ONTARIO’S HISTORY WITH HOUSING FIRST

By Nick Falvo

Carleton University

Addictions & Mental Health Ontario

3rd Annual Addictions and Mental Health Conference

May 25, 2015

Toronto, Canada

1. Housing First has no clear definition

• At one time, it referred to the provision of permanent housing to an individual without requiring ‘housing readiness.’

• Over the past decade, many individuals and groups have redefined/coopted the term.

2. It’s not exactly “new”

• Since homelessness became a pressing public policy issue in the 1980s, many advocates have stressed the need to provide permanent housing without requiring the incoming tenant to prove their ‘housing readiness.’

• As early as the 1980s throughout Ontario, many community agencies started creating housing for homeless singles without requiring housing readiness.

• (Admittedly, some supportive housing providers have required housing readiness; but many did not.)

3. Its messaging has broad appeal

• Admittedly, Housing First does not appeal to everyone.

• But it does resonate to a great many people across the political spectrum on ‘the left’ and ‘the right.’

• It can also be supported in principle by a funder even if that funder does not wish to provide funding for all (or even most) people in need of Housing First.

4. Before Housing First, there was Supportive Housing

• Major inroads were made in Ontario with respect to supportive housing, beginning in the 1980s.

• I know this happened in both Toronto and Ottawa, as well as other communities across the province.

• This was seen as a belated response to deinstitutionalization.

5. Supportive Housing

• Supportive housing is a term that refers to permanent housing for marginalized persons that is both funded by government and offers staff support to the tenant.

• Individuals living in supportive housing in Ontario today include individuals who have experienced: homelessness, acquired brain injuries, mental health problems, HIV/AIDS, and addictions.