Reduce Impact of COVID-19, by Prioritizing Implementation of the Right to Housing

  • National Newswatch

As eviction bans lift across the country, and with a second wave of the virus looming on the horizon, individuals and families are counting dollars to make rent and avoid homelessness. Many are asking: isn't housing supposed to be a human right?One year ago, Canada made a historic advance by recognizing the right to housing in the National Housing Strategy Act. Central to this legislation is the appointment of a Federal Housing Advocate and members of a National Housing Council, whose role is to oversee the implementation of the right to housing in Canada, take action on systemic barriers, and propose remedies for the structural gaps that are so deeply embedded in existing housing systems.The federal government's appointment processes were underway by autumn 2019 but came to a halt when COVID-19 hit five months ago. As Canada builds its recovery systems, let's ask ourselves: what if we prioritized the right to housing and emerged from this crisis with a strong, well-led, well-resourced, and effective Federal Housing Advocate and National Housing Council?The right to housing is not just jargon. Real human rights monitoring mechanisms for housing could have an enormous impact on the effectiveness of our recovery efforts, particularly for the most marginalized. With the Advocate and Council amplifying the voices of those directly affected, the systemic barriers that worsen Canada's housing crisis could be identified, remedied, and eliminated.COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated deeply entrenched systemic inequities, and there is no question that those who are the most marginalized, disproportionately represented in homeless populations, have borne the brunt of this health crisis. Older adults, members of Black and racialized communities, people living on low incomes, and people with disabilities face significantly higher risks.In Toronto, a map of COVID-19 hotspots by neighbourhood revealed a clear socio-economic and racial divide. Homeless systems in Toronto have seen more COVID-19 infections than the entirety of Manitoba and New Brunswick combined. Individuals in shelters and rooming houses had little choice but to wait for outbreaks, in some places sleeping less than two metres away from a neighbour. Indigenous people are over-represented among the growing numbers sleeping outside without access to drinking water and sanitation. These are exactly the types of issues that would be subject to investigation by the Federal Housing Advocate.As provincial and territorial governments lift eviction bans, renters are desperately calling for policy makers to provide relief. We need a Federal Housing Advocate and National Housing Council to hold the government to account. While jurisdiction over landlords mostly falls to provincial/territorial governments, there is lots the federal government can do through its spending powers to ensure a co-ordinated national response.There is precedent for the federal government to intervene in times of crisis when people's lives are at stake. Right now, if the rights of those most marginalized in housing systems were prioritized, the federal government would take aggressive action by extending eviction bans, adding investments, and immediately implementing rent relief programs.Without action now, relief will come too late to stop the slew of evictions for individuals and families who couldn't afford to pay rent because of loss of employment or other concerns related to COVID-19.With a Council in place, hearings could be held to expose the systemic barriers that must be removed for the most marginalized to secure housing – with remedies developed with those who experience those barriers firsthand.Perhaps most critically, an Advocate and Council could provide oversight so that the power within Canada's housing sector is shifted into the hands of rights-holders. Housing markets are skewed by an extreme imbalance of power. In the past decades, Real Estate Investment Trusts and private equity firms have been scooping up affordable housing as assets and destroying Canada's supply of rental housing. It is anticipated that without action this trend will deepen in the wake of COVID-19. But social movements made up of those who have borne the brunt of this inequality have been pushing back. With a Federal Housing Advocate and National Housing Council, we can ensure the Federal government steps up to address this long-standing power imbalance.Canada is at a moment where we must choose to fulfil our promise to genuinely implement the right to housing.An effective, well-led, and well-resourced Federal Housing Advocate and National Housing Council could move us much farther towards ending Canada's housing crisis. Acting now means that fewer people will be up at night panicked that they may face eviction and homelessness during a second wave of the virus. Then, when—not if—Canada's next health crisis happens, those who have for so long borne the brunt of Canada's housing crisis will be able to thrive, knowing their rights will be upheld.Michèle Biss is a human rights lawyer and the Project Manager of the National Right to Housing Network, a group of over 250 members (including over 65 organizations) dedicated to the meaningful implementation of the right to housing. As an expert in economic and social rights, she has presented at several United Nations treaty body reviews and at Canadian parliamentary committees on issues related to poverty.