Housing first makes better use of public dollars—especially for those who are high service users
In 2008 the federal government invested $110 million for a five year demonstration project aimed at providing evidence about what services and systems best help people experiencing serious mental illness and homelessness. The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi project was established as a field trial of complex interventions in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Moncton. The rigorous, multi-site, experimental research design of the At Home/Chez Soi project was expected to help identify what works, at what cost, for whom, and in which environments. It compared “Housing First” approaches with existing approaches in each of the five cities. For the first time in a trial, it included a standardized definition of Housing First and used assessments to document the quality of the implementation of the program over its first two years. (more…)
A three-year-long intensive multi-city study looking into the effectiveness of Housing First approaches is due to end on March 31, 2013. The federal government funded the research through its Mental Health Commission of Canada initiative. The 
By the time the mainstream media began to focus its attention on the protests being held at the Pidgin Restaurant in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, the protesters had been on the sidewalks in front of the new business for several weeks. Front page stories followed. 
METRO NEWS OTTAWA, February 11, 2013
Some of Canada’s homeless people are being described as “frequent flyers”–
The planning for social housing in Nanaimo—as in cities and towns in many parts of Canada—has been accompanied by concerns from neighbours in areas where the facilities will be built. NIMBYism is common, but so are fears (whether real or not) about what impacts social housing projects might have on neighbourhoods. 