This is our library of resources and research including international and Canadian reports, videos, webinars and backgrounders on the implementation of the right to housing.
HUMAN RIGHTS SUBMISSIONS
Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee:
Assessing Canada’s Housing & Homelessness Crisis in Accordance with the ICCPR
This submission, produced alongside the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA), is meant to inform the UN Human Rights Committee’s list of issues prior to Canada’s review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It outlines:
- How Canada’s ongoing housing & homelessness crisis violates articles 2, 6, 17, and 26 of the ICCPR—specifically, the rights to life, protection of the home and non-discrimination
- How Indigenous peoples and groups protected under article 26 of the ICCPR (i.e. racialized groups, women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, and migrants) are disproportionately impacted by the loss of life and health impacts of homelessness and inadequate housing
- Questions that the UN Human Rights Committee should ask Canada in its upcoming ICCPR review
- The names of over 30 organizations from across Canada who endorse this submission
Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing:
Housing Discrimination & Spacial Segregation in Canada
This submission, produced alongside CERA and the Social Rights Advocacy Centre, outlines how:
- Already-marginalized groups are disproportionately impacted by systemic violations of the right to housing in Canada
- Systemic and discriminatory violations of the right to housing can be addressed through concrete actions and solutions
Submission to the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate:
Addressing the Evictions & Arrears Crisis:
Proposal for a Federal Government Residential Tenant Support Benefit
This federal submission and proposal, written alongside CERA and through consultation with over 120 individuals and organizations, offers:
- An analysis of the arrears and evictions crisis during the pandemic, recognizing it as a systemic issue that affects already-marginalized peoples like women, low-income workers, Black and Indigenous peoples, queer households, and persons with disabilities most
- A review of the federal government’s commitment to the progressive realization of the right to housing under the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) and, in turn, to international human rights obligations which recognize housing as a fundamental human right
- A practical and detailed proposal for a federally-funded Residential Tenant Support Benefit to help preserve tenancies and avoid evictions due to the pandemic, in accordance with the NHSA
- An overview of the steps taken by each provincial and territorial government to address evictions and arrears up to February, 2021
Backgrounder & FAQ
For information about NRHN and it’s goals, please download our PDF Backgrounder:
Fact Sheets and Articles
Canada’s First Housing Advocate – What’s at stake, what the role is, and who we need to shape this critical human rights mechanism.
The Right to Housing 101 – What it means, what it doesn’t, and what it looks like in the Canadian context.
“Housing Rights: Ottawa takes a historic step forward,” Bruce Porter and Elizabeth McIsaac (Literary review of Canada: November 2019).
Videos
Webinar: Nothing About Us Without Us: The Right to Housing in Canada
This webinar, hosted by the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network (CLELN) and National Right to Housing Network (NRHN), explores the importance of centring experts with lived experience of homelessness (i.e. lived experts, or first voice advocates) in Canada’s right to housing discourse and claiming mechanisms. Hear from Cheyanne Ratnam, Alex Nelson, Debbie McGraw, and Al Wiebe as they discuss the history and future of lived experience leadership in driving forward the right to housing in Canada. Discussion moderated by Elizabeth McIsaac, president of Maytree.
Webinar: Claiming the Right to Housing and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Community Inclusion
Hosted by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), National Right to Housing Network (NHRN) and Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA), this webinar is in honour of International Human Rights Day on: “Claiming the right to housing and the rights of persons with disabilities to community inclusion”. Hear experts Claire McNeil, Vince Calderhead, Vicky Levack, and Jewelles Smith, Human Rights Day, explore the right to community inclusion and the right to housing and how it is being exercised to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.
Webinar: The Road to the Right to Housing In Canada: How did we get here? What’s next?
Hosted by the Right to Housing Coalition and the Right to Housing Toronto, this webinar looks at where we’ve been in the right to housing in Canada, and where we need to go next.
CAEH18 Keynote Address by UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing
UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing speaks about the importance of the right to housing at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness, Hamilton, Nov. 6, 2018.
Webinar: How a Housing First approach fits with a human rights approach to housing
Hosted on September 13, 2018, by EENet (Evidence Exchange Network for Mental Health and Addictions) and the Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest (OHFRN-CoI), this webinar looks at:
- A rights-based approach for the National Housing Strategy;
- How Housing First fits with this approach;
- How to get the rights-based approach into legislation.
View the webinar recording | view the presentation slides.
Obligations & recommendations for Canada under International Human Rights Law
Website of the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing – Why housing as a human right?
Open Letter – UN Special Rapporteur on Housing – June 22, 2018