Speaking Notes
for
the Honourable Candice Bergen,
Minister of State for Social Development,
to the
Housing First Partners Conference
on
The Canadian Story:
A National Implementation of Housing First
March 13, 2014
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Check against delivery
- It’s a pleasure to be here in Chicago to speak for Canada in the presence of countries that have also seen the benefits of implementing a Housing First approach to tackle homelessness.
- I’m delighted to share the podium with Sam Tsemberis and Tim Richter. Both of them have done so much to help reduce homelessness.
- Homelessness is a new focus for me as Minister of State for Social Development in Canada, but it’s certainly not a new issue for me as an individual.
- I grew up in a small town in rural Manitoba. There were homeless people there, just as there are in big cities.
- My parents were people of faith, and they took very seriously their duty to help the needy. Both my mother and my father would often bring home people who had no place to live and let them sleep on our couch.
- When I was a child, I remember my Dad befriending a man called Duncan who had an addiction to alcohol and drifted from place to place. Duncan often came to our house for Sunday dinner.
- So homelessness is not an abstract topic for me.
- And I want to say how much I admire all the people on the ground who are helping those in need break the cycle of homelessness, re-integrate into society, and feel hope again.
- I recently spoke to the organizers of an annual event in Winnipeg, Manitoba, called the Change for the Better CEO Sleepout. This event brings together business and community leaders, as well as media personalities. As a group, they spend the night on the street.
- Their event has been a tremendous success over the last 3 years, raising more than just awareness – also raising a significant amount of money.
- And they’re using these funds to create employment opportunities for homeless people.
- Because a job is one of the best ways to lift people up. Temporary solutions do not bring long-lasting change.
- We want to create trampolines not safety nets.
- Our goal is to equip and empower people to lift themselves out of poverty.
- We want to see them fully participating in society and having the joy of employment – that’s the desire of most everyone – and I was pleased to talk to the CEOs in Winnipeg and hear how they are literally putting their money where their mouth is.
- Today, I would like to talk to you about the Canadian experience with homelessness and more specifically, about our experience with the Housing First approach.
- Canada, like the US, is an immense country, although with a much smaller population.
- Like the US, we have many different jurisdictions, many different realities and many different challenges.
- Canada has an area of more than 3,855,000 sq. miles, but a population of only 35 million.
- With a roughly similar area, the United States has a population of more than 317 million!
- Put another way, the United States has 10 times our population. And of course, you have a more temperate climate.
- We have rural and very remote communities including in our far north.
- As a Government, we had to find solutions to address Canadian homelessness.
- In 2007, our federal government launched the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, or HPS, with the goal of preventing and reducing homelessness in Canada.
- The Strategy includes a number of initiatives, including Aboriginal Homelessness and Rural and Remote Homelessness.
- One of the great strengths of the Homelessness Partnering Strategy is that it encourages cooperation between all levels of government, agencies, the private sector and local community organizations to find innovative solutions.
- HPS allows each of these communities to determine its own specific needs and develop projects to meet them.
- In fact, each community must have an advisory board representing these types of stakeholders, and they set priorities and recommend projects to their communities.
- And this partnership approach works. For every dollar we’ve invested, over two dollars has been invested by partners, including other levels of government, community stakeholders, and the private and non-profit sectors.
- We were, and are, very proud of our Canadian HPS, but we realized there was still more work to do. Because we have discovered that short-term crisis responses, through shelters and hospital emergency rooms, do not solve the problem of chronic homelessness.
- It’s clear that traditional approaches are not working as well as we had hoped.
- We’ve had to rethink our approach.
- In the next phase of the Strategy, our goal will be to shift from managing homelessness to reducing the size of the homeless population.
The national pilot project
- In 2008, our government provided funding to the Mental Health Commission of Canada to undertake a major research demonstration project called At Home/Chez Soi.
- You will hear more about this project throughout this conference. At Home/Chez Soi was a four-year project implemented in five Canadian cities.
- It was the largest study of its kind in the world with over 2200 participants, about half of whom were randomly selected to undergo a Housing First intervention.
- As you know, Housing First involves moving homeless individuals into immediate and permanent housing, then offering supports to keep them housed.
- Most of the housing units in the pilot project were apartments in the private market. They were funded through subsidies, with the tenants contributing up to 30 percent of their income towards their rent.
- Through the At Home/ Chez Soi project, Canadians now have "made in Canada" evidence that the Housing First approach really works.
- And the economic impact is clear.
- Preliminary results from the pilot project indicate that for every $2 spent on Housing First participants, the system saves $1 by reducing the costs of public services, such as police detentions, hospital treatment, and shelter stays.
- And in cases of “high service” users, the results are even more compelling, with a savings of $3 for the same $2 spent.
- Over a 12-month period, Housing First participants spent an average of 73 percent of their time in stable housing, compared to only 30 percent for homeless people in a control group.
Success Stories
- The Vancouver site of the At Home/Chez Soi project implemented the Assertive Community Treatment, also known as the ACT model. This involved a mobile team made up of various health and social service professionals attending the needs of recently homeless individuals.
- After a year, the Vancouver team found that among the participants of Housing First, visits to emergency departments had decreased by nearly half!
- The team also realized that participants were less likely to get in trouble with the law, or to worry about being victims of crime themselves.
- In Winnipeg, the At Home/Chez Soi focus was on Aboriginal people. The results of the Winnipeg project demonstrate that:
- With the right level of housing and support, it is possible to help people experiencing homelessness—even those with complex histories of trauma and addiction—move from the hardships of the street and see them succeed.
- And although the research is yet to be finalized, the Winnipeg At Home/Chez Soi project has found that participants who received both housing and supportive services are showing more signs of recovery than those who did not.
- Several other organizations and communities across Canada are already moving towards using the Housing First model.
- And the results are encouraging. For example, the city of Edmonton has reported an overall decrease of 30 percent in homelessness since 2008.
Renewing the HPS
- And so, after the evidence was in, our Government, in 2013, decided to renew the HPS and the funding for it for the next five years – with a significant change.
- The cornerstone of our plan is the ‘Housing First’ approach.
- We are mandating larger centres to use a Housing First approach to fight homelessness. With flexibilities to still use resources for transitional housing and shelters.
Targeting the hardest cases
- As a government focussed on delivering results while respecting the dollars of our hard-working taxpayers, we’ve made it a priority to ensure our investments are directed to where they will provide the greatest, long-term impact.
- When it comes to homelessness, we need to get out of crisis mode. We need to be efficient and effective in our approach.
- It’s clear that unless we invest in sustainable long-term solutions, we’re not going to get ahead.
- In Canada, the evidence is in. Housing First is the solution. It can change lives.
- I am very excited about this program and proud that Canada has become a leader in implementing Housing First on a nationwide scale.
- To conclude, let me say this:
- For years, we have been managing homelessness.
- But the economic and social costs of continuing the status quo are simply too high.
- We should be aiming not just to reduce homelessness, but to eventually end it.
- In my work in Canada and during my time at this conference, whenever I hear about Housing First, I hear the same messages.
- These are messages about hope, recovery and new opportunities. They are about empowerment, overcoming obstacles and making a difference.
- Housing First can be a springboard to a better life.
- Thank you for listening. I look forward to hearing your stories as well.
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