OP-ED
Three years ago, Ottawa’s council unanimously declared a housing and homelessness emergency. Since that time, the price of housing has risen to alarming levels. Rental prices have increased by 20 per cent from 2021 to 2022 alone. Fewer and fewer people can afford to live in this city, and far too many are on the edge of homelessness due to lack of affordability. It’s clear that we have yet to meaningfully respond to the root causes of this emergency.
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Housing is not a privilege to be earned, but rather a core building block of overall stability. Below standard housing, housing contingent on behaviour metrics, and shuffling humans through labyrinths of service referrals all aggravate the overdose epidemic. Put simply, we haven’t given our neighbours a chance.
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"The marginalization and over-representation of Indigenous people in homelessness today is connected to the history of displacement, oppression and abuse experienced by generations of Indigenous people (which still occurs today)."
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Pride has never been a single battle. The bricks thrown at Stonewall created a ripple effect of change that persists, and grows, and marches on year by year. But in many ways, complacency is among our greatest enemies. With the slow march of progress we’ve seen over the last decades, we may not see the challenges that continue to lead our young people to such a drastic over-representation in street-involved populations.
GUEST BLOG POST
On August 12th, we celebrate International Youth Day in Canada. Since its inception by the UN General Assembly on August 12, 2000, International Youth Day has served to increase the quality and quantity of opportunities available to youth, so that they can actively participate in society. It’s also a day for local youth to raise awareness of the cultural and legal issues faced by youth in their area.
Here in Ottawa, organizations like Operation Come Home advocate for the basic rights of youth on a daily basis by supporting those who are experiencing homelessness, and facing discrimination, mental health issues, challenges with the justice system, and barriers to income, health and education. Below is an article written by a team member at Operation Come Home, speaking to how as a community we must respond to the needs of youth, so that they can flourish by feeling a sense of security, opportunity, and belonging. We need to start by housing our youth, because Youth #StartsWithHome.
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Ottawa is home to some incredible neighbourhoods, with engaged community associations, highly prized small businesses and large-scale enterprises, unique artists, and beautiful architecture. Ottawa is also a place with a housing and homelessness emergency. As lack of affordability drives displacement, we are noting the loss of the people who make these neighbourhoods, businesses, and local sites special.
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As a city, we can choose to create the city we aspire to be: one that is sustainable, accessible, and welcoming to all; we can choose to create vibrant places that enhance our sense of belonging; we can choose to strive for housing that is affordable, sustainable, beautiful and adapts to our changing needs. Every decision we make is a choice on the path to the city we aspire to be.
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To truly have an impact on homelessness in our community, we must lead with and be led by Indigenous knowledge.
Ottawa is located on unceded Algonquin, Anishnabek territory. These lands were stolen from the traditional keepers for the purposes of settlers. Dispossession of land is just one form of ongoing colonization that has led to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people disproportionately experiencing homelessness.