RELEASE: A Response to the National Housing Strategy

For the past couple of days, people have been wanting to know my response to the National Housing Strategy revealed by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Government, so here I have prepared my response:

RELEASE

A National Housing Strategy is long overdue, so while I'm grateful for the discussion on the subject, and the acknowledgement of the homelessness crisis in Canada, this is NOT the strategy we need.

There are good things in the strategy, to be sure. The Government has finally decided that the right to housing be guaranteed and recognized. The UN has been reminding us of this constantly and if you ask any homeless person in Canada, I don't know a single one of them who would deny wanting a home and needing one. I acknowledge that this is a step in the right direction. Additionally, for many organizations that provide affordable housing, updates are greatly needed. There are too many spaces sitting empty right now because they need refurbishment and funds to upgrade those units are desperately needed.

However, my view about the strategy as a whole is that it falls far short of what is needed in this country. Members of the homeless community are dying every day in Canada, and the Government would have us wait until after the next election - almost two years away - before making any commitments. The homeless cannot afford to wait.

Furthermore, a previous private members bill regarding a National Housing Strategy - that all but four Governing MPs voted against - included amending the Canadian Human Rights act to include protected status from discrimination against the homeless community. The proposed strategy as far as I've read includes no such measure. What this means is that the Liberal Government literally voted against human rights for the homeless community, and have endorsed continuous acts of hate crimes, violence, abuse, mistreatment, segregation against the homeless community. This is not just simply a class issue. Indigenous peoples make up a disproportionately large amount of the homeless population in Canada. Women are often homeless because they are fleeing abuse, or struggling to make ends meet as single parents. This is a class issue, yes. But it is also a race issue. A gender issue. This means that people who would normally be protected under the Charter are not protected, strictly because they are homeless and the Government has determined it is okay to discriminate and abuse members of the homeless Community.

And with the strategy only calling for a 50% reduction in homelessness, that still leaves a large number of homeless individuals who need protections.

In short, this strategy falls far short of it's potential and does not do enough to protect the homeless community. I call on the government to not only implement protections for our societies most vulnerable, but to enact them immediately.

Signed,
Nigel Kirk