Housing is a fundamental human right, and at our Strategic Advocacy Summit in July 2022, we gathered over 100 advocates and 10 keynote speakers from across the country who are working to make this right a reality in their communities. In Ending the Housing Crisis: Strategic Advocacy Stories, we talk about how they are doing it.
Background
In July of 2022, the National Right to Housing Network hosted a Strategic Advocacy Summit—a virtual, two-day event that brought together over 100 advocates from across the country. Knowing that the right to housing movement can only progress if we work as a collective, the Summit aimed to provide a venue for leaders across the right to housing movement to network, plan, strategize, and share the stories of their advocacy learnings.
During the Summit, attendees heard from ten human rights defenders and housing advocates leading change in their communities. These advocates—working at local, provincial, territorial, and national levels—spoke to some of their learnings from driving human rights-based action and change. They set the stage for broader conversations about moving the needle and driving progress on the right to housing and tenant rights through grassroots organizing, advocacy, innovation, and cross-movement solidarity.
This event highlighted the deepening housing crisis facing all our communities across Canada, but it also exemplified the passion, drive, dedication, and commitment of grassroots advocates and people with lived experience who continue to work towards advancing our shared goal: to ensure everyone has access to adequate housing.
“[The National Housing Strategy Act is] owned by the people at this Summit, by people who were turned away at shelters last night, by kids who are leaving child welfare with all of their possessions in a garbage bag—all of the folks that we are working in solidarity with across the country, those are the people who own this legislation.”
– Khulud Baig, Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network
Our Report: Strategic Advocacy Stories
This report, Ending the Housing Crisis: Strategic Advocacy Stories, highlights voices for action and change across Canada’s right to housing movement: the local community members, grassroots champions, and national advocates that are collectively turning the tide against housing inequities and human rights violations. It is a testament to their relentless spirit, chronicling both triumphs and challenges on the path to housing justice. Through their stories, this report weaves a collective narrative of action, challenge, and change, while highlighting the innovative strategies and collaborative efforts shaping the landscape of housing advocacy in Canada today.
But our commitment goes beyond storytelling. Recognizing the importance of accessible engagement with right to housing stories and knowledge, we collaborated with a Plain Language specialist to offer a Plain Language and fully accessible companion report.
Funded by the Community Housing Transformation Centre’s Community-Based Tenant Initiative, these reports are more than collections of stories; they are blueprints for action, and calls for advocates, policymakers, and rights holders alike to work together in forging a future where everyone can enjoy their fundamental right to adequate housing.
“The responsibility we bear to sustain each other is massive. Through this report, we want to hold space for the labour that advocates are putting in to keep people housed. The stories shared can serve as advice that can be translated to other contexts—or even as a reminder, that we are not alone in this struggle.”
– Alex Nelson, National Right to Housing Network