At the Hub, every Wednesday is Infographic Wednesday where Isaac Coplan works his magic to muster up something cool and last week was no exception. Last week he focused on recent public perception surveys done in Victoria, BC on homelessness and mental health. These surveys found that 85% of people felt affordable housing could help reduce homelessness and 84% of people felt that affordable housing was the government's responsibility. To checkout Isaac's take on it click here.
These polls are actually pretty indicative of some of our research. Professor Stephen Gaetz put out a report on the cost effectiveness of our homeless support system. It turns out that shelters, emergency wards, and soup kitchens aren't really as effective in getting people off the streets, and are in fact more costly, then affordable housing and support strategies like Housing First.
There's another part of Canada that's a bit colder and bit further behind. The Yukon remains one of the only jurisdictions in the country that hasn't adopted a poverty reduction strategy. Nick Falvo's Poverty Amongst Plenty: Waiting for the Yukon Government to Adopt a Poverty Reduction Strategy report takes a look the overall poverty, educational and fiscal situation in the territory, then makes five clear cut suggestions on how to work towards a comprehensive plan.
Last, but certainly not least, our "We're Locking The Door": Family Histories in a Sample of Homeless Youth research summary on social perceptions of homelessness, family history, and blaming youth for experiencing homelessness has been getting a lot of attention recently. This work (qui est aussi disponible en français) dispels a lot of the blame that's put on homeless youth.