Speaking Notes
Marie-Josée Houle
Federal Housing Advocate
Office of the Federal Housing Advocate
Panel Presentation:
A housing framework that leaves no one behind
Hosted by Canadian Network for Equity and Racial Justice (CNERJ)
Webinar: Access Denied? Housing & Healthcare Inequities faced by IBPOC
Communities in Canada – Analysis & Recommendations
October 17, 2025
18 minutes
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Thank you for that kind introduction, and thanks to the Canadian Network for Equity and Racial Justice for hosting a discussion on a key issue that is becoming more urgent by the day.
I want to acknowledge that I am speaking to you from the unceded, unsurrendered traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabe Nation, otherwise known as Ottawa.
I also want to acknowledge, with great respect, the diversity of participants represented here today. From community advocates, to academics, to people in the non-profit sector, to people with lived experience of the very issues we will be discussing today — each of you brings an integral voice to our discussion that must be heard.
As you can see, I identify as a white woman. And I have a deep understanding of the privilege that this identity has brought me.
I am also here today as a person who has lived experiences with poverty, with displacement, with geographic marginalization and housing precarity.
I bring all those personal experiences to my work, to my advocacy, and to important conversations — like this one today.
I've been looking forward to this discussion very much.
Housing and health are inseparably linked.
So today I want to focus my remarks as best as I can, so we can leave time for the best part: our discussion that follows.
I would like to touch briefly on:
- the right to housing and how it came to be,
- the current state of housing rights in Canada and why I am using the word “catastrophic,”
- what we mean when we say the right to “adequate housing,”
- and possible solutions — drawing from Canada's health system — for how Canada can build a housing framework that leaves no one behind.
It's on that last point – possible solutions, that I am especially excited to hear from you all today.
Your voices are as critical today as ever before.
And it has always been the case that it is in close discussions like this, that change happens, when people come together to talk about what is essential to every person, and how to make that possible.
In fact, over 75 years ago, there was an important conversation that solidified one set of human rights for everyone.
In the ashes of World War II, nations came together and agreed that we needed to protect each other and never leave anyone behind ever again. The result was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Declaration is a set of fundamental, inalienable rights that every person on earth is born with, and that we all share as human beings. Not only are we, as individuals, entitled to these rights, but all states are also accountable for ensuring that these rights are upheld.
Amongst the 30 basic human rights that were drafted is the right to housing. This right is included under Article 25 — as a key feature of the right to an adequate standard of living.
The right to adequate housing is more than four walls and a roof. It's the right to live in peace, security and dignity. Everyone should have equal access to housing, free from discrimination or harassment.
While Canada had a key role in drafting the Universal Declaration of 1948, it took another 70+ years for the Canadian Government to enshrine the human right to housing into our own domestic law, with the passing of the National Housing Strategy Act of 2019. This new law created the role of Canada's Federal Housing Advocate. And it has been my honour to be the first to serve in that role, since my appointment in February 2022.
***
My job is to keep the conversation focused on human rights.
In my role as Federal Housing Advocate, the voices I've heard over the past three years from across the country are clear – Canada's housing crisis is catastrophic for vulnerable populations.
And as I mentioned earlier, I am not using that word lightly, but deliberately and literally.
- This situation is catastrophic for the people I met living in encampments who have had their belongings and tents destroyed.
- It is catastrophic for the single mothers I have heard from whose rents are skyrocketing and so they and their children will be evicted with no place to go.
- It is catastrophic for people with disabilities I have met who, are unable to access funding for the supports they need to live without suffering.
- It is catastrophic for the women and girls who may be forced to stay in an intimate relationship, even an abusive relationship, simply to remain housed.
- It is catastrophic for the older Canadians I have met who have told me about how their rental unit is being financialized, forcing them into long-term care that costs too much and will eat up what little savings they have left.
- It is catastrophic for the trans and gender diverse people who are living in disproportionate poverty, facing a shelter system steeped in gender binaries
- It is catastrophic for the Inuit youth I met in Nunavut who are facing overcrowding which impede their ability to focus on homework or get regular meals.
- It is catastrophic for the Métis communities I visited in northern Saskatchewan who do not have a women's shelter nor a food bank
- And it is catastrophic for the Black communities, like those in Toronto, who our research identified are at greater risk of eviction and displacement when financialized, corporate landlords buy buildings so they can make money for shareholders.
It is from speaking directly with them that I have come to a deeper understanding of the systemic barriers to housing that people are facing in Canada because of their race, their Indigenous identity, their income, their employment, and other intersecting socioeconomic factors that have shaped their lives.
But this is by no means exhaustive of the kinds of housing challenges that exist for people.
Consider this:
- 31% of people experiencing homelessness nationally are Indigenous, even though they comprise only 5% of Canada's population.
- 40% of the people experiencing homelessness have a physical illness or medical condition,
- 60% experience mental health challenges,
- and 62% struggle with substance use disorders.
- In addition, 35% have a physical disability.
With so many people at the intersection of homelessness and health challenges, there is a very real likelihood that they cannot access the services they need.
Experts warn that people may be driven into institutions not because they are ready for treatment, but because they have no other choice.
This is the absolute worst kind of outcome: the dehumanization, the stripping away and erosion of human dignity, caused by systemic failures.
As many of us know from personal experience, none of these catastrophic impacts are about individual failure or “life choices.”
These are systemic failures.
It's in our policies, our frameworks and our outmoded thinking that has unfolded over generations.
In bringing our policies and our thinking into the modern era, we need to recognize that adequate housing means more than just four walls and a roof.
***
That brings me to the third point I wanted to talk about today…
That adequate housing is a basic need. It is fundamental to a person's right to live with dignity, and to participate and belong fully in society.
But it is more than four walls and a roof.
It is having an affordable, suitable and safe place to live gives us security, peace and dignity.
From there, it helps us, and our families succeed and thrive. And when whole families and communities succeed and thrive, so does Canada.
It's a message that my colleagues at the Canadian Human Rights Commission are trying to emphasize to policy makers and law makers right now: That when everyone in Canada is treated fairly and has access to equal opportunities to belong and to succeed, our society is stronger and more cohesive.
Recognizing the right to housing is one part of it. Recognizing what that right means to people is another. A third part is needing to know what adequate housing looks like.
Canada is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights (ICESR). This Covenant provides guidance on making housing suitable for human dignity in the form of seven fundamental pillars.
Adequate housing must be seven things:
- It must be Secure - this includes protection from arbitrary eviction, forced relocation or harassment.
- Housing must also Provide availability to basic services - including safe drinking water, sanitation, heating, lighting, and emergency services.
- Housing must be Affordable - housing costs should not be a barrier to meeting other basic needs such as food, and costs should be protected against unreasonable increases.
- Housing must be Habitable - dwellings should have adequate space for the inhabitants, be properly maintained, and provide protection from the elements and other threats to health and well-being.
- Housing must be Accessible - for people of all levels of ability, particularly those experiencing discrimination or living in vulnerable circumstances.
- Housing must be in a location that is close to employment and basic social services such as childcare, education and healthcare, and is not located in a polluted or dangerous area.
- And the seventh UN criteria for adequate housing is that it be culturally adequate – that it respects and is appropriate for the expression of the inhabitants' cultural identity and ways of life.
But here's the problem: we do not have any information or data that tells us how well Canada's systems are meeting any of these seven pillars for adequate housing.
We have a lot of information on how much money is spent on federal housing programs and how many units are created, but very little on how Canada is doing in meeting any of the seven criteria.
As the National Housing Council put it: we know more about housing costs than we do about how well the population is housed.
We need to collect data that aligns with our intended outcome of fulfilling the human right to housing and ensuring no one is left behind.
***
So what's the answer? What kind of solutions can we talk about?
That's the final point I wanted to touch on: Solutions.
First: we need better data. It's essential.
And there are important lessons to be drawn here from our healthcare system.
Let me explain briefly what I mean…
In the 1990s, Canadian health researchers noted that there was lots of available information about the cost of health care systems, but very little information about the health of the general population.
Without this information, aligning and improving the health care system for better patient outcomes was practically impossible. This gap led to a transformation in what and how health information was collected.
The Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHR) was established to collect sets of data, create new data, and ultimately translate this information into improved health outcomes for Canadians, more effective health services and products, and a stronger Canadian health care system.
A system of person-centred health information was the result.
The experience in housing is similar.
Again, we have lots of information on the costs of housing, but not enough information about how well people are housed, especially marginalized and vulnerable populations.
So simply put: We cannot get to sustainable solutions without the right information and data — especially disaggregated race-based data. And from all available sources and all levels of government.
Another key piece of the solution is a clear system of accountability.
Bottomline: we need to know where the money that is invested in adequate housing is going.
One way we can ensure this accountability is to recommend that the federal government use its spending power to set standards through conditional funding and negotiated agreements.
Once again drawing lessons from the framework that manages our health system, the federal government ties the commitments in legislation to the funding provided to provinces to shape specific outcomes.
Health is a shared jurisdiction, where the federal government makes equalization payments to the provinces to deliver health services. The conditions attached to the funds are the result of bilateral agreements and negotiations between the two levels of government. As a result, we have a nationally coordinated system that has helped shape outcomes.
A similar framework should be developed with housing.
Finally, if we are to truly solve the housing and homelessness crisis in Canada, we need the right kind of housing and supports that respond to people's needs.
This is what we often refer to this as a human rights approach. It means ensuring that the people who are most affected by this crisis contribute to the solutions.
We need everyone involved at the solutions table: including those experiencing rising rents, those living in precarious housing conditions, those experiencing intersectional discrimination, and those experiencing violence and homelessness.
Doing it this way takes time because it means building and maintaining trust.
But when it is done well, it results in real solutions with real results.
These were among the possible solutions outlined in a recent report that my office released, written by my amazing fellow housing rights advocate, Dr Carolyn Whitzman.
And I hope we can touch on them further in our discussion.
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As I conclude, and eagerly await our discussion, I want to return us to that fundamental document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the collective promise we all hold with it to never look away.
Eleanor Roosevelt had a fundamental role in bringing the Universal Declaration into reality.
And it was around that time that she famously said:
“Where after all do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.
“Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.
She said: “Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
Decades later, her words strike at the core of our conversation today.
They remind us that at the heart of Canada's economic and housing crisis are the human rights of the individual, and the basic need that dwells within each of us — for a home of one's own.
Solving the housing crisis and ending homelessness will take advocacy. And I am right there with you. Your experiences and the experiences of your communities hold the key to understanding what inequities need to be addressed and what programs will work.
It is going to take all of us — together — to end the housing and homelessness crisis.
I am confident that when all of us here in this room are united in our advocacy for human rights, we can achieve so much.
Thank you.