Today,
understanding the stigmatization of homeless people in today’s society
unfortunately means having a basic understanding of politics – and I say
unfortunately because I know to a lot of you have extremely busy schedules, and
simply don’t have the hours to put into researching the subject. I know that to
many, homelessness is not something that we sit around and think about on our
spare time, theorize about why there are over 235,000 Canadians that experience
homeless in a year, and think of how we can put a stop to it (State of
Homelessness in Canada, 2014). I also know that left wing rhetoric on “saving
the world” can be just as pestering as the Right Wing rhetoric on destroying it
– but I ask you to bare with me through
this series of blog posts regarding how the implications of an economic policy
called Neoliberalism have imposed negative stigma on the homeless population in
Canada. What Neoliberalism actually implies deserves its own entry, so for now,
I’ll embark with some statistics that I’ll let sink in until next time.
In the
early 80’s, all levels of government combined funded a little over 20,000 new
social housing units annually; by 1995, that number was little over 1000 (State
of Homelessness in Canada, 2014). Since 1989, the federal Affordable Housing
Initiative will be cut from $164 million to $1 million (Precarious Housing,
2010). Finally, in the last 25 years, annual investment on housing plans has
decreased by a drastic 46% (State of Homelessness in Canada). Until next time,
think about how or why that in the last 25 years or so, people experiencing
homelessness have been increasingly forgotten.
References
Gaetz, Stephen, Tanya Gulliver, and Tim
Richter. "The State of Homelessness in Canada 2014." The State of
Homelessness in Canada 2014. Homelessness Hub, 2014. Web. 2015.
"Precarious Housing in Canada."
Wellesley Institute, 2010. Web. 2015.
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