More than 100 Burlington residents attended Halton’s National Right to Housing Day forum yesterday (Nov. 22) to hear James Dunn, associate dean research in the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University, speak on the current housing crisis.
The event, which was hosted by Community Development Halton at the Gary Allen Centre, was held for locals who are concerned about the crisis and wanted to learn more about what the current situation is and how it got to this point.
The talk touched on homelessness, the Canadian Housing Benefit, increasing prices of rental units and the lack of support provided to people to prevent them from finding themselves either in long-term care or jail.
“Everything from the suburban house to an apartment has accommodation and supports,” Dunn said. “Someone takes the trash away, someone clears the snow away, water comes out of the taps. Those are all supports, and at the other end of the spectrum are mental illness and addiction supports. It’s just a different mix, and we don’t supply enough of some of those supports.”
As of 2019, more than 10 per cent of Canadians currently in long-term care facilities could instead be cared for at home, but lack the proper accommodations and support to make that possible.
The talk was followed by a Q&A that gave residents an opportunity to ask Dunn about the difficulties of coming up with a housing plan or solution that could work across the country.
“This is a big, complex problem,” he said. “It has a tonne of stakeholders with different interests. I’ve spoken to MPs in the governing parties and they say that there are thousands of voices going to the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities. Then, there’s some kind of sausage-maker that then produces the policy and they have to satisfy all those interests.”
