Hosted by UTM Alumni Relations
Wednesday, Jan 17, 2024
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST
Online via Zoom
Free
Despite billions of dollars and countless promises to end homelessness in communities across Canada, more and more people continue to find themselves without safe and adequate housing. Previously hidden, homelessness exploded into full view in communities of all sizes in 2020, notably in encampments in parks and public spaces. The number of encampments that remain in communities across the country reveals deep inequities and insecurities in the social safety net and the housing system in particular.
In this presentation, Professor Alison Smith from UTM’s Department of Political Science will discuss the recent history of homelessness in Canada, and consider why a country as rich and as cold, as Canada, continues to fail to provide safe, adequate, and affordable housing for everyone.
Presented by
Alison Smith
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Mississauga
Alison Smith's recent book, Multiple Barriers: The Multilevel Governance of Homelessness in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2022), was awarded the Seymour Martin Lipset Best Book Award. In it, she asks why four of the biggest cities in Canada have developed such different governance and policy responses to homelessness.
Her current research builds on her book, expanding the analysis to study homelessness governance and policy responses in small, mid-sized, and northern communities in Canada. She also has a research partnership, in collaboration with the Old Brewery Mission in Montreal, to understand the role rent banks can play in efforts to prevent homelessness.
Smith teaches core classes on Canadian politics, federalism and complex policy-making, and housing policy.
Please contact Alumni Relations if you require information in an alternate format, or if any other arrangements can make this event accessible to you.