[homeles_ot-l] Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada's Hidden Emergency (at ATEH Forum)

Mon Nov 22 15:08:48 EST 2010

Hello everyone,

The attached study shows that for each person who is homeless in Canada, there are 23 more people living with housing vulnerability - paying more than half of their monthly income for rent, and living with substantial risk of becoming homeless, a hidden emergency.*

The Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada's Hidden Emergency report (Eng & French) released at the ATEH forum last Friday is about the Health and Housing in Transition (HHiT) study which is tracking the health and housing status of 1,200 vulnerably housed and homeless single adults in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa over a two-year period. Researchers recruited 200 vulnerably housed adults and 200 homeless adults in each city (1,200 total), from shelters, meal programs, single room occupancy hotels, and rooming houses.

Videos of each speaker and their PowerPoint Presentation from the forum are being prepared now. We hope to have them ready to post on our website sometime tomorrow afternoon. The media release for last Friday is below.

		*FYI  -- for this study, "homelessness" is defined as living in a shelter, on the street, or in other places not intended for human  habitation.  It also considered people who were couch surfing (i.e. staying temporarily with family or friends) to be homeless.  A person was "vulnerably housed" if they had their own place, but at some point in the past year had either been homeless or had moved at least twice.  However, the results showed the researchers that in many ways, the division between these two groups is false.  The people identified as "vulnerably housed" were not just at risk of homelessness; in the past 2 years, they had spent almost as much time homeless (just under 5 months per year) as the homeless group did (6.5 months per year). Instead of two distinct groups, this is one large, severely disadvantaged group that transitions between the two housing states.

Lynne Browne
Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH) 
lbrowne at ysb.on.ca 
Temporary Phone #:  613-241-1573, ext 205
Mailing address: 147 Besserer St., Ottawa ON  K1N 6A7 
www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca 

Media release for the Nov 19th Forum

Canada's Hidden Emergency!

People who are vulnerably housed face the same severe health problems 
- and danger of assault - as people who are homeless

Ottawa - Dr. Stephen Hwang will release a first for Canada, the Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada's Hidden Emergency report on the study of longitudinal changes in the health and housing status of vulnerably housed*and homeless* people which is being undertaken in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa on November 19th at the research forum of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa. 

"For the first time in Canada, we have the numbers to show that people who are vulnerably housed face the same severe health problems - and danger of assault - as people who are homeless. This means that the number of people experiencing the devastating health outcomes associated with inadequate housing could be staggering," states Dr. Hwang. "There are about 17,000 shelter beds available across Canada every night, but almost 400,000 Canadians are vulnerably housed. This means that for each person who is homeless in Canada, there are 23 more people living with housing vulnerability - paying more than half of their monthly income for rent, and living with substantial risk of becoming homeless, that's a hidden emergency."

"Before now, researchers and decision makers often thought of these groups as two distinct populations, with two different levels of need," states Dr. Hwang. "This study paints a different picture. That is why we call the federal government to respond by setting national housing standards that ensure universal, timely access to decent, stable, and appropriate housing." 

Dr. Hwang is Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Research Scientist, Centre for Research on Inner City Health, at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto. He is also the research lead for "The Research Alliance for Canadian Homelessness, Housing, and Health" (REACH3).

Three commentators will speak to the report from the perspective of how policy and research can work together for more affordable housing:

1.     Aaron Burry:  General Manager, Community and Social Services, City of Ottawa

2.     Louise Grenier:  Lead, Mental Health and Addictions, Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)

3.     Dr. Isra Levy:  Ottawa Medical Officer of Health.

                  Event:      2010 Community Forum on Homelessness

                  When:       Friday, November 19, 2010

                  Where:     University of Ottawa, Tabaret Hall, 550 Cumberland, room 112

                  Time:          9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Advance copies of the Report: The Alliance to End Homelessness has full copies of the Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada's Hidden Emergency report in English or French available under embargo to reporters who request one in advance. Reporters are asked to respect an embargo on reporting the findings until 9:30 am ET on Friday, Nov 19.

Dr. Hwang and the Commentators on the report will be available to speak with media at 12:15 p.m. at the forum.

This year at the Community Forum on Homelessness, the Alliance to End Homelessness is featuring REACH3 studies.  The afternoon presentations include 

§  Identifying Patterns of Emergency Shelter Stays in Three Ontario Cities, with research carried out by Tim Aubry and Melissa Calhoun of the University of Ottawa, and Susan Farrell of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. 

§  Suicide and Drug Overdose among Street Youth in Montreal, presented by Isabelle Richer, Université de Sherbrooke

§  Update on InSite by Liz Evans, PHS Community Services Society in Vancouver

§  Preventing Homelessness:  Developing the Homelessness Asset and Risk Tool [HART] by Bruce MacLaurin, University of Calgary

The closing speaker is Alina Tanasescu, Vice President of Research and Public Policy in the Calgary Homeless Foundation who will speak to lessons learned by CHF through a review of its history, significance and Calgary's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

The Community Forum on Homelessness is organized by The Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, is a non-partisan coalition taking action to end homelessness through its priorities of advocacy, partnerships and research. 

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