go. It is important that we understand the cause and effect of the housing crisis to better understand the population we serve and to be compassionate to those who we see struggling with this. 

Let’s outline a few contributors to the pandemic of housing insecurity. 

Despite popular belief, the homeless population is not made up of “unsuccessful” people who “don’t want to work”. This is false. I do not have a definite statistic, but a percentage of those who are facing housing insecurity are of the working population or once were full time workers. It only takes ONE thing to change in your life in order to jeopardize your well being and that is when most people go from stable to struggling in a mater of a few days. There are a few contributors to which this results from.

🔵MENTAL HEALTH & DISABILITY

About 18% of Canadians over the age of 15 live with mental health impairment whether it be mood, anxiety, or substance disorder. About 27% of Canadians over the age of 15 live with a disability, whether it be cognitive, physical or mental. 

Though most workplaces follow and adhere to accessibility and accommodation laws and standards, this does NOT automatically render the person suffering with the disability free of barrier. There are some people who still cannot work. This has an impact on their earnings. That is only one reason why they may not be able to maintain housing.  

Other reasons may include their mental health state, their ability to OBTAIN housing due to stigma and discrimination against particular persons with mental health, substance disorders and disabilities, as well as some people’s ability to maintain their housing and allocate finances to pay their rent/board.

🔵JOB MARKET SCARCITY 

If you have been browsing the job boards lately, or possibly looking for a new job, you may notice the scarcity in employment and the difficulty to obtain employment or receive active responses from employers. This is because most provinces in Canada (and some cities in particular) are facing challenges in maintaining enough jobs for the amount of people residing in each region. Jobs are now scarce and harder to come by. People are getting laid off without cause and companies are struggling to onboard more people as there is simply nowhere for them to work. 

As Canada’s population grows, this will only worsen the employment issue and further contribute to unemployment which results in….right, Homelessness.

It is also predicted that wages will remain at minimum wage with little opportunity for a higher salary, because now there are MORE people to employ. This contributes to poverty as the working population struggles to make a living wage. Meanwhile, inflation is affecting the cost of living INCLUDING housing costs which leads us to the major contributor to housing insecurity…. ⬇️

🔵HOUSING COSTS & COST OF LIVING

If you’ve made it this far in my article, then you should have a pretty good idea as to why and how there is such a rise in Canadians who struggle with housing insecurity and unemployment. So it is no surprise that the mere fact of housing expense is a major contributor to housing insecurity. All other contributors above like the difficulty to obtain and maintain housing for some, job insecurity for others, and job scarcity as well as inflation…should paint picture which indicates why housing is unattainable for a large population of people. 

The cost of living continues to rise while most people are still struggling to find decent, permanent employment that pays well. The wages which are paid in Canada are not always “liveable wage”. This leaves most people with enough money to pay their monthly bills (if that) and not much more. For some, rent is not included in this as rent continues to rise but wages remain the same. 

Others spend their whole monthly pay on rent alone and leaves no room for groceries which are also victims of inflation, and other living expenses like clothing, transportation, daycare costs, etc, 

As you can see there is a never ending cycle of struggle for a large population of Canadians as they race to try to get ahead. Some cannot afford decent living conditions and others cannot afford BASIC living needs. Of course there are far many more contributors to this. Some may even say that the Covid-19 pandemic is responsible for a new generation of inflation, economic instability and housing insecurity and this may be true. 

But no setback is too great for a comeback and these should be a stressed and solved in best interest of Canadians. Canada is one of the richest countries in the world meanwhile there are born and raised Canadians who are living in tents in our local parks. The municipalities are forced to designate particular locations as “designated campsites” instead of designating particular housing locations for those to live in decent living conditions. 

There is little to no help for those who are truly facing struggle and this is why it will continue to worsen and the population of homeless individuals will continue to grow, and they will become younger people, more parents of children, and more working individuals. 

A major fail on Canada’s end. 

Thank you for reading my article.