On The Way Home

This election is about housing. We are joined by rights and policy experts Garima Talwar Kapoor-Maytree, Justin Marchan- CHRA Indigenous Caucus, and Ricardo Tranjan-Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. They walk us through their analysis of federal party platform commitments on housing and homelessness. This is the fourth episode of our special election series on housing and homelessness as vo...

We’re joined by experts Leilani Farha, Eric Weissman and Zain Velji who talk to us about campaigning during a pandemic, housing and policy issues voters should consider this election. This is the third episode of our special election series on housing and homelessness as voters in Canada head to the polls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are some of the key election issues for people experiencing homelessness and housing precarity? What do candidates and federal parties need to get right if they’re going to solve homelessness if elected? Find out this episode and speak to folks with lived expertise. This is the second episode of our special election series on housing and homelessness as voters in Canada head to the polls. Hos...

David Le Blanc is the Assistant Director for Stakeholder Mobilization at Elections Canada, where he has been working on reducing barriers to electoral participation for Canadians for many years. He talks to us about how people with no fixed address can vote in election 44. This episode is the first of our special election series on housing and homelessness as voters in Canada head to the polls. Ho...

Mike Lethby is the Executive Director of the Niagara Resource Service for Youth (The RAFT) a not-for profit agency in the Niagara region working with youth and their families. He shares why his focus has shifted to preventing homelessness, shelter diversion, and the impacts COVID-19 has had on the sector. Born and raised in Niagara, Mike worked in the local auto sector before graduating Brock Univ...

Tom Cooper serves as Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction - a collaborative organization formed to tackle the city's unacceptable levels of poverty. Through the roundtable's work, Tom has engaged governments at all levels to invest in poverty reduction initiatives and worked to give people experiencing poverty a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. He talks to us ab...

Powered by The Home Depot Canada Foundation, TradeWorx is a collaboration of 10 successful Canadian employment social enterprises helping bridge systemic gaps and prevent youth homelessness. TradeWorx partners provide youth at-risk of homelessness with the skills training needed to secure a long-term well-paying career in the trades, resulting in the ability to afford/retain housing. Learn more fr...

The national non-partisan campaign “Vote Housing” is designed to engage and mobilize Canadians to pledge to  Vote Housing  in the upcoming federal election. The people-powered campaign wants to see solutions to the homelessness and housing crisis on the upcoming ballot. We're joined by Jeff Morrison, ED of the CHRA and Alex Nelson, who serves on the steering committees of both the Canadian Lived E...

Dr. Andrew Boozary is a passionate and brilliant social advocate and a primary care physician and ED of Population Health and Social Medicine at the University Health Network. He is working to develop, evaluate and scale new models of healthcare delivery for patients with complex health and social needs. During this pandemic, Dr. Boozary also serves as co-lead of the Ontario Health Toronto Region...

Daniel McCulloch is a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at The Open University (UK). His research has explored aspects of homelessness such as the ways in which people experiencing homelessness talk about their experiences, as well as the ways in which their lives are discussed in government policy. In addition to this, he has also carried out research which examines the experiences of Dea...

Cheyanne Ratnam is passionate about equity and developing inclusive and accessible spaces and processes. She joins On the Way Home and talks about being a first voice advocate and the groundbreaking work she is doing with the Ontario government to meaningfully change the aging out process of youth in care. Cheyanne has dedicated much of her time and expertise in child welfare and homelessness. She...

Criminalizing people experiencing homelessness is a tragic reality that must end. Erin Dej is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is a critical criminologist who has been doing research on homelessness for over a decade, focusing on how to create meaningful inclusion for people who have experienced homelessness, with the ultimate aim of preven...

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently announced $2 million in funding for the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative, for a 2021 open call competition for Community Land Trusts and Land Assembly Solutions for Affordable Housing . Listen to CMHC's Ramya, Carlos and Anne-Marie tell us about how to successfully apply and receive between $100,000 to $250,000 for a pr...

Nick Gefucia is a lawyer and Vice President of Affordable Housing with EllisDon Capital where he provides leadership to EllisDon’s dedicated national affordable housing team, EllisDon Community Builders. Nick is an experienced project development professional having led the commercial and legal aspects in a multitude of infrastructure and real estate transactions across Canada. We talk to Nick abo...

Carole Saab is the CEO of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and a tireless champion for cities and communities--driving an ambitious vision for local government leadership in building a more sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive Canada. We talk to her about local governments across the country getting more involved in the housing crisis and advocating for real solutions. Hosted on Acast....

Let's talk about the Land Trust model! How can it help solve the housing affordability crisis? Hear from Melissa Estable, Manager of the Co-operative Housing Development with CHF Canada, and Joshua Bénard, VP of Real Estate Development with Habitat GTA and Board Member of Community Affordable Housing Solutions. Learn about Land Trusts as a solution and some amazing examples of where they're workin...

Kasari Govender took office as B.C.’s first independent Human Rights Commissioner in 2019. We talk to her about the groundbreaking work she's doing as commissioner and her office's recent report on the grandmother's perspective, which is about disaggregating data collection. Her role is to lead the promotion and protection of human rights in British Columbia through the Office of the Human Rights...

Margaret Pfoh is Tsimshian from the Eagle Clan of the Gitga'at First Nation. She joined the non-profit housing sector 25 years ago and is the CEO of the Aboriginal Housing Management Association. She talks to us about AHMA as the first housing authority of its kind in Canada and how the model could be replicated across the country--delivering housing for Indigenous by Indigenous Peoples.  Hosted o...

Reporting from the font lines of the drug poisoning crisis, Garth Mullins is a drug user activist and award-winning radio documentarian. He is host and executive producer of the Crackdown Podcast where drug users cover the drug war as war correspondents. This is Garth’s second overdose crisis. He used injection heroin for over a decade and is now on methadone. He is a member of the Vancouver Area...

Jen St. Denis is an award-winning journalist who's spent her career providing in-depth reporting on housing and city politics. Today, she is working with The Tyee, an independent news magazine based in Vancouver, BC, focusing her eye on the complex Downtown Eastside. Her investigative coverage has shed light on both the beauty and tragedy the community experiences, from grassroots advocacy to over...

Targeting housing experts and professionals, CMHC's Housing Supply Challenge aims to remove or reduce barriers that hinder housing supply. And there's $300 million in funding to be awarded over 5 years for those up for it. Hear from CMHC's Brigit and Sarah about how to stand out and apply. This On the Way Home episode was brought to you by the good people at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corpora...

Sekani Dakelth is from the Tl'azt'en Nation and calls the Downtown Eastside home. She is passionate about trans rights, sex worker rights and harm reduction. Like many of her peers, Sekani knows firsthand how stigma around drug use acts as a barrier to accessing health care. She has worked as a vendor with Megaphone, a monthly magazine based in the Downtown Eastside and Victoria, BC, for years and...

Lorraine Lam has spent the last decade hanging out and working with Sanctuary, a community in the heart of Toronto that seeks to particularly value individuals who live in the margins of society. These individuals often bear the brunt of the weight of systemic oppression, including homelessness, stigma, and more. Her friendships at Sanctuary have changed her life and her hope is for others to expe...

In order to solve youth homelessness, young people experiencing it or aging out of the foster care system must sit at the table where solutions are being discussed and designed. Hear Nicholas Ridiculous share his lived experience and Michelle German, Vice President of Policy and Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services, talk about their critical new report, New Housing Models for Youth Transitioni...

David Ireland has been a housing advocate all his working life, from local authorities to government, to media and charities. Now he’s the Chief Executive of World Habitat based in the UK, whose vision is “a world where everyone has a safe and secure home in a successful community.” World Habitat recently released a report about how organizations across Europe worked together to save lives during...