Immigrants and Homelessness - A
Risk in Canada's
Outer Suburb: A Pilot Study in York Region
Principal Investigator:
Valerie Preston
(Director, CERIS, Professor, York University)
Contact Info:
Geography, York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Tel: 416-736-5223
Email:
ceris@yorku.ca
Newcomers to Canada need access to affordable housing to settle
successfully, however, increasing numbers of newcomers experience housing
affordability problems. This is especially true in large urban areas where
newcomers to Canada are concentrating. Newcomers often spend far more of
their income on housing than people born in Canada and long waiting lists
for social housing often put affordable housing out of reach. This puts
newcomers at a high risk of becoming homeless. Homeless immigrants are more
likely to be hidden homeless, staying with friends and family. As a result,
homelessness among newcomers is less visible, particularly in the suburbs of
major cities.
York Region is one of five major political units that make up the Greater
Toronto Area. With a population of approximately 1,000,000, York Region has
almost 20 percent of the population of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area
(CMA). The region is an attractive destination for immigrants coming to
Canada. In 2006, approximately 43% of the region’s population was
foreign-born.
Table of Contents:
Homelessness is a risk for growing numbers of immigrants. Largely as a
result of low incomes, newcomers are more likely than the Canadian-born to
spend over 50 percent of total household incomes on housing costs, be they
renters or homeowners (Hiebert et al. 2006). The adverse impact of low
incomes on the housing experiences of Canadian newcomers is exacerbated in
the outer suburbs of metropolitan areas where many newcomers now settle.
Developed since the 1970s, the outer suburbs have a limited supply of
private rental and social housing and single-family houses are unaffordable
for the average immigrant household within the first ten years of
settlement. It is difficult to assess the numbers of immigrants who
experience absolute homelessness in the outer suburbs since much
homelessness among newcomers is ‘hidden homelessness’ in which immigrants
and refugees do not use shelters and other services, but share
accommodation, couch-surf, and generally draw on their own social networks
for temporary and precarious housing. The high cost of housing in the outer
suburbs combined with immigrants’ low incomes makes newcomers, particularly
recent arrivals, vulnerable to homelessness because of the extreme financial
burden posed by shelter costs. The proposed study will explore the social
backgrounds and housing experiences of immigrant households that are
vulnerable to and at risk of homelessness in outer suburbs in five stages;
a) a synthesis of policy and planning documents about immigrants and homelessness in the outer suburbs with the existing literature about homelessness and immigrants,
b) analysis of census information to estimate the number of immigrant households at risk of homelessness,
c) interviews with key actors in the housing sector who are housing providers and advocates for immigrants and the homeless,
d) focus groups that will indicate the social characteristics of immigrants vulnerable to and at risk of homelessness and the factors that influence the risk of homelessness, and
e) comparison of the empirical findings with existing knowledge to highlight the specific causes of homelessness among immigrants settling in suburbs. Designed as a pilot study, the research will focus on York Region, a fast-growing outer suburb where the immigrant population is increasing rapidly.
We will
disseminate knowledge to policymakers from all levels of government, service
providers, and representatives of service agencies through our partnership
with the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness, an advisory group of
potential users of the information and a liaison officer who will coordinate
communications during the project. Information will also be disseminated
through panel discussions, presentations, preparation of a Policy Brief, and
Working Paper for CERIS, as well as participation in the face-to-face and
print/web products organised through the Metropolis Secretariat.
| METHODOLOGY |
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| RESEARCH FINDINGS |
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| CONCLUSION |
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| ABOUT THE RESEARCHERS |
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| RESEARCH TEAM |
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Valerie Preston, PhD., is Professor of Geography at York University and the York Director for CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre. She has extensive experience conducting research about housing and immigration issues, managing complex research projects and disseminating their findings. Her research has examined the impacts of immigrant settlement on land uses in Canadian and Australian cities, geographical barriers to women’s employment in Canadian and American cities, and residential mobility patterns. She has expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Recently, she was part of a pan-Canadian study of the housing needs and situation of newcomers that drew on census and survey information from Statistics Canada (Hiebert et al., Preston et al. 2006). A large and collaborative study of transnationalism and citizenship issues among Hong Kong immigrants in Canada (Preston and Siemiatycki 2007, Preston, Kobayashi and Man 2006) drew on transcripts from focus groups and in-depth interviews. As the Director and Associate Director for CERIS and Director of the Institute for Social Research at York University, she has managed numerous research projects concerning immigration and other social issues. She has also participated in numerous knowledge mobilization activities ranging from the publication of web documents, working papers, special issues of journals devoted to policy issues, and research syntheses, to participation in the Metropolis Conversation series, a presentation at the Interdepartmental Committee meetings, in plenary sessions, and at workshops at the National and International Metropolis meetings. Robert Murdie, PhD., is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at York University. He is one of Canada’s pre-eminent housing researchers whose research about immigrants’ housing situations is well known in academic and policy circles. During the past decade, Professor Murdie has undertaken several studies concerning immigrant experiences in Toronto’s housing market, including comparative studies of the Jamaican, Polish, Somali, and Salvadoran communities and of asylum seekers and refugees selected abroad. His most recent research concerns a detailed analysis and literature review of the housing situation of newcomers in the Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver CMAs for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Until recently, Professor Murdie was the Housing and Neighbourhood domain leader for CERIS, the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (Toronto) where he remains a research associate. He is also a member of the City of Toronto’s Immigrant and Refugee Housing Task Group and has been active in advising NGOs on immigrant and housing research. Uzo Anucha, PhD., is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work where she is recognised as an authority on homelessness. Dr. Anucha’s scholarship, teaching and professional activity focuses on promoting equity and access for diverse communities. Her current research agenda is primarily focused on three areas: Homelessness and Under-Housing; Immigration and Diversity; and International Social Work. She recently completed an innovative study of the housing situations of newcomers in Windsor, Ontario. Dr. Anucha conceptualises her applied research scholarship as a community dialogue that must fully engage the community studied. She actively seeks to bridge the gap between knowledge production and knowledge use by translating and disseminating research findings to end users (policymakers and practitioners) using multiple channels. She frequently presents her work in diverse forums that are accessible to communities, agencies and policymakers. Dr. Anucha has received over $1.5 million dollars in federal granting council and other diverse funding support for her research (as a principal investigator). In 2004, she received a Research Excellence Award from the University of Windsor. Dr. Anucha has served on a variety of community-based boards such as the Sandwich Community Health Centre, Windsor; Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women, Windsor; and the Race and Ethno-cultural Relations Committee of the City of Windsor. She currently serves on the York Children’s Aid Society; and Strategic Directions Committee, Board of Trustees, York Central Hospital. Sandeep Agrawal is Associate Professor in the School of Planning at Ryerson University. Dr. Agrawal has a variety of planning experiences in federal, county, and municipal governments in the US, Canada, and India. His teaching and research interests are in urban design, physical planning, planning information systems and immigration and settlement studies. He has published his research works in peer-reviewed journals such as International Journal of Systems Science; the Canadian Journal of Urban Research; Urban Design International; Planning Practice and Research; and Environment and Planning B. Dr. Agrawal's recent research works focus on Toronto’s ethnic communities and the effects of multiculturalism on urban structures and public policies. One of his ongoing research projects which explores whether face-based ethnic communities are sites of spatial and social segregation or inclusion. Another study is developing an economic profile of East Indian diaspora in Canada. He has just completed a study of services for newcomers in Peel Region (Agrawal and Qadeer 2006). Currently he is a member of Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment. Jane Wedlock, who is Director of the Alliance to End Homelessness in York Region, will act as liaison officer for this project, using her extensive knowledge of homelessness issues and policy, experience working with housing providers, settlement agencies, and local and provincial government officials to facilitate the research itself and ensure it is communicated effectively to relevant audiences at the right time.
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| RESEARCH PAPERS ABOUT THE RESEARCH PROJECT |
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECT |
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| PRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE RESEARCH PROJECT |
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