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Building on a strong foundation

Canada's housing watchdog

Our mandate

The Federal Housing Advocate is an independent, nonpartisan watchdog, empowered to drive meaningful action to address inadequate housing and homelessness in Canada. The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, housed at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, supports the Advocate in carrying out their mandate. Together, we promote and protect the human right to housing in Canada, including the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing.

The goal of the Advocate's work is to drive change on key systemic housing issues and advance the right to housing for all in Canada. The Advocate does this by receiving public submissions, by amplifying the voices of affected communities, by making recommendations to improve Canada's housing laws, policies and programs, and by holding government to account on its human rights obligations related to housing and homelessness.

The Advocate's mandate is guided by a human rights-based approach, which values participation, accountability, non-discrimination, equity, transparency, empowerment, accessibility, respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, and respect for human rights laws and obligations.

Our focus

Inadequate housing and homelessness are complex, institutional and systemic problems. Addressing systemic housing issues means that we need to take a very wide look at the multiple intersecting factors and systemic issues that create inadequate housing, housing need, and homelessness.

The Federal Housing Advocate's focus on systemic issues includes approaches that recognize that racism, poverty, colonialism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and other structural inequalities can create barriers to access to, and inhibit the full enjoyment of, the human right to adequate housing.

Rather than a focus on remedies for individual cases, the Advocate is empowered to recommend systemic changes to improve housing outcomes for those most in need. For example, the Advocate will examine how laws, policies and programs should be changed to ensure the progressive realization of the human right to housing.

In line with the National Housing Strategy Act and the progressive realization of the human right to housing, the Advocate will put particular focus on those with the greatest housing need while Canada works towards housing as a human right for all.

The groups facing the greatest housing need include:

The Advocate recognizes women and gender-diverse people within each of these groups are disproportionately affected by housing need. It is also important that we apply an intersectional lens when we consider these priority groups. For people who face intersectional forms of discrimination — such as women who identify as Indigenous or racialized people with disabilities — the barriers to housing are even greater.

Our work

Driving change on systemic housing issues: The Federal Housing Advocate holds government to account on its obligations to address inadequate housing and homelessness across Canada using the accountability mechanisms established in the National Housing Strategy Act. The Advocate makes recommendations to government to improve Canada's housing laws, policies and programs. The Advocate's goal is to ensure that Canada makes progress on solving systemic issues and implementing the right to housing at all levels.

Receiving submissions: The Advocate receives submissions from people across Canada on the systemic housing issues they are facing, and makes recommendations on how to address them.

The Advocate does not investigate individual cases; instead, they may both undertake their own review of a systemic housing issue raised in a submission, or request that the National Housing Council establish a review panel to hold a hearing to review any systemic housing issue within federal jurisdiction.

The findings and recommendations brought forward by Advocate-led reviews and review panels will help to identify solutions and necessary reforms to laws, policies and programs that affect housing and homelessness in Canada. This mechanism is a way to target the most critical systemic issues, as well as urge the government to take action on them. It also gives members of affected communities an opportunity to be included and participate in the process, and to contribute to housing policy and solutions.

Amplifying people's voices: The Advocate raises awareness on the most common and critical housing issues that people across Canada are facing. The Advocate consults people with lived experience of inadequate housing and homelessness and amplifies their voices. Public engagement and input is critical to informing the work of the Advocate.

Conducting research: The Advocate is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the right to housing and systemic housing issues in Canada. This work includes stakeholder engagement, analyzing and conducting research, initiating studies, and consulting on systemic housing issues. The Advocate can initiate studies as they see fit into economic, institutional, or industry conditions in federal jurisdiction that affect the housing system.

Monitoring the right to housing: The Advocate is responsible for monitoring the progressive realization of the human right to adequate housing in Canada, and assessing the impacts of legislation, policies and programs that affect housing. The Advocate also monitors the progress, outcomes, and timelines of the National Housing Strategy, and is directed to pay close attention to its impact on groups and people in greatest housing need.

Reporting to Parliament: The Advocate is responsible for reporting annually to the Minister responsible for housing, who tables the report in Parliament. The annual report will include a summary of the Office's activities, and contain recommendations to address systemic housing issues. The Advocate can also submit recommendations at any time to the Minister, who must respond within 120 days.

An overview of the National Housing Strategy Act

The National Housing Strategy Act (the Act) creates a series of accountability tools that aim to address housing need and homelessness in Canada, including the National Housing Strategy, the Federal Housing Advocate, and the National Housing Council.

The National Housing Strategy was released on November 22, 2017 and promised legislation that included a rights-based approach to housing with an emphasis on disadvantaged groups. The legislation, called An Act respecting a national housing strategy, or simply the National Housing Strategy Act, was introduced in April 2019 and received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019. It came into force on July 9, 2019.

The Act declares that it is the government of Canada's housing policy to:

A rights-based approach

Approaching housing as a human right reinforces the intrinsic link between housing and human dignity. It also connects the human right to housing to other fundamental human rights, including the rights to life, work, physical and mental heath, social security, political participation, and education.

Using a human rights-based approach to housing policy reinforces the expectation that legislation, policies and programs affecting housing will emphasize participation, empowerment, accountability, and non-discrimination while fulfilling the human right to adequate housing. A human rights-based approach also focuses on groups with the greatest housing need, including people with lived experience of inadequate housing and homelessness.

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 and governments, and alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 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. Fulfilling the human right to adequate housing for everyone in Canada requires all levels of government to live up to their joint responsibilities.

The National Housing Council

The National Housing Council was appointed in November 2020. Its duties include promoting participation and inclusion in the development of housing policy; providing advice to the Minister responsible for housing on how to improve housing outcomes; and offering advice on the effectiveness of the National Housing Strategy to the Minister. The Council is also responsible for convening review panels when requested by the Federal Housing Advocate. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is responsible for providing administrative support and services to the National Housing Council.

The Federal Housing Advocate

The Federal Housing Advocate is housed at and supported by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. According to the National Housing Strategy Act, the Advocate:

The Advocate is empowered to conduct their own independent review of any systemic housing issue and make recommendations to the Minister responsible for housing. The Advocate may also request that the National Housing Council establish a review panel to hold a hearing to review any systemic housing issue within federal jurisdiction.

Review panels

Under the National Housing Strategy Act, the Federal Housing Advocate may decide to refer a systemic housing issue that falls under the jurisdiction of Parliament to the National Housing Council, and request that it forms a review panel to examine the issue. Review panels consist of three members from the National Housing Council.

The review panel holds a hearing, and must offer the public an opportunity to participate — particularly members of affected communities and groups that have expertise in human rights and housing. The panel then prepares a report with conclusions and recommendations for the Minister responsible for housing, who must respond within 120 days and table that response in the House of Commons and the Senate.

Advocating for change: How we make recommendations

In order to make recommendations to improve systemic housing issues, the Federal Housing Advocate will examine how laws, policies and programs should be changed to ensure the progressive realization of the human right to housing. Rather than a focus on providing remedies to individual cases, the Advocate is empowered to recommend systemic changes to improve housing outcomes for those most in need.

The process of making recommendations starts with learning about a systemic housing issue. This happens through submissions we receive from the public, through engagement with key stakeholders, and through our research and monitoring work. All of the input we receive helps to flag some of the most critical and often-reported systemic issues that need to be examined further.

The next step involves conducting further research and analysis on the issue, including the causes, impacts and potential solutions to the issue. At this stage, we also engage with rightsholders, affected communities, and those who bear duties and responsibilities in implementing the right to housing.

Once we have learned about a systemic issue and done thorough research and consultation with key stakeholders, we move forward with issuing recommendations.

The Advocate has a number of opportunities and accountability tools as set out in the National Housing Strategy Act for making recommendations to drive change on systemic housing issues.

First, the Advocate can make recommendations to the Minister at any time. This will usually take the form of a report detailing their findings and any recommendations to take measures that further the progressive realization of the human right to adequate housing and the National Housing Strategy.

Second, the Advocate is empowered to conduct their own independent review of any systemic housing issue that is raised in a submission.

Following an Advocate-led review, the Advocate will provide the Minister and the person or group that presented the submission with a report setting out the Advocate's opinion on the issue and any recommendations to take measures to address it in housing policy.

Third, the Advocate can refer a systemic housing issue to be examined by a review panel convened by the National Housing Council. The Advocate can request that a review panel examine a systemic issue that has been raised in a submission, or based on any systemic issue the Advocate identifies. The Advocate provides the review panel with a summary of the information that formed their basis for identifying the systemic housing issue, works with affected communities and experts to prepare information for the review panel, and can present their proposed recommendations to the review panel.

The review panel holds a hearing on the issue, and must offer the public an opportunity to participate, especially members of affected communities and groups that have expertise in human rights and housing. The review panel then develops a report to the Minister that sets out its opinion on the issue and any recommendations to address it.

And finally, the Advocate must submit an annual report to the Minister that provides a summary of their activities, the submissions they received, and the results of consultations and analysis, research or studies conducted throughout the year. The report must also provide recommendations and recommended measures to address systemic housing issues.

The Minister must respond to the Advocate's reports, Advocate-led reviews, as well as review panel reports within 120 days. The Minister must also respond to the Advocate's annual report within 120 days.

The Advocate may provide advice to other levels of government or decision-makers, but these bodies do not have the same statutory responsibility to respond.

Providing evidence-based recommendations to the Minister is a critical way that the Advocate will drive change on systemic housing issues. The Advocate's engagement and dialogue with all levels of government will help to ensure that Canada makes progress on solving systemic issues and implementing the right to housing.

Defining the key terms

There are many key concepts related to the right to adequate housing that are established in international human rights law. Understanding what these ideas and terms mean in practice is important foundational information that will guide the way we do our work.

Adequate housing

The human right to adequate housing means that everyone has the right to housing that meets a set of basic conditions. These conditions are recognized under international human rights law. The conditions required to meet this standard of adequacy mean that housing must be:

All people should have equitable access to adequate housing, without discrimination based on gender, race, disability, Indigenous identity, faith, place of birth, age, sexual orientation, and other grounds.

Progressive realization

Inadequate housing and homelessness are complex, structural and systemic problems. In international human rights law, the phrase “progressive realization” acknowledges that solving these problems won't happen overnight – it will take time, effort, coordination and resources before everyone can equally enjoy adequate housing.

However, progressive realization also means that governments must act as quickly and as effectively as possible to promote, protect and fulfill the human right to adequate housing, especially for those most in need. Put simply, governments have an obligation to take effective measures and create the conditions to fulfill the human right to adequate housing for everyone.

In international human rights law, progressive realization creates an obligation for governments to take immediate concrete steps, to use the maximum available resources, and to use all appropriate means, including the adoption of legislative measures, to create the conditions for everyone to have access to adequate housing. It also means ensuring people's access to justice through administrative and judicial mechanisms. Finally, progressive realization puts an emphasis on prioritizing policies and programs for those most in need of housing.

The Federal Housing Advocate is responsible for monitoring that the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing is being fulfilled in Canada. This will require advocating for all levels of government to apply the maximum resources available to eliminate housing need and homelessness in the shortest timeframe possible.

A closer look at the new law

Throughout 2021-2022, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate worked with experts and researchers to help us take a closer look at the National Housing Strategy Act and the National Housing Strategy. The full body of research we conducted last year helped us gain a foundational understanding of how to use the Act and the Strategy to implement the right to housing in Canada, and we will continue to use it as an important reference tool. The following section summarizes some of this research and highlights key issues and understandings that we will apply to our work.

International human rights frameworks and the National Housing Strategy Act

Canada has both international and domestic obligations to realize the right to housing.

Last year, we worked with researchers to understand the frameworks in place that Canada and the Federal Housing Advocate can draw from in order to realize the right to housing - including legal obligations, international human rights principles, and existing models and guidelines.

This research explores the National Housing Strategy Act's unique reliance on international human rights frameworks as potentially transformative of housing policy and human rights in Canada.

It also considers how international human rights frameworks, laws and jurisprudence should inform the implementation of the Act, the mandates of the Federal Housing Advocate and the review panel mechanism.

This research helps us understand how other countries have taken action on the human right to adequate housing. It underlines how we can use these existing human rights frameworks, laws and examples to support a new human rights practice in housing.

Opportunities to expand the National Housing Strategy

Last year, we worked with researchers to analyze Canada's National Housing Strategy through a rights-based lens to understand its gaps and offer recommendations for improvement using human rights standards.

Housing policy and research on how to apply a human rights-based approach to housing has evolved since both the National Housing Strategy (the Strategy) and National Housing Strategy Act (the Act) were introduced. However, the Strategy has not been revised since its first iteration in 2017.

In 2021, the federal government began the process of reviewing and developing the next iteration of the Strategy. It is anticipated to continue throughout early 2022.

This research offers several recommendations for the expansion of the Strategy and ways in which it can align with the human rights approach that is set out in the Act as well as with international human rights frameworks. The research also notes that concerns regarding the efficacy of the Strategy are not simply policy critiques – they address Canada's legal obligations to implementing the right to housing under international human rights law.

Key among the recommendations is that the Strategy should set out a long-term vision for housing that aligns with internationally recognized principles – including recognizing the importance of housing in achieving social, economic, health, and environmental goals, targeting its approach to the central goal of reducing core housing need and homelessness, and meeting the standard of investing the maximum of available resources.

Establishing human rights-based targets, timelines and indicators is a second key recommendation of the research. The researchers recommend adopting a clear definition of homelessness and what it means to end homelessness, addressing systemic drivers of homelessness and emphasizing prevention, as well as assessing the Strategy's progress using rights-based indicators that measure its impact on priority populations and those disproportionately experiencing homelessness and core housing need.

The researchers recommend that to improve housing outcomes for those in greatest need, the Strategy must address the legacy of colonialism and systemic inequality for Indigenous peoples alongside the right to create their own strategies, align with Canada's Poverty Reduction Strategy to capture the dimensions of poverty that influence housing need and homelessness, as well as better address the rights of people with disabilities.

Finally, the Strategy should include better participatory processes to ensure ongoing inclusion and engagement, including resources for rights-claimants to address systemic issues and bring forward information to the Federal Housing Advocate and to a review panel.

The next iteration of the Strategy must respond to current realities, including measures to address financialization and the erosion of naturally existing affordable housing, as well as the disproportionate impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It must also initiate an “all hands-on deck” approach with all levels of government and prioritize its goals among other programs and departments that interact with the right to housing.

Canada took a bold step forward in 2017 by bringing together what were previously piecemeal housing policies into its first National Housing Strategy. Now, as we enter 2022 with a newly affirmed commitment to the right to housing and to end homelessness, this is the opportunity to make it clear that Canada is a world leader in the implementation of the right to housing.

Left behind: Gender inequities in implementing the right to housing in Canada

Already marginalized groups bear the brunt of the housing crisis, and this includes women, girls and gender diverse people.

Last year, we worked with researchers to understand how women, girls and gender diverse people are uniquely impacted by the housing crisis, and how we can better address their needs using a rights-based approach. It drew on literature, a pan-Canadian survey with women and gender diverse people experiencing homelessness or housing need, and an analysis of federal policy.

The research examines the ways in which gender shapes the causes, conditions and trajectories of homelessness and housing need. Women, girls and gender diverse people share commonalities that shape their experience with homelessness and housing need. This includes experiencing violence from intimate partners or within families, ‘hidden homelessness', inequities and discrimination based on gender, supporting dependent children, and low income.

Furthermore, it highlights the gaps and inequities in emergency supports in Canada that specifically impact women, girls and gender diverse people. For example, there are very few women-specific emergency shelter beds across Canada, and violence against women shelters across Canada are chronically underfunded.

Gaps in federal programming also contribute to inequity and a lack of supports specific to women, girls and gender diverse people. This includes inadequate levels of support in the Canada Housing Benefit, the definition of chronic homelessness in the National Housing Strategy failing to account for the ways in women experience homelessness, and the lack of clear targets, timelines or indicators related to gender in the National Housing Co-Investment Fund.

The authors make several recommendations to reduce gaps and inequalities for women, girls and gender diverse people to better realize their right to housing in Canada. Their recommendations include identifying and mobilizing rights-based indicators capable of tracking progress on the right to housing for women, girls and gender diverse people – including in the National Housing Strategy so that it can meet its overall goal of dedicating 25% of its resources to women and girls.

They also make recommendations for how projects funded by the National Housing Strategy should meet the needs of women, girls and gender diverse people. They recommend the projects be grounded in gender-based equity, prioritize substantial investment in deeply affordable housing that genuinely meets the needs of diverse women, girls, and gender diverse people, and that there are equitable investments in emergency homelessness supports and services dedicated to women, girls and gender diverse people.

A long-term vision for the right to housing for women, girls and gender diverse people must involve improved participation and access to justice. It also means preventing evictions and pathways into homelessness, and maximizing supports for women, girls and gender diverse people experiencing housing need, hidden homelessness, violence and poverty.

Note: This research contributed to the establishment of the Recommendations to the Minister contained in this report. Please visit the Annex A for a citation of this research collaboration.