Systemic barriers to housing persist for vulnerable people, says Sask. Human Rights Commission
CBC
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission released an update Thursday to a 2018 report that highlighted seven key issues experienced in housing by people with disabilities, Indigenous people, and people marginalized by mental health and addiction issues.
In May 2018, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) released a 40-page report called Access and Equality for Renters in Receipt of Public Assistance: A Report to Stakeholders, known as the "red report" for its red-coloured cover.
The seven key issues were:
"This update turns a human rights lens to the issue of housing, and includes an understanding of the legal considerations related to housing, as well as a consideration of the international and national perspectives," Darrell Seib, director of systemic initiatives at SHRC, said during Thursday's release.
"The Saskatchewan Human Rights code clarifies that access to housing cannot be denied based on the prohibited grounds."
In 2015, a committee of landlords, renters, community groups, Government of Saskatchewan agencies and the City of Saskatoon was formed to advocate for renters receiving public assistance.
"In 2018, these advocates told the commission that their clients were facing numerous issues such as discriminatory advertising for rental accommodation, landlords refusing to rent to people in receipt of public assistance, among other issues," Barry Wilcox, the chief commissioner of the SHRC, said Thursday.
"The commission recognizes that many challenges still exist and issues are ongoing."
Thursday's update says challenges remain, despite some reductions to discrimination in housing.
One of the challenges the update highlights is renters, landlords and housing organizations continuing to adjust to the new Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program.
"For many stakeholders, market rents compared to the public assistance rates remains a concern. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the operating environment, adding new challenges for renters," the report says.
Other challenges include ongoing demand for space for "hard to house" persons with active addictions and mental health issues, and access to effective tenant-landlord dispute resolution.
The panel members also identified addiction and mental health problems as "unfair barriers," especially during the pandemic, and said the public housing safety net is disappearing by the year, especially in Saskatoon.
The panel said there is also a lack of education for landlords.
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.