Can the Human Right To Adequate Housing Include Bits Of ‘Unhousing?’

So many things - so little space ... Welcome to Japan photo by Stefan Lins is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

“Adequate” can be a vague term when not supported by a more detailed explanation of what what it actually means. ‘Has a roof?’ Well of course, in that particular case ‘adequate’ doesn’t really need to be spelled out.

But what about ‘has a balcony?’ Essential to adequate housing? Really? Surely not!

Wander about a big city such as Toronto and gaze upward at the lofty high-rises walled with balconies. Often, you may scan a 40 storey wall of them and seen not a single person.

There’s a bicycle on a 35th floor balcony. Convenient storage, but hardly a reason to be included in an ‘adequate housing’ description. And then there is the size of the balcony. That balcony on the 10th floor, with two chairs and a small table set out for tea, doesn’t appear to have room for people. How could those spaces be part of a definition of ‘adequate housing?’

But you can’t be dismissive of balconies as a mere frill of living space if you live in Rennes, France. There, developers will be required to build balconies on every apartment building higher than two stories. This is not about balconies as a frill, but as a vital recipe for adequate health. What’s more, the city has passed on more powers to individual citizens to influence laws and by-laws that help define their right to adequate housing.

Is this writing on the wall for other communities, in France, indeed in countries around the world, that are considering the construction of high rise housing, whether luxury housing or deeply affordable public/social housing?

Take this Hamilton, Ontario aging high rise which survived classic ‘tear it down’ sentiments. It was refurbished to strict ‘green’ standards. Is it a global warming triumph, or an adequate housing oopsie? To handle the refurbishment economically, its balconies were sacrificed to energy efficient cladding. Try Is EnerPHit the Future of Affordable Housing?

As for the balcony requirements in Rennes, two important health issues informed the city’s decisions. Read more in The Mayor.eu: Rennes forces developers to put balconies on every new building, thanks to Covid

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Modern U.S. Society Takes Lack Of ID Card To Be Proof You Don’t Exist
https://affordablehousingaction.org/modern-us-society-takes-lack-of-id-card-to-be-proof-you-dont-exist/

Staff
Thu, 09 Feb 2023 05:05:34 +0000
Personal Needs
Transitioning From Homelessness
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50955

So you’re American. Suppose you want to join the military, put your life on the line for your country (and earn the dollars that can lift you out of poverty). Can you prove who you claim you are? Without ID, this career and this route out of poverty are quite probably denied you. That was […]

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This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain DedicationA city worker helps to erase a tent encampment along with the existence of those homeless whose ID documents have been trashed together with other personal items.

So you’re American. Suppose you want to join the military, put your life on the line for your country (and earn the dollars that can lift you out of poverty). Can you prove who you claim you are? Without ID, this career and this route out of poverty are quite probably denied you.

That was the case as of February 22, 2019 — almost 4 years ago. That was the day the Seattle Times reported on the pros and cons of an initiative just introduced in the Washington State’s legislature. The initiative would stop the state from selling ID cards to poorest who can’t afford them and who lack any conventional form of identification such as a driver’s license.

It’s useful to back up your reading habits to that date in order to evaluate the distressing impact of the fee charged to homeless people in Washington State to allow them to join the land of the electronically living.

The penalties imposed by modern society upon a lack of such identification can be a tremendous hardship. Those lacking the money to buy an official form of ID often lack ability to keep it secure even if they . . momentarily . . . have it. This latter problem was raised as the legislature considered the bill 4 years ago.

By the time Washington State began to consider a legislative fix to the ID problem, eight other states had already passed laws to provide inexpensive or free identification for people who could not pay for it. The small profit to the government didn’t square with the personal cost of not having ID. Read more in The Seattle Times: Washington lawmakers consider bill that would provide the homeless with a free ID card

Fast-forward now to January 2023. On the first of the month, the law to provide free ID cards in Washington State finally came into effect. Hopefully it will help relieve the nagging burden of being unidentified in a society that increasingly requires to know just who you are.

Alas, this positive development is marred somewhat by the ‘one time only’ nature of the Washington’s free ID card. Homeless, beaten up and robbed? Returned ‘home’ to a tent city only to discover that your belongings, including ID, have been hurled into garbage truck and carted away? Back to being nobody with no resources, and no way of proving who you are. Read more at KOMONEWS: Free ‘Identicard’ program now available for those experiencing homelessness

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Come From Away? Don’t Cut No Ice With Us. Not Your Home, So Begone, Homeless”
https://affordablehousingaction.org/come-from-away-dont-cut-no-ice-with-us-not-your-home-so-begone-homeless/

Staff
Wed, 08 Feb 2023 05:10:58 +0000
Homeless Rights
Taking Control
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50957

“Papers, please!” Wouldn’t it be great if a community could gold-braid and tin hat a cadre of officious, hopefully armed, bureaucrats. They would challenge those hoards of suspicious undesirables that ‘come from away’ — unfamiliar faces for those prone to narrow-eye the population passing in the streets, or worse, sleeping indolently in doorways. Perhaps such […]

The post Come From Away? Don’t Cut No Ice With Us. Not Your Home, So Begone, Homeless” appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain DedicationThe unexpected arrival of neighbours in trouble: an opportunity for human kindness and caring, not a time for sour, petulant dogs-in-a-manger.

“Papers, please!”

Wouldn’t it be great if a community could gold-braid and tin hat a cadre of officious, hopefully armed, bureaucrats. They would challenge those hoards of suspicious undesirables that ‘come from away’ — unfamiliar faces for those prone to narrow-eye the population passing in the streets, or worse, sleeping indolently in doorways.

Perhaps such wartime-style guardians of local integrity could be qualified to take immediate action with, say, a bag of stones.

“These papers are not in order! You are not a qualified local. You will have a 5 meter head start, thereafter, I will follow behind with my approved weaponry and not cease from throwing until you are stoned out of town!”

Come from away? Forget the romantic internationalism that spawned a hit musical by that name1. Yes, forget that kind of ‘Come From Away,’ even if it was based on a true story.

Given the current and rapidly worsening homelessness catastrophe occurring pretty much worldwide, communities might wish to look back towards medieval times for appropriate remedies, such as stoning. That increasing need is clearly reflected in angry letters to editors, as well as belligerent oratory by local city councillors and the media determined to assert that all the recently spotted unfamiliar faces lurking about quite simply “do not belong.”

The latest community to come to our attention in a welter of impotent fury? Victoria, the capital of Canada’s Province of British Columbia. Read more in Capital Daily: ‘Tale as old as time’: Debunking pervasive myths about homelessness in Victoria

But, you know, why not just skip all the ‘debunking?’ Disregard whatever truth that underlies ‘unfamiliar face’ claims. Why not just take the arguments as fully and completely ‘bunked.’ (Or in the case of homeless people, they might be perhaps more appropriately described as ‘un-bunked).

After all, name a modern democratic country that restricts the right of citizens to up stakes and move to a their personal vision of more attractive place to live. The European Union even allows such migration between countries. So why should your locally encountered collection of people who are homeless suddenly lose that right?

All right, maybe you think it’s unfair for a single community, such as wealthy Victoria, to be forced do more than its share, thanks to all those officially ‘bunked’ incomers lurking about the streets. If so, complain to the federal government. They’re the ones most capable of sharing out the burden (temporarily and with permanent support dollars) to mitigate homelessness in all Canadian communities.

There will of course be something of a waiting for the day, hopefully soon, when the problem can be eliminated across the entire country, whether featuring familiar faces or not. Take some comfort, agitated Victorians, that as a provincial capital, your well-heeled and nationally influential community can play an important part in an all-out war on behalf of a human right to adequate housing, which is so desperately needed.

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Social Housing Mould Killed Awaab Ishak. Will Institutional Apathy Kill Others?
https://affordablehousingaction.org/social-housing-mould-killed-awaab-ishak-institutional-apathy-will-kill-many-others/

Staff
Tue, 07 Feb 2023 05:10:15 +0000
Preserving Existing Housing
Safety and Quality Impact On Health
Who will it help
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=51122

In the wake of a two-year-old boy’s mould-related death, what most struck the Manchester Evening News and the UK Charity Shelter, which shared a now internationally known investigation, was “the scale of institutional apathy from the housing association.” After Awaab Ishak died, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) actually found reasons to give pay raises to its […]

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affordablehousingaction.org © all rights reservedHow far did this post writer need to go to find a picture of mould? To his bathroom window in a 1920's apartment building. All of its windows are susceptible to 'black' mould.

In the wake of a two-year-old boy’s mould-related death, what most struck the Manchester Evening News and the UK Charity Shelter, which shared a now internationally known investigation, was “the scale of institutional apathy from the housing association.” After Awaab Ishak died, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) actually found reasons to give pay raises to its executives.

The investigation’s impression was that RBH was more interested in managing its reputation than the health of their tenants. And sure enough, in the same building, the investigators found that other tenants had mould problems too. Doctors had reported the potentially life threatening danger of the moulds. Yet nothing had been done about these potentially dangerous outbreaks for bureaucratic reasons.

In a small hurricane of horror and recrimination that followed Awaab’s death, the management of the mould crisis has been taken over at the highest level in the United Kingdom. Dominic Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has taken charge. Meanwhile RBH has lost its funding, and the CEO (who earned £170,000 a year) has been fired.

Awaab’s death has shaken the United Kingdom. But worldwide, city councils, housing authorities and associations of all stripes, as well as every level of government, would do well to take notice1.

Mould is a threat to the health of some people that will never go away. The organism in all its wide range of appearance, colour and toxicity is a vital part of the life cycle of death and rebirth. Arguments may be made that life on earth as we know it might well not exist without mould.

Mould must be recognized to be found everywhere, particularly indoors. There, circumstances that lead to unhealthy, even lethal, levels must be controlled. That includes not only social housing, but in ALL housing where temperature and moisture levels can easily lead to its dangerous invasion and spread.

For the latest in how the UK is dealing with this the fallout from Awaab’s death, read more in the Manchester Evening News: A step towards meaningful change following the case of tragic Awaab Ishak

The post Social Housing Mould Killed Awaab Ishak. Will Institutional Apathy Kill Others? appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Public Housing: NYC Engages In A Pact With the Devil
https://affordablehousingaction.org/public-housing-nyc-engages-in-a-pact-with-the-devil/

Staff
Tue, 07 Feb 2023 05:05:33 +0000
Opaque "solutions"
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50966

We need to remember: there is the devil we know, and the devil we don’t know. This post is about the devil we don’t know. That devil is in the details, and we don’t have them. Information bottom-feeders do the best they can, living as they do in New York’s public housing. They have the […]

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NYCHA Seward Park Extension photo by Kidfly182 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0Seward Park Extension in New York City. Residents are wary of plans to change the way the building is managed.

We need to remember: there is the devil we know, and the devil we don’t know. This post is about the devil we don’t know. That devil is in the details, and we don’t have them.

Information bottom-feeders do the best they can, living as they do in New York’s public housing. They have the privilege of trying to decode the latest tangle of financial googletygook that issues from The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and its bureaucratic Fairy Godmother, the U.S. Department of Housing and and Urban Development (HUD).

For many if not most tenants, the decisions of these agencies will profoundly affect their entire future, even as they struggle daily to confront the consequences of some 40+ billion dollars-worth of urgent repairs — funding that is absent on parade.

Recently, information-unscrambling tenants have been subjected to a unusual set of multiple confusions, sitting on the sidelines as NYCHA and HUD explain new developments in public housing funding with supreme authority, but only partial clarity.

It seems that HUD has been forced by Congress to hold down the flush handle on ‘Section 9’ funded dollars, currently inadequate and already whirling around the bowl. That means public housing in America will decline into oblivion and tens of thousands will loose their truly affordable homes.

However, thank goodness, tenants have been told that it is possible to turn a Section 9 liability into Section 8 funding. Section 8 funding is generally associated with vouchers, which allow hopeful holders to be refused accommodation everywhere in America.

The Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) gives HUD authority to transfer Section 9 to Section 8. Once in Section 8, the money can be swirled around the bowl and intermingled with private investment money to repair public housing stock. This somehow saves the day at least temporarily, until that future day (or days!) when the private investment-pipers arrive to play their profit-demanding tune.

And so Section 8 gives us pop-up (today) savings with pop-up (tomorrow) liability of unclear cost and consequence. In New York City, HUD’s RAD becomes NYCHA’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT). RAD and PACT will, in the fullness of time,  demonstrate just who is the ultimate recipient of the Assistance:

• • Door 1: New York’s poverty-stricken renters, or
  • Door 2: private investors.

Both? Maybe, but in the balance, what are tenants of Seward Park Extension to make of notices they have received, explaining that their homes are being converted to a Section 8 program, and that management will be transferred to a private company? Read more — some of the facts, as well as the some of the fears now echoing around two buildings — in The Village Sun: PACT impact: Privatization fears at Lower East Side public housing

As far as privatization fears are concerned, in theory there are none. The private investor/manager will not own Seward Park Extension, merely administer a 99-year lease, renewable. Since little or no public housing has lasted 99 years in the U.S, does this mean that the lease amounts to an effective change of ownership? That is just one of the many details in which the devil resides.

Some of the implications that are troubling current tenants are explained in the following NYC publication. It states what benefits the tenants may receive under the new arrangement, even as it also explains how NYCHA itself will benefit.

There is one fatal flaw in the publication, however.

There is no explanation whatsoever about how the private company will benefit, even though it will be purchasing a lease interest in a mismanaged NYCHA portfolio that has already lasted a human lifetime and has an outstanding 40+ billion dollars repair bill.

Everybody . . . everybody knows that private enterprise is in business to make a profit for its shareholders. So where’s the beef? Why is nobody telling the tenants just how always-underfunded maintenance management will cough up the cash if there is no other place for a private leaseholder to nibble, or gulp or gouge its profits? The lack of these details makes a sham out of an otherwise carefully laid out document. Give it a read and see for yourselves at the NYCHA web site: WHAT IS PACT?

For other posts about RAD and PACT, try: Enough Already with Ex-HUD Privatized Tenant-And-Rat Stories, Evaluating HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration , Repairing US Existing Public Housing: A Pact With A Toothless Devil? and A Rare(?) Thumbs-Up For HUD/NYCHA Public Housing Repair

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Can Live-In ‘Mr. Fixits’ Fix Public Housing Better? Victoria, AU Aims To Find Out
https://affordablehousingaction.org/can-live-in-mr-fixits-fix-public-housing-better-victoria-au-aims-to-find-out/

Staff
Mon, 06 Feb 2023 05:10:58 +0000
Who will it help
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50973

The Labour Government in the Australian State of Victoria is sharing some of its ‘labour’ ideology with workers who live in Public housing. Isn’t it most efficient and economical to use some bid-winning firm to provide the labour to handle maintenance in the state’s public housing? Contracting out is certainly the usual way of finding […]

The post Can Live-In ‘Mr. Fixits’ Fix Public Housing Better? Victoria, AU Aims To Find Out appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Mr fix-it is in town photo by thefuturistics is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Labour Government in the Australian State of Victoria is sharing some of its ‘labour’ ideology with workers who live in Public housing.

Isn’t it most efficient and economical to use some bid-winning firm to provide the labour to handle maintenance in the state’s public housing? Contracting out is certainly the usual way of finding workers to do the endless fixer-upper tasks that show up in any multi-tenant building, whether free market, or subsidized housing.

But Victoria is betting that folks have a vested interest in keeping public housing well maintained if they actually live in the building. Not only is it hoped they’ll do maintenance as well or better than contracted labour from who-knows-where, but the scheme has the bonus of providing work for public housing residents.

Read more in The Bull: Public Housing Renters Lead Way On Maintenance

The post Can Live-In ‘Mr. Fixits’ Fix Public Housing Better? Victoria, AU Aims To Find Out appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Getting Good Data About Housing And The People Who Need It
https://affordablehousingaction.org/whats-different-when-the-community-collects-the-data/

Rosemary Foulds
Mon, 06 Feb 2023 05:05:31 +0000
Discrimination
Taking Control
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=51035

Everyone is mad keen about data these days. Getting into the data business has told us important stuff already. There’s a lot more to learn. The expression “there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics” reminds us that data by itself will not necessarily point to useful answers. Here are two stories about data […]

The post Getting Good Data About Housing And The People Who Need It appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain DedicationWhen making a plan to improve housing for people who need it, it's important to have good information about what actually helps them.

Everyone is mad keen about data these days. Getting into the data business has told us important stuff already. There’s a lot more to learn.

The expression “there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics” reminds us that data by itself will not necessarily point to useful answers. Here are two stories about data gathering efforts from the United States that have shown promising results.

Both started when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required local communities to assess their housing needs as part of the process to receive HUD funding.

The first story comes from Minneapolis, and Hennepin County, which surrounds it. A housing needs assessment was prepared by the Hennepin County Fair Housing Implementation Council1.

Once completed, it was submitted to HUD. However, after the submission, three cities in Hennepin County appealed to HUD, protesting the findings. The issue for the protesting cities was an over-concentration of affordable housing.

HUD decided that the housing needs assessment could do with more community input. This triggered a rethink at the local level about how to gather input from the community. A consultation process was designed to reach out to groups that had had limited involvement when the needs assessment was first prepared.

Part of the new consultation included local service organizations that were in daily contact with people who are struggling with precarious housing. Those folks often don’t want to speak up. The reasons vary. Some are embarrassed by their unfortunate status, which could be seen as a personal failing. Some don’t want to attract attention that could undermine the delicate balance of their housing situation. Some simply don’t have the time.

When they were asked to talk about their situation by a local service organization that had helped them, people were more willing to describe their housing challenges and talk about what would help. The consultation succeeded in gathering input from more residents. Some were experiencing all forms of housing instability including high housing costs, evictions, and poor housing quality.

Some of the people who spoke up lived in the areas where affordable housing was more concentrated. Concentration had been identified as a problem by the cities which had appealed the needs assessment. The tenants pointed out that the housing may be concentrated, but it also has strengths. It provides stability and mutual support to residents who have very low incomes. Their input highlighted that affordable housing offers much more stability than a voucher to rent housing in the private sector. Vouchers mean living among people who neither understand nor appreciate the concerns of those with very low incomes.

The second story comes from the Boston area, where community groups in three cities were contracted to collect data, starting in 2016. This project was facilitated by the Conservation Law Foundation and researchers at the Department of Urban Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These two organizations helped ensure that the research would produce reliable results. It would also allow comparisons between each of the Boston-area cities and with others across the country.

Local residents were hired to survey their neighbours. The surveyors and the MIT researchers worked together to figure out good ways to ask the questions. For example, the surveyors asked respondents if they enough money to cover their basic living costs, rather than asking about their annual income2.

Once the data was collected and processed, the surveyors were part of the team that analysed the results. Local knowledge played a key role in interpreting the data. That process also helped to build connections between the neighbourhoods that participated in the survey. This contributed to the sense that community members were in control of their data. Reflecting on the process, one surveyor said,

“We sometimes gloss over it, but I don’t know many research studies that are run by residents and directed by Black and Brown people that have gotten this much funding. . . . That’s a huge part of this. People are taking control over the narrative.”

Shelterforce is the source of both of these stories. The one from Minneapolis and Hennepin County is called: Contracting with the Community
The story from Boston is linked here: What’s Different When the Community Collects the Data?

For another story about locally controlled and owned data, this time by indigenous peoples in Toronto, try: Indigenous Leaders Turned COVID’s Gloomy Prospect Into An Opportunity In Toronto

The post Getting Good Data About Housing And The People Who Need It appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Indigenous Leaders Turned COVID’s Gloomy Prospect Into A Toronto Opportunity
https://affordablehousingaction.org/indigenous-leaders-turned-covids-gloomy-prospect-into-an-opportunity-in-toronto/

Rosemary Foulds
Fri, 03 Feb 2023 05:10:04 +0000
Discrimination
Indigenous Health
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50999

In Canada, witnessing decision after decision to undo measures that were put in place during COVID is cause for head scratching. The country’s 2020 Community Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) enabled Canada to meet its target to reduce its child poverty targets nine years early. Now, however, CERB has been replaced by something far less generous. […]

The post Indigenous Leaders Turned COVID’s Gloomy Prospect Into A Toronto Opportunity appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

bridging knowledge to health photo by paul bica is licensed under CC BY 2.0This bridge connects the Knowledge and Health Care arms of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Indigenous leaders worked with the Kknowledge arm to gather data about the health of Indigenous peoples living in the city as part of a successful Indigenous health clinic.

In Canada, witnessing decision after decision to undo measures that were put in place during COVID is cause for head scratching. The country’s 2020 Community Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) enabled Canada to meet its target to reduce its child poverty targets nine years early. Now, however, CERB has been replaced by something far less generous. On top of that, inflation is making basic necessities far more expensive. Although we don’t have official numbers yet, it seems certain that we’re going to fall far back from heady achievements in 2021.

But it turns out we’ve reaped something more than gloom and doom as COVID funding is cut. This post features a project that began during COVID, which helped enormously and which seems likely to continue in a good way.

The example is Auduzhe Mino Nesewinong Clinic (Auduzhe). ‘Auduzhe Mino Nesewinong’ is from Anishnawbemowin language and translates as the Place of Healthy Breathing. The clinic began operating in October 2020, offering COVID testing to First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and their families who live in Toronto. Auduzhe also offered vaccinations, when they became available. Throughout, Auduzhe provided individualized supports to clients, which include

• • accurate COVID-19 information,
  • coordinating with isolation centres to support clients who are unhoused,
  • warm referrals and follow-ups to hospitalized clients, and
  • delivering food, medicine and care packages to those choosing to isolate at home.

Auduzhe is a collaboration between Na-me-res, Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto and Well Living House1. These three organizations are led by Indigenous people and informed by Indigenous world views.

Historically, indigenous people have not been served well by Canada’s health services and public health services. It’s not possible to know what would have happened if Auduzhe hadn’t been there. It seems likely, however, that having Indigenous-led sources of information and support meant that Indigenous peoples felt more confident about participating in COVID health measures.

Auduzhe is also part of a project called We Count, which gathers data about Indigenous people. We Count is led and controlled by Indigenous people. Anyone who came in contact with any of Auduzhe’s supports was invited to enrol. 500 people signed on. We Count gathered high quality information about Indigenous people’s access to, and use of, health services. Going forward, this can inform discussions about providing health services and public health services in ways that could improve health outcomes for Indigenous people.

A report about Auduzhe is one of five case studies in social service innovation which were commissioned and published by the United Way. Links to the case studies are posted here. The title of the report about Auduzhe is “Auduzhe Mino Nesewinong Clinic (Place of Healthy Breathing): Advancing Indigenous health and data equity.”

You may also be interested in another project from Well Living House, which was about Indigenous-led services for people who are homeless. The project wrapped up just before the pandemic began and has not received the attention it deserves. Try: Homeless Services For Indigenous People In Canada Get A Boost.

The post Indigenous Leaders Turned COVID’s Gloomy Prospect Into A Toronto Opportunity appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Building On COVID Innovations To Support People Who Are Homeless
https://affordablehousingaction.org/new-hospital-program-helps-torontos-homeless-cuts-ambulance-offload-time/

Rosemary Foulds
Fri, 03 Feb 2023 05:05:58 +0000
COVID-19
Homeless Rights
Multi-government Interactions
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50984

Have you ever had a day when you just needed to rest? There could be any number of reasons why you don’t actually do it. But at least there is a home where you can rest, if you want to. If you need to rest and are homeless, it’s trickier. Where can you rest, especially […]

The post Building On COVID Innovations To Support People Who Are Homeless appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Have you ever had a day when you just needed to rest? There could be any number of reasons why you don’t actually do it. But at least there is a home where you can rest, if you want to.

If you need to rest and are homeless, it’s trickier. Where can you rest, especially when it’s cold outside?

Hospital emergency rooms might be the last place you would choose to go to rest. They are busy. Except for the fact that it’s warm, you don’t need to be there — you aren’t sick. You need to . . . rest.

A hospital in Toronto has just opened a clinic for resting. It opened in just five weeks, even though the provincial government, the City of Toronto, the hospital, a community health centre and a community services provider all needed to give consent and support.

They were able to pull the clinic together quickly because these agencies had worked with each other during COVID, running recovery sites. The recovery sites accommodated people who were homeless and needed to wait for test results. If they tested positive, they had a place to stay while they were sick with COVID.

Peer support workers are currently part of the team at the hospital’s clinic, having proved their value over and over at the COVID recovery sites. The clinic team also includes workers from the community health centre and the community services provider.

Articles from across the continent are now reporting that healthy and humane responses developed to assist homeless people are being abandoned and dismantled. It’s encouraging to discover that some innovations that were piloted during COVID are being preserved. The innovations are new ways to tackle problems that existed before the pandemic, and can well benefit from continued application in a recovering world and beyond.

You can read more about the new clinic at the CBC: New hospital program helps Toronto’s homeless, cuts ambulance offload time

You might also be interested in a report about the COVID recovery sites. It documents the process of setting up and operating these ‘waiting places’. It discusses things that went well at the recovery sites and that could be models for tackling other longstanding problems.

The report is one of five case studies in social service innovation which were commissioned and published by the United Way. Links to the case studies are posted here. The title of the report about the recovery sites is Etobicoke recovery site for people experiencing homelessness: reimagining partnership between the healthcare and community services sector

The post Building On COVID Innovations To Support People Who Are Homeless appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Some Ideas To Fix England’s Social Rent Housing Deficit
https://affordablehousingaction.org/unlocking-social-housing-how-to-fix-the-rules-that-are-holding-back-building/

Rosemary Foulds
Thu, 02 Feb 2023 05:10:36 +0000
Opening the door
https://affordablehousingaction.org/?p=50777

In 2010 about 37,000 new social rent homes were built in England: in 2021, just 1,500 were built. This does not compare favourably with the 100,000 households in temporary accommodation (who are waiting to move to permanent housing) or with the 1.1 million on waiting lists for social rent housing. This post is about four […]

The post Some Ideas To Fix England’s Social Rent Housing Deficit appeared first on Affordable Housing Action.

Brownfield contaminated site photo by Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0If the government buys this land at its picture-taken value, the owner would sell for a pittance. Its 'hope value' (when developed as new housing), makes it much more expensive.

In 2010 about 37,000 new social rent homes were built in England: in 2021, just 1,500 were built1. This does not compare favourably with the 100,000 households in temporary accommodation (who are waiting to move to permanent housing) or with the 1.1 million on waiting lists for social rent housing. This post is about four different reports that offer ways to tackle the issue.

The first, Unlocking Social Housing, recommends changes that will allow housing associations and councils to build new social rent housing. One change aims to bring down land costs as a factor in homebuilding.

The report discusses the impact of adding two words, “hope value” to England’s land compensation legislation in 1961.

Here’s an example of the impact of the change. Governments often purchased agricultural land on the edge of communities to build social rent housing. Until 1961, the owner’s compensation was based on its existing use. Once “hope value” was added, the owner’s compensation became based on the intended use for the land. Agricultural land was priced much lower than residential land, so the compensation value rose.

When the amount paid for the parcel changed, local councils had to increase the densities of their developments in order to operate homes at rents that were affordable for the residents. Social rent housing construction changed from low rise, ground oriented homes to high rise tower blocks. Low rise residential land is priced lower than high rise residential. Compensation rates continued to rise, based on the “hope value” that a high rise would be built on a parcel of land in the future.

By 2022, the effect of “hope value” means that land contributes up to 70% of the cost of a new social rent home. The report argues that removing “hope value” is one way to bring down the cost of land.

The second, State of Brownfield Report, 2022, identifies land that is available for development as social rent housing. Building on any of these sites would not require taking land out of agricultural or recreational use. Each site supported an industrial use in the past and is a now-abandoned ‘brownfield.’ The sites are in all parts of England and provide space for up to 1.2 million homes.

The third, Delivering A Step Change In Affordable Housing Supply, recommends directing new sources of funding toward the construction of social rent homes. It begins by acknowledging that government subsidies have sunk to an all time low and show no sign of rising, despite the need.

It also recognizes that housing associations and councils have two pressing directives (net zero emissions targets and maintenance of existing stock), which will limit their capacity to add new social rent homes to their portfolios. As a solution, the report recommends changing regulations to give housing associations and councils access to alternative sources of funding that would typically expect a lower rate of return. Pension funds are one example. Charging a lower rate of interest would allow Housing Associations and Councils to borrow more.

The fourth, Making A House A Home, argues for reducing the size of the private rental housing sector. It recommends buying up private rental homes and converting them to social rent housing. As part of the transfer, the new owners (the housing associations and councils) would carry out work needed to provide social rent homes that are safe, secure and comfortable. Work would include upgrades to meet climate change requirements and correcting any building safety deficiencies. The report contends that this would add to the stock of social rent homes much faster than new construction.

These reports are most obviously directed to readers in England. However, the ideas discussed may be of interest to other readers who are intent on adding to the supply of non-market housing that will be affordable to people with very low incomes.

Reports 1, 3 and 4 are posted at Thinkhouse2.

Report 2 is posted at CPRE3

Report 1: Unlocking Social Housing: How To Fix The Rules That Are Holding Back Building

Report 2: State of brownfield report 2022

Report 3: Delivering a Step Change in Affordable Housing Supply

Report 4: Making A House A Home: Why Policy Must Focus On The Ownership And Distribution Of Housing

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