By Lauren Koning
As Ottawa continues to grapple with rising homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing, residents gathered in Hintonburg to hear from experts about what can be done to address the growing crisis.
Ottawa Centre MPP Catherine McKenney, the Ontario NDP’s housing critic, hosted a town hall at the Hintonburg Community Centre on Sept. 29, bringing together housing researchers, policy experts and community members to discuss the root causes of homelessness and possible solutions.
The event, titled “Solving Ontario’s Housing Crisis,” explored a range of issues contributing to housing instability, including rising rents, inadequate social supports and the challenges facing low-income tenants.
Joining McKenney were Kaite Burkholder Harris, executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa; housing researcher Carolyn Whitzman; and municipal law scholar Alexandra Flynn. About 40 residents attended the discussion.
The conversation focused heavily on a housing-first approach, which prioritizes providing people experiencing homelessness with stable housing rather than requiring them to meet certain conditions beforehand.
Burkholder Harris emphasized that safe, secure housing should be considered a basic human right.
The challenges facing Ottawa are part of a much larger provincial crisis. Whitzman told attendees that roughly 85,000 people in Ontario are experiencing homelessness, a figure she said has doubled over the past decade.
“The figure in Ontario is 37 people per 10,000 are without homes,” said Whitzman.
Much of the discussion centred on how Ottawa allocates resources to address homelessness and whether more could be done to prevent people from entering the shelter system in the first place.
Burkholder Harris said much of the city’s homelessness funding goes toward emergency shelters. While acknowledging their importance, she cautioned that prolonged stays can create additional challenges for people trying to rebuild their lives.
Instead, she advocated for a greater focus on prevention, including helping people maintain personal relationships and access support before they lose their housing.
Building strong connections, she argued, can be an important part of helping people regain stability and eventually secure a safe place to live.
“We have to be willing to ask those hard questions,” she said, suggesting shelter staff engage in more thoughtful conversations with people seeking assistance.
One question she suggested asking was: “you can stay here tonight if you need to, but are there any other safe options?”
Burkholder Harris said this approach can be particularly effective for young people, who may still have family or community relationships that could provide support and help prevent them from entering the shelter system.
She pointed to the Niagara region, where a community-wide shelter diversion approach has helped reduce homelessness locally.
The conversation also turned to the growing visibility of homelessness on Ottawa’s streets. McKenney told attendees that roughly 300 people were sleeping outdoors in the city, highlighting the challenges facing residents who have nowhere else to go.
“It doesn’t feel good to see people suffering in our streets,” said Flynn, who emphasized the important role municipalities play in responding to encampments.
She explained that cities have opportunities to develop safer and more effective responses through municipal bylaws, policies and practices. However, meaningful progress requires co-operation between all levels of government.
Flynn also discussed the federal government’s role in addressing the housing crisis, including the importance of stronger legal protections to prevent tenants from being evicted into homelessness.
McKenney then asked Whitzman to address the province’s responsibilities.
Whitzman identified several factors contributing to Ontario’s housing crisis, including minimum wages that have not kept pace with inflation, gaps in tenant protections and inadequate social supports.
“Three out of 100 tenants are evicted every year,” she said, emphasizing the importance of provincial policies in preventing housing instability.