A Human Rights Based Approach to Housing
What do people need to live a dignified life? Under international law, safe and affordable housing is a human right and therefore governments have responsibilities to implement and uphold their legal obligations related to housing and homelessness. What struck me is this notion that anyone with government authority has international human rights obligations, not just the federal government. In theory, housing as a human right provides a clear legislative mandate but, appears to be difficult in practice. How do housing and homelessness policies interact with a human rights based perspective during the implementation stage?
For our assignment with the SHIFT, my group is focusing on the right to housing and its policy implementation in Kitchener, Ontario. Kitchener is within the regional government of Waterloo, which is primarily responsible for housing and homelessness programs in Kitchener. The region is the service manager and is responsible for assisting with the development of affordable rental units, administering housing grants, and ensuring Rent-Geared to Income supports are available for residents. As a result, the region takes on the majority of financial and policy responsibility related to housing and homelessness. Due to the region’s role as service manager, declaring the right to housing at the regional level would require extensive consultations with municipalities in order to change bylaws and ensure they each comply with the right to housing.
This highlights how addressing the issue of housing and homelessness through a human rights based approach requires collaboration across jurisdictions, since any changes at the regional level would impact bylaws in Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, and four smaller townships. Also, being a municipality that is apart of a regional government creates an additional layer since limits exist to what a municipality can achieve on their own.
Due to the numerous constraints that exist at the local level, how can the right to housing equip local governments to address housing and homelessness? Especially since ensuring the right to housing is the responsibility of all three levels of government. Since local governments are creatures of the province, declaring housing as a human right would likely have the most impact. This would create a trickle-down effect and would set a provincial directive that municipalities and regions would have to follow. Collaboration is critical and until the provincial government recognizes the right to housing, it may be difficult for local governments to take the necessary actions to develop long-term housing strategies.
