After years of complaining Canada is the only G-8 country without a National Housing Strategy, housing advocates are finally getting their way. The federal government is passing Bill C-10, the omnibus crime bill that will effectively house people, and especially people with a mental illness, who engage in crimes of survival. But on Nov. 22, National Housing Day, housing advocates will still be complaining! They are holding a march, in connection with many more advocacy and front-line service agencies across Canada. These groups would have preferred Bill C-304, an act to ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for Canadians, but it died at the committee stage before the last election. The two acts, if passed, would accomplish similar objectives, albeit in very different ways. In a recent study of people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg, it was shown 24.4 per cent of the people who were homeless had been in jail in the past year. Many people spoke about living a cycle caught between jail and street. People who were just released from jail ended up homeless because they could not find jobs and lacked skills and resources to afford housing. Living in destitution with few options, some of these people were easily recruited by gangs to make a little money so they could afford food and shelter. Some people even said they engaged in petty crime just so they could have a warm, safe place to spend the night — a jail cell.
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