OUR WORK
POPULAR EDUCATION
national housing day OpEN Letter: Homes for all
A coalition of people with lived expertise of homelessness, homeless outreach workers, community-based organizations, housing advocates, researchers, and academics call on the Government of Canada to act decisively on their legal obligation to demonstrate progress on realizing the human right to housing by doubling social housing in Canada and dedicating a minimum of 50,000 net new social housing units annually for the next 10 years to be affordable to the lowest income residents of Canada.
The Human Rights Leadership Program
The Human Rights Leadership Program brought together 16 people with lived experiences of homelessness from February to May 2023. The program created authentic, trusting, productive relationships between the cohort and between the cohort and program leaders, created an experience of belonging, nurtured the emergence of a collective identity, and started to build understanding about the complexity of claiming the human right to housing in Canada. All participants are invited to participate as researchers and advisors in the next phase of this project: community based action research.
Lived Experts Advisory for the 2023 Greater Victoria Point in Time Homeless Count and Survey
The Lived Experts Advisory are meeting from January to July 2023 to provide their analysis and commentary of the results of survey. The Advisory is preparing a media package for the publication of the report.
Human Rights Violations of Women in Transitional Housing Programs
This is an emerging area of concern and we continue to connect with women who have been evicted into homelessness from Greater Victoria women’s transitional housing programs. Our work to date has focussed on advocacy to prevent homelessness for individuals and media engagement. This may become a distinct research project or task force in the future.