Last year, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate built important partnerships and engaged with people across Canada.
Engaging with the Canadian public using multimedia platforms is an important part of our work. We also rely on the valuable dialogue and collaboration we have with diverse organizations, stakeholders, housing rights advocates and people across Canada.
It is important that we listen and learn from their perspectives, expertise and experiences. We must work together to promote and protect the right to housing for everyone in Canada.
Identifying systemic housing issues in Canada
Members of the public who have experienced inadequate housing and homelessness can make a submission to the Federal Housing Advocate about their situation.
The Advocate does not intervene in individual cases. Instead, the Advocate will use these submissions to better understand systemic housing issues in Canada, raise awareness on the most common and critical housing issues people are facing, make recommendations to improve Canada's housing laws, policies and programs, and drive change on systemic housing issues.
Submissions will be a key part of how the Advocate conducts an Advocate-led review or refers systemic housing issues to a review panel.
Over the course of 2021-2022, we built an online platform to receive and process these submissions. The online form offers people the option to make a submission as an individual or on behalf of someone else. It also provides organizations, associations and NGOs a way to submit relevant information directly to the Advocate.
We have also developed partnerships with community organizations, stakeholders and people with lived experience to test the tool. We worked with over 30 different organizations to test the tool and gather their feedback. Their feedback was extremely important in ensuring the form is responsive to a variety of needs, situations, and experiences.
These organizations will help us promote the tool and provide support to people in their communities who need help making a submission to the Advocate.
Speaking out
As Canada's housing watchdog, one of the Federal Housing Advocate's roles is to raise awareness about inadequate housing and homelessness in Canada and to amplify the voices of marginalized communities. Helping people to understand their rights as they relate to housing is also an important role for the Advocate.
In 2021-2022, we worked closely with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) to raise awareness about the right to housing in Canada and speak out about human rights violations related to housing and homelessness.
We worked with the Commission to publish several public statements about the right to housing – including a statement of concern following the deaths of people experiencing homelessness, a statement containing recommendations on the importance of governments addressing housing inequality, and most recently a statement regarding concerns about shelter systems being overwhelmed by the pandemic and increasing demands for service.
We also worked with the Commission to highlight Canada's National Housing Day on November 22, calling for increased awareness on the right to housing.
In an effort to make information on the Advocate's mandate as well as the right to housing widely available to people in Canada, we developed several practical videos that cover topics spanning what the right to housing means, what the Advocate does, and how to make a submission.
Making community connections
Last year, we deepened our collaborations and partnerships with stakeholders, organizations in the community, and people with lived experience. A key component of a human rights-based approach and of the mandate of the Federal Housing Advocate is the meaningful engagement of rights holders in all aspects of policy and advocacy. Their experience and insights have been invaluable in strengthening and guiding the work that we do. Here are some of the key partnerships we developed:
Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network
We established an advisory partnership with the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network (CLELN). It is a cross-Canada collective of diverse people with lived experience of homelessness and expertise in grassroots organizing, advocacy, mentorship and peer support. CLELN works to ensure that the voices of people with lived experience are in the forefront of all matters regarding homelessness—and to eliminate homelessness and housing insecurity through research, policy, advocacy, training, and collaboration.
CLELN is conducting research and engagement to build a national database of organizations led by and with people with lived experience of homelessness. This database will help support the Federal Housing Advocate's ongoing engagement with people experiencing homelessness from coast to coast to coast.
Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain
We worked in partnership with the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain, or FRAPRU (Popular action front for urban renewal) last year to harness its invaluable advisory support. Founded in 1978, FRAPRU is a membership-based movement for the right to adequate housing, bringing together 140 member groups across Québec. FRAPRU is active on issues of urban planning and development, social housing, the struggle to end poverty, and the realization of social and economic rights.
FRAPRU will provide advice and recommendations on the Advocate's engagement strategy and partnership development in Quebec, and on the definition of targets, indicators, and outcomes for monitoring the National Housing Strategy and the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing.
2-1-1
The 2-1-1 service is an essential partner in our efforts to help people get the help they need. 2-1-1 is a national source of information on government and community-based health and social services, including assistance for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. They provide people in crisis with personalized help navigating the complex network of programs and organizations quickly and easily.
During the past year, we worked closely with 2-1-1 to build a partnership that will support the Advocate's duty to receive submissions from the public about systemic housing issues. 2-1-1 will help raise awareness about the Advocate's role and opportunities to make submissions. As we are not mandated or equipped to provide remedies for individual cases, people requiring immediate assistance will be referred to 2-1-1 so they can learn how to access local support services. This collaboration will help ensure that people experiencing inadequate housing and homelessness get the help they need.
Working in partnership with Indigenous organizations
Over the past year, we made it a priority to engage with national Indigenous organizations to ensure that we establish a direct relationship with Indigenous peoples in our work. Advancing the right to adequate housing and improving housing outcomes for everyone in Canada must be accomplished in partnership with Indigenous peoples. The foundation for such partnerships must rest on recognition of the colonial and racist systems imposed on Indigenous peoples, and seek to move forward in a spirit of reconciliation, decolonization, respectful relationships, sovereignty, and self-determination.
Of critical importance to our engagement work is to build respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, guided by the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Federal Housing Advocate's mandate must be interpreted alongside Canada's recently adopted UNDRIP Act. The right to housing for Indigenous peoples includes rights related to lands, resources and territories, social and economic rights, rights related to non-discrimination and the importance of Indigenous peoples' right to determine their own housing institutions, programs and policies.
During the past year, we started the journey to build respectful relationships in a series of initial meetings with national Indigenous organizations and Indigenous service-based organizations. We also met to seek advice and input on how to operationalize the Advocate's monitoring mandate.
A series of individual meetings took place with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, Native Women's Association of Canada, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the National Association of Friendship Centres and the Indigenous Caucus of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association.
During these conversations, we invited each organization to share its vision for future collaboration with the Advocate and highlight their current priorities. These conversations confirmed interest in working together and the importance of developing direct and ongoing dialogue. They pointed to some of the shortcomings in the National Housing Strategy when it comes to Indigenous housing, including sharing their experience with the Indigenous distinctions-based approach, and highlighted the importance of filling gaps in current data and ensuring data-sovereignty.
Addressing the Assembly of First Nations
Following her appointment, Marie-Josée Houle, the Federal Housing Advocate, had the honour of speaking at the Assembly of First Nations' 5th National First Nations Housing Forum and Tradeshow on March 22.
In her keynote address, Ms. Houle touched on the importance of First Nations leadership in redefining housing policy. She underlined the urgency of addressing right to housing violations that First Nations communities have experienced for too long. She also invited collaboration and a working relationship with First Nations moving forward.
Building a new vision for housing in Canada means that we must build on the importance of Indigenous visions for culture, land, family and community. We must think of housing as a social good and a human right.
And above all, we must centre Indigenous leadership, approaches and voices to find solutions to systemic problems.
Collaborating with the National Housing Council
In the past year, we worked closely with the National Housing Council to establish how we can collaborate to advance the right to housing for all in Canada.
The National Housing Council was established by the National Housing Strategy Act to promote participation and inclusion in the development of housing policy, provide advice to the Minister responsible for housing on advancing the right to housing, and to offer advice on the effectiveness of the National Housing Strategy to the Minister. The Council also plays a key role in conducting review panel hearings at the request of the Advocate. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is responsible for providing administrative support and services to the National Housing Council.
The Federal Housing Advocate is an ex-officio member of the Council, working closely with the Council on a shared mission to advance the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing. The Council also includes other ex-officio members from government departments and agencies. The full slate of members of the Council was appointed by the Minister in November 2020 after an open application process to identify diverse experts, members of disadvantaged communities, and people with lived experience of inadequate housing and homelessness across Canada.
Throughout last year, we attended Council meetings to exchange updates on the development of policies, procedures, and research. Following her appointment, Marie-Josée Houle, the Federal Housing Advocate, also attended Council meetings.
We contributed to the work of the Council's working groups, held regular working-level meetings, and developed collaborative initiatives to exchange information and ensure coordination between the Council and our Office.
The area of most intensive collaboration with the Council has been in the development of guidelines for review panels. Review panel hearings are a new participatory access to justice mechanism and a central component of Canada's new accountability structure for the right to housing.
Working together at all levels of government
In the last year, we engaged with other government departments to discuss our research and recommendations with the goal of better informing policy makers on the housing crisis and how we can work together to make the right to adequate housing concrete in Canada through rights-based policies, laws, and programs.
We provided presentations on our research and suggested recommendations to several federal departments and central agencies that hold key responsibilities related to the National Housing Strategy.
Last year, we also participated in two ongoing networks with the goal of better collaboration: the Right to Home Working Group, a network of municipal governments convened by The Shift and the Canadian Urban Institute; and the Housing Policy Research Exchange, a network of housing policy experts and civil society advocates convened by Maytree.
In Canada, supporting the human right to adequate housing for all is a shared responsibility between all levels of government. It requires collaboration and a renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples based on reconciliation, decolonization, respectful relationships, sovereignty, and self-determination.
This shared responsibility is also enshrined in international law – all levels of government in Canada are required to respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to adequate housing, since international human rights treaties and obligations apply equally at a federal, provincial and territorial level.
Bringing together thought leaders
Last year, as part of our mandate to conduct research into systemic housing issues, we undertook a research project with legal experts to examine various facets of evictions and security of tenure across Canada.
On March 2, 2022, we convened a symposium on security of tenure to bring together the researchers as well as a number of stakeholders to discuss the findings and solicit thoughts and feedback on the research conducted. See the Section "Locked out: Security of tenure, evictions and arrears" for more details on this research.
Over 100 stakeholders attended the virtual event. They represented academia, legal clinics, independent national and provincial organizations, tenants associations and federal partners, among many others.
This dialogue session was a vital opportunity to hear from stakeholders on how we can better understand and incorporate their perspectives and realities in our research. It was an incredible opportunity to bring people together to strengthen our research and build a strong knowledge base that we can all draw from in our work towards adequate housing for all.
Bringing together thought leaders, researchers, and stakeholders to discuss current housing issues is an important aspect of our research, engagement and outreach mandate. It will inform much of the work we do moving forward.