Hidden Homelessness in Newcomer Communities
“Hidden Homelessness” (or the concept of newcomer families crowding into apartments/basements) is a major settlement issue among newcomer families. Notwithstanding its prevalence among newcomer families in many urban centres in Ontario, the issue has remained hidden from the public eye and has not received any attention until recently. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a comprehensive overview of the issue of “hidden homelessness” among newcomer immigrants followed by discussion of strategies, both to raise the profile of the issue and implement proposed solutions to the issue of hidden homelessness.
The workshop will include discussion of the definition of hidden homelessness, a study of the causative processes behind homelessness, identification of long term impacts, discussion traditional perspectives from the newcomers, non-profits and the government about hidden homelessness. The workshop will then discuss case studies from Ontario as well as other jurisdictions to identify successful strategies and best practices to increase tenant capacity. The second part of the workshop will apply the learning from the aforementioned best practices to formulate strategies sensitive to the needs of newcomers in Ontario.
S.Gopikrishna (Gopi) is presently the Executive Director of Scarborough Housing Help Centre and an active participant in the City of Toronto’s Immigration and Refugee Housing Committee (IRHC). He is also actively involved in the development of 2 different “Hub Partnership” projects in Scarborough. His past work experience focused on the areas of advocacy and community development involving newcomers. Besides the IRHC, Gopi is involved in a number of partnerships and advocacy groups focusing on various issues related to immigrant settlement.
