Addressing Family Homelessness at the Neighbourhood Level

Between 2014 and 2017, the number of homeless families in Ottawa increased by 171%. Their average stay in emergency shelters increased from 105 to 123 days. Emergency sheltering is a significant cost to the city and isn’t a viable solution to family homelessness.

There is some indication that a neighbourhood-based approach to preventing family homelessness could work, but there are few examples to draw on. That’s where the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre and its partners want to make a difference. They’re conducting a Solutions Lab in the Vanier-Overbrook neighbourhoods of Ottawa. Their goals are to determine:

• reasons for family homelessness;
• how to re-house families faster;
• how to establish a stable housing pattern; and
• how to offer innovative, tested ideas for reducing family homelessness using neighbourhood level approaches.

Project scope and expected outcomes

Preventing family homelessness: asking the right questions

The journey into and out of  family homelessness is under-researched. Some of the questions this Solutions Lab will try to answer include:

• In a tight housing market (1% vacancy), can highly localized networks identify and secure rental housing more effectively?
• Can working with landlords, tenants and city/community services at a neighbourhood level help avoid and resolve problems before they result in evictions and homelessness?
• Can more effective communications about existing support programs and services lead to their timely and effective use?
• Can support networks help families develop life skills to encourage resiliency and success?

How will the Solutions Lab try to prevent family homelessness?

The Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre and its partners will start by bringing together a group of experts and other stakeholders. Their job will be to clarify challenges and propose strategies to make sure the Solutions Lab meets its objectives.

Next, the group will conduct research using existing literature on family homelessness and real stories from families who are in emergency housing. They’ll use these resources to map out the journey into and out of homelessness.

The group will hold workshops to help identify weaknesses in the current interventions offered to homeless families. They will also explore potential solutions for preventing homelessness. They will then  test potential solutions.

After launching solutions, the group will evaluate them for  effectiveness and scalability, and implement successful solutions in the community.

All solutions will follow “safe-to-fail” methods, meaning that the solutions are tested in a controlled setting. If participating families  will be better off using existing resources, new solutions won’t be imposed upon them.