Homelessness In Canada Essay

“Housing is a right, not a commodity.” was stated by the United Nations back in 1948, yet there are so many people in the world without it. Housing is a basic right that is the basis for security, stability, and adequate living. Yet in Canada, there are 235,000 people who experience homelessness per year. That is almost 3% of the population, yet not much is being done to rectify this. One of the main reasons for homelessness, a big issue in Canada, is unaffordable and unfair housing. There are many people who struggle with money and the increasing cost of housing is not helping them find affordable housing in safe and secure environments. Poverty and lack of financial support are one of the many things that factor into unaffordable and unfair

In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, affordable housing available is decreasing and going up in cost. Because it is a city, many workplaces and other commodities are nearby, thus increasing the demand for housing there. Due to the increased demand, there are fewer low-cost houses available and the ones that are available get increased to a higher price than its worth. A solution to the increase in demand would be building more apartment buildings in or nearby popular cities to combat the rising costs that happen as people move closer to the city. Doing this can lead to more mixed-income communities as there will be people who have a lot of money sharing a neighbourhood with people who are middle or lower-class. The cost of living in a populated city is high and with people with not as much

There are many buildings in Canada that are being torn down to build more high-end expensive apartments because of the location or neighbourhood it is in. Due to rising population rates in bigger cities and towns housing that is safe and reliable is decreasing, and most of the time instead of fixing the problem these buildings are being torn down instead of renovated. The property owners of these buildings might find that maintaining and renovating the building would cost more than creating a new one due to construction rates. Yet, doing so would decrease affordable housing because of the construction period of building a new property. This creates a problem of not only unhousing the tenets but also destroying housing that can be fixed and rented out at a lower cost compared to the rent of a brand-new building. While realistically renovation of a house and/or building costs money and cause rent to increase, the government should create a financial support fund to help owners of complexes and rentals fix the problems. This not only makes housing fair and affordable but also encourages building owners to preserve existing buildings instead of tearing them down. With funding from the government, rent would decrease and apartment and rental suites would increase as there would