Coalition urges feds to declare housing a human right
OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government needs to make good on its promise to declare housing a “fundamental human right” under Canadian law as part of its forthcoming national housing strategy, advocates for affordable housing said Tuesday.
Without such a declaration, the legislation that’s expected to be unveiled this fall that will bring that strategy into force will be rendered toothless, said Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.
“The federal government has committed to the right to housing, but to make this commitment meaningful, it must be recognized in law,” Richter told an Ottawa news conference where he released an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, signed by a coalition of more than 170 prominent Canadians and organizations.
The letter spells out demands that new legislation require “goals and timelines” for reducing and eliminating homelessness.
It also called on the government to ensure its housing bill is consistent with international human rights obligations, and that the Liberals act to realize the right to housing within the shortest possible time, depending on how much money the government has at its disposal.
The prime minister announced details last fall of his government’s decade-long national housing strategy, including the introduction of a housing benefit for families that won’t kick in until after the 2019 federal election.
The strategy also included a promise to introduce new legislation requiring the government to report to Parliament on housing targets and outcomes, as well as a commitment that 100,000 new affordable housing units would be built and another 300,000 existing affordable housing units repaired.
Canada is already a signatory to the UN-backed International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes “adequate” housing as a right.
But declaring such a right domestically would ensure that governments, both federal and provincial, can’t back out of affordable housing commitments on a political whim, said Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.
“The legislation has to articulate the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right,” Farha said. “It has to name it.”
More than 235,000 people experience homelessness in Canada each year, while 1.7 million households live in unsafe, unsuitable or unaffordable housing “because they have no better option,” said Campaign 2000 National Coordinator Anita Khanna, who called the figures “disgraceful.”