Month: January 2015

In November, The Homeless Hub, a web-based research library and information centre at York University, released The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013. This report details how factors such as declining wages, reduced benefits, and shrinking availability of affordable housing are driving an increase in homelessness in Canada. Some of the statistics are shocking:

• 35,000 Canadians are homeless on a given night;
• 13,000 – 33,000 Canadians are chronically or episodically homeless;
• Over 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a given year.

Access to adequate housing is a necessity of life that many people in Canada are lacking. The report emphasizes the need for “housing first” and moves to address the links between homelessness and related hardships. The report also discusses how homelessness does not discriminate – it does not exclusively affect particular types of individuals or families, though people with mental or physical disabilities are disproportionately affected.

Surprisingly, almost 1 in 5 households will experience housing affordability problems. Over the past 25 years, federal spending on low-income housing has decreased while rates of homelessness have risen by nearly 30%. The report estimates that in the last 20 years, construction of 100,000 housing units were cancelled due to funding cuts to key building programs. Many families that could have been helped have been left on the streets.

Homelessness propels individuals through a range of public systems with typically unsatisfactory outcomes making it a social as well as an access to justice issue. According to The State of Homelessness, “we are failing low- and middle-income earners who are unable to purchase a home. What we do not pay in housing costs we pay for in health care, social services, child welfare, corrections, etc.” Early investment or social investment benefits individuals and public systems alike (for more information about social investment please see this paper from our 2012 roundtable series which featured Homeless Hub Director, Professor Stephen Gaetz). Front-end support ideally enables an individual to solve the problems of everyday life – many of which, as we know, are legal in nature.

According to The State of Homelessness, every $10 spent on housing and support results in $21.72 in savings related to health care, social supports, and involvement in the justice system. Put another way, an additional 88 cents per capita would secure 8,800 new units of affordable housing and would very likely decelerate the momentum of justiciable, social and health problems associated with life on margins.

In a piece for Slaw from 2013, Kari D. Boyle also underscored the importance of prevention or early, socially oriented investment. Boyle examined triage; a method widely used at legal clinics to sort clients based on their circumstances and needs. Drawing from the David I. Shulman et al. article, Boyle discussed how legal professionals were working in the community to help people identify their legal risks. Through collaboration with other non-legal professionals, a proactive approach to problem prevention was being advanced.

The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013 gives a comprehensive picture of a national crisis while underscoring the key principle of prevention. The report emphasizes that if and when homelessness occurs, we must move quickly to ensure housing along with necessary support. By linking housing with other, varied forms of social supports the report advances a sustainable response to a critical and multifaceted issue that intersects with Canada’s access to justice discourse.

The full report can be viewed here, also be sure to check out the Canadian Housing First Tool Kit.

• Justice Paul S. Rouleau, Court of Appeal for Ontario
• François Baril, Partner at Gowlings LLP and President of AJEFO (Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario)
• Josée Bouchard, Equity Advisor at the Law Society of Upper Canada
• Kelly Burke, Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ontario Office of Francophone Affairs
• François Boileau, French Language Services Commissioner

Recent reports have underscored the importance of innovation and imagination to the pursuit of access to justice. At the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, we understand that such efforts come down to people – to advocates.  In an effort to spotlight the diverse range of individuals working across the access to justice landscape, we are pleased to present the Access to Justice Advocates blog series. Each month we will profile someone who brings a unique perspective and makes a valuable contribution to the issue of access to justice. Do you know an access to justice advocate? Let us know at communications@cfcj-fcjc.org.   

Professor Mosher joined the faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School in 2001 after teaching at the Faculties of Law and Social Work at the University of Toronto, where she was also the Director of the Combined LLB/MSW program. Between 2001 to 2005 and 2011 to 2013 she was the Academic Director of Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. She is presently the Director of Clinical Legal Education at Osgoode and has formerly served as the Associate Dean. Her research has focused on gender violence and legal interventions, access to justice for marginalized populations, welfare policy (welfare fraud in particular), poverty law, homelessness, legal aid, and clinical legal education. Professor Mosher is a member of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. She is also a member of the Group Applications and Test Case Committee of Legal Aid Ontario, and formerly served on its Clinic Law Advisory Committee. Professor Mosher is co-editor, with Professor Joan Brockman, of Constructing Crime: Contemporary Processes of Criminalization (2010), and with Professor Joe Hermer, of Disorderly People: Law and the Politics of Exclusion in Ontario (Halifax: Fernwood Press, 2002). She is the co-author of a number of reports including: “Take the Story, Take the Needs, and DO Something: Grassroots Women’s Priorities for Community-Based Participatory Research and Action on Homelessness” (with Emily Paradis, 2012); No Cherries Grow On Our Trees: A Brief by the Take Action Project, A Public Policy Initiative to Address Women’s Poverty and Violence Against Women (with Nora Currie and METRAC, 2008); Welfare Fraud: The Constitution of Social Assistance as Crime (with  Professor Joe Hermer, 2005); and Walking on Eggshells, Abused Women’s Experiences of Ontario’s Welfare System (with Professors Pat Evans and Margaret Little, 2004).  Recent articles include “Accessing justice amid threats of contagion,” (2014) Osgoode Hall Law Journal,  “Human Capital and the Post-scripting of Women’s Poverty,” in Beth Goldblatt and Lucie Lamarche (eds.), Women’s Rights to Social Security and Social Protection (Hart Publishing, 2014), and “Lessons in Access to Justice: Racialized Youths and Ontario’s Safe Schools,” (2008) Osgoode Hall Law Journal.

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice had the wonderful opportunity to meet Professor Mosher at Osgoode Hall Law School to discuss her work in access to justice. As a researcher and teacher, Professor Mosher spoke to us about conceptualizations of access to justice that stimulate her work, as well as the ways in which the intersection between research and frontline advocacy can play a unique role on the access to justice landscape. Her conceptualization of access to justice redirects access to justice advocacy away from courts and towards broader understandings of justice, power and inequality.

The full length version of the interview can be found here. 

Recent reports have underscored the importance of innovation and imagination to the pursuit of access to justice. At the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, we understand that such efforts come down to people – to advocates.  In an effort to spotlight the diverse range of individuals working across the access to justice landscape, we are pleased to present the Access to Justice Advocates blog series. Each month we will profile someone who brings a unique perspective and makes a valuable contribution to the issue of access to justice. Do you know an access to justice advocate? Let us know at communications@cfcj-fcjc.org.   

Dianne Wintermute has been working in the community legal clinic system for over 25 years. Called to the bar in 1986, Dianne has extensive litigation experience representing individuals and disability organizations in cases involving the advancement of the rights of people with disabilities and people living in poverty. She has advocated in various tribunals and all levels of the court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Dianne joined ARCH Disability Law Centre as a staff lawyer in 2009. Prior to ARCH, she was the Executive Director of East Toronto Community Legal Services from 1991 – 2009. The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice had the exciting opportunity to visit the ARCH offices to chat with Dianne about her work in disability law and her continued dedication to access to justice issues. Dianne brought a unique perspective to our A2J discussion with her extensive experience in dealing with the intersection of law and mental health. Dianne spoke to CFCJ about the changes she believes needs to be made both in and outside of the legal field to target impediments to access to justice, including increasing client capacity, autonomy and decision-making power.