This two-part episode offers an in-depth understanding of homelessness and housing as a right. In Part 1, we explore the systems challenges of homelessness and interventions like Housing First, as well as initiatives striving to prevent and address youth homelessness and Indigenous homelessness. In Part 2, we learn about the socially innovative solutions that are working and the barriers that remain to meaningfully redesigning these systems to help eradicate homelessness.
To better understand the complexities of homelessness, we look at the City of Hamilton as a case study. A once affordable city located on the western shores of Lake Ontario, Hamilton is now ranked the third most expensive city in North America. We examine various innovative pilot projects happening in and around this community, which has committed to ending chronic homelessness by 2025. We hear the voices of nine experts, working on homelessness in various capacities from the policy to the grassroots level, as we unpack the different perspectives and efforts underway to not just manage homelessness but to end it.
Learn more about those interviewed in this two-part episode by visiting the following links (in order of appearance):
Melanie Redman, President and CEO, A Way Home: Working Together to End Youth Homelessness Partnership; Implementation Director, Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab
https://awayhome.ca/
https://makingtheshiftinc.ca/
Amanda DiFalco, Deputy Director, Built for Zero Canada, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
https://bfzcanada.ca/
https://caeh.ca/
Stephen Gaetz, Professor and Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact, York University; President, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; Research Director, Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab
https://www.yorku.ca/rightthefuture/stories/homelessness/
https://homelesshub.ca/
https://makingtheshiftinc.ca/
Jeff Neven, Executive Director, Indwell
https://indwell.ca/
Calogero Mattina, President, Hamilton Community Land Trust
https://www.hamiltonclt.org/
Marcie McIlveen, Outreach Co-Coordinator, Keeping Six Hamilton Harm Reduction Action League
https://keepingsix.org/
Yolisa de Jager, former Senior Project Manager of Homelessness Policy and Programs, City of Hamilton
https://www.hamilton.ca/city-initiatives/strategies-actions/homelessness-systems-planning
Erika Morton, Systems Planning Officer, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
https://homelesshub.ca/
Sheryl Green, Manager of Housing & Homelessness Supports & Services, Hamilton Regional Indian Centre
https://www.hric.ca/
Designing a Humane Future