Opinion: Counting the homeless starts with making people matter
In a few weeks, Winnipeg and 70 other cities will deploy an army of volunteers into some of the darkest corners of our downtowns, waterfronts, parks and inner cities. The goal is to complete another count of persons experiencing homelessness. This year’s count coincides with the 25th anniversary of the federal government’s first true commitment to end homelessness.
Yet this count, like previous efforts, will likely confirm overall numbers are going up and not down in most cities. How is this possible when the federal government also earmarked over $80 billion dollars in 2017 to better house Canadians while setting a target of cutting chronic homelessness in half by 2027?
To address this question, we need to start in 1999 when the federal government launched the $750-million National Homelessness Initiative (NHI) that held such promise. In addition to the original NHI, tens of billions of dollars poured into a raft of federal programs over the past quarter-century, with few reducing the number of people struggling. In fact, this 25th anniversary is marked by an all-time high in persons experiencing homelessness that is estimated to be 40,000 Canadians on any day.
More sobering is a recent Statistics Canada survey found just over one in 10 Canadians (nearly 1.7 million) experience some form of homelessness in their lifetime.
As we look back, it is hard to pinpoint why billions of dollars were not more effective in building stable and affordable housing or reducing the numbers of persons struggling to find the supports to maintain it, despite two decades plus of effort.
For Winnipeg, the past 25 years have been about hope, promise and periods of momentum. As a young academic, I had a front row seat to the changes that shaped our approach.
Just after the launch of the NHI, Winnipeg set up an entity called the Winnipeg Housing and Homelessness Initiative (WHHI). The WHHI was a tripartite agreement that established a single window intake for local organizations to access for funding to tackle affordable housing and homelessness. A key aspect of the WHHI was having a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to coordinate and approve the distribution of funding.
There is little doubt that several hundred million dollars were distributed to Winnipeg organizations over the past quarter century via the CAB.
Through the early to mid-2000s, in my capacity as director of the Institute of Urban Studies, I worked with local agencies and the CAB to develop local community plans. This process was originally collaborative, allowing cities to set their own goals and direct funding. The federal monies helped organizations build and renovate housing while supporting the shelter system to provide additional services.
To this end, we co-ordinated consultations, focus groups and priority setting meetings while completing multi-year plans. The process was never perfect, but most organizations had an opportunity to contribute to setting local priorities. Winnipeg also had an embedded process to ensure a significant portion of the federal homelessness dollars flowed to Indigenous organizations.
This was established early and while not being perfect, it allowed for increased community ownership and direction.
However, as governments changed, so too did policies and approaches.
Fundamental change to the autonomy of cities to develop plans was replaced by top-down directives. One might say the federal government created a quagmire of bureaucracy fueled by changing narratives of what would work. Additionally, two shifts happened in Winnipeg.
The first was the dismantling of the WHHI. Bluntly put, co-operation among the three levels of government in Winnipeg fell apart. This collapse saw the City of Winnipeg lead the distribution of federal money. The second shift occurred when End Homelessness Winnipeg took over the role of Community Entity from the City of Winnipeg and set a significant transformation in the governance of the federal funding along with advancing a local plan.
Today, Winnipeg, like much of Canada, faces unprecedented levels of housing need and a growing number of persons experiencing homelessness.
While funding has grown over the past quarter century, local autonomy has eroded much like the original tripartite model that directed attention to local issues.
Perhaps we can try to make positive inroads by ensuring each person truly counts in the upcoming street census. The fact we have not been able to meaningfully curb homelessness goes far beyond the will and resolve of inner-city agencies.
It goes far beyond that of the local, provincial and federal governments. It must sit in our collective mindset to reset how we care for one another. As a country we must not lose site of ensuring we all matter, and all deserve a place to call home.
It’s truly time to make all people count and let cities set their own pathways to affordable housing.
Jino Distasio is a professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg.
Credit: Opinion: Counting the homeless starts with making people matter
