Homelessness in Canada and the United States

Section 11.1 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes the right to shelter. Yet in both Canada and the United States more and more people are homeless. Even though it is a not a signatory to this Covenant, in the United States, the Fourteenth Amendment, which could provide for the "right to housing," has consistently been interpreted narrowly by the Supreme Court.¹ In Canada, which is a signatory, the Hellyer Report of 1969 affirmed the right to decent housing,² but it has not been acted upon by successive governments. This could arguably be extended by Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which gives the right to "security of the person." For the purposes of this chapter, homelessness is the lack of adequate housing or shelter. It can be considered as a continuum. At one extreme is absolute homelessness, in which persons live in temporary shelters or on the streets. At the other end are those at high risk of homelessness, often referred to as the "hidden" homeless. These are individuals who live in overcrowded or substandard conditions, live temporarily with extended family or friends, or are at risk of eviction. This chapter argues that there are three sets of rights surrounding homelessness. The first is the right to shelter, an essential need in climates such as that in North America. This is the economic/social right that has concerned the United Nations' Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The second involves the right of free will and the ability to make informed decisions. To be more explicit, many are homeless owing to mental illness and the process of " deinstitutionalization," which has been popular in North America from the 1970s to the present. The deinstitutionalization movement was intended to be accompanied by strong community support systems, but governments in both countries used it as a simple money-saving strategy, to put those with mental illness into the community without support. The right of these individuals not to take their "meds" has been established.³ But when they don't, they lose the ability to make decisions about their physical needs - in this case, their need for shelter. This becomes a clash between individual rights and socioeconomic rights. The third is the right to choose to be homeless. Although very few homeless want such a choice, it is important when one views the issue in terms of rights. By exercising this right they should not, but often do, lose their rights to other services such as health services, which are more widely considered to be a right of citizenship - at least in Canada. This chapter begins with an introduction to the nature and causes of homelessness, including the economic and social costs, with special reference to the particular problems of homeless women and children, and a history of the "right to housing." This is followed by a discussion of why this right has not been - and as has been argued by some, should not be - acted upon, and a brief history of housing policy in both countries. I suggest that the United States has been more proactive than Canada in dealing with homelessness. This would appear to be the result of institutional differences between the two countries rather than differences in the argument of "rights" in the two countries. But it also may indicate that ratification of international treaties is not a good predictor of state behavior. Copyright © 2006 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved.