Poor Housing
A Silent Crisis

Date Written:  2015-10-01
Publisher:  Fernwood Publishing
Year Published:  2015
Pages:  254pp   Price:  $23.95   ISBN:  9781552667910
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX18423

Across Canada, there is a severe shortage of decent quality housing that is affordable to those with low incomes, and much of the housing that is available is inadequate, even appalling. The poor condition of housing for those below the poverty line adds to the weight of the complex poverty they already endure.

Abstract: 
Across Canada, there is a severe shortage of decent quality housing that is affordable to those with low incomes, and much of the housing that is available is inadequate, even appalling. The poor condition of housing for those below the poverty line adds to the weight of the complex poverty they already endure, which includes worsening health, adversely affected education and neighbourhoods that are more prone to crime and violence. Using Winnipeg, Manitoba, as an example, Poor Housing examines the real-life circumstances of low-income people who are forced to live in these conditions. Contributing authors examine some of the challenges faced by low-income people in poor housing, including difficulties with landlords who abuse their power, bedbugs, racism and discrimination and a wide range of other social and psychological effects. Other selections consider the particular housing problems faced by Aboriginal people and by newcomers to Winnipeg as well as the challenges faced by individuals living in rooming houses.

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Table of Contents

Housing Matters (Josh Brandon & Jim Silver)
PART ONE: PROBLEMS WITH LOW-INCOME HOUSING
Chronic: A Brief History of Low-Income Housing in Winnipeg (Jim Silver)
The More Things Change: Low-Income Housing in Winnipeg Today (Josh Brandon)
Renting in the Inner City: Case Studies from the North End Tenant Landlord Cooperation Program (Rachel Gotthilf & Darrell Stavem)
Biting Back: Responding to the Social Impacts of Bed Bugs (James Lyons & Elizabeth Comack)
PART TWO: PROBLEMS FACING PARTICULAR LOW-INCOME TENANTS
Moving to the City: Housing and Aboriginal Migration to Winnipeg (Josh Brandon & Evelyn Peters)
Winnipeg’s Refugee Housing Crisis: Turning Institutional Knowledge into Policy Solutions (Ray Silvius, Hani Al-Ubeady, Emily Halldorson & Jessica Praznik)
Rooming Houses to Rooming Homes (Jovan Lottis & Molly McCracken, with Mary Burton, Isabel Jerez & Art Ladd)
PART THREE: SOCIAL HOUSING IS A PUBLIC INVESTMENT
— Social Housing Is Good for Everyone: A Costs/Benefits Analysis (Musah Khalid)
Privatizing a Public Need: The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Low-Cost Housing (Ian Skelton)
A Terrific Loss: The Expiring Social Housing Operating Agreements in Manitoba (Sarah Cooper)
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way: The City of Winnipeg’s Role in Low-Income Housing (Christina Maes Nino & Linda Ring)
PART FOUR: SOCIAL HOUSING THAT WORKS
In Search of Mino-Bimaadiziwin: A Study of Urban Aboriginal Housing Cooperatives in Canada (Tyler Craig & Blair Hamilton)
A Good Place to Live: Transforming Public Housing in Lord Selkirk Park (Jim Silver, Janice Goodman, Cheyenne Henry & Carolyn Young)
Leap of Faith: A Case Study of West End Commons (Jessica Klassen)
References
Index

Subject Headings

• Housing