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is a professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ. He is the president of the , the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada, and the , a web-based research library and information centre for mobilizing knowledge on homelessness. A member of the , Gaetz has spent decades bringing together researchers, grassroots organizations and policy makers nationally and internationally to contribute to the knowledge base around homelessness prevention. We spoke to Gaetz about the state of homelessness in Canada, his , and the role of prevention in finding a solution to homelessness in Canada.

What is the homelessness situation in Canada?

GAETZ: It’s getting worse. The latest Government of Canada data from 2022 shows a 20 percent increase in homelessness across the country. People are living on streets, in parks, in shelters, in tents and on couches throughout this country. Indigenous Peoples make up about a third of all people who are homeless in Canada. Black and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are overrepresented as well in homeless shelters. We need to look at our policies around homelessness and prevention and ask ourselves: Are the policies tailored to reflect these vulnerable populations?

Why have we seen such a rise in homelessness across the country?

GAETZ: We created the problem. In the 1980’s the federal government was paying to build up to 25,000 units of social housing and co-ops every year. They stopped doing that, in hopes the private sector would step in and fill the void, but that �徱���’t happen. We’ve lost 30 years of investment and that’s a lot of housing that �徱���’t get built. Add to that, the private sector investment in rental housing has tanked as construction companies have decided to focus on building big homes and luxury condominiums. Canada is now in a critical crisis around, not just affordable, but deeply affordable housing. Rents are at an all-time high. At the same time, the population of Canada has grown by 30 percent, to [as of October 1, 2023, representing the highest population growth rate since 1957], we have less stable employment with fewer benefits, we’ve seen massive job losses through the pandemic, and are left now with more low-paying precarious jobs. All of those things have led to this emergence of ‘modern mass homelessness’.

What makes your work with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Homeless Hub stand out in Canada and internationally?

GAETZ: Our mission with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Homeless Hub is prevention. We’ve developed to start a nationwide conversation around prevention. By developing a strong knowledge base, we can help inform communities and governments to shape policy around the prevention of homelessness.

What do you mean by prevention of homelessness?

GAETZ: We see prevention as a human rights issue. Our definition adapts the public health model of prevention, including Primary Prevention, meaning stopping people from becoming homeless in the first place; Secondary Prevention— ensuring that those who do become homeless don’t transition to long-term or chronic homelessness, and Tertiary Prevention, which means supporting people who have exited this situation to not return to homelessness. In practical terms, it means looking at all the things, from expanding the affordable housing supply, to reducing tenant evictions, to strengthening families, providing better supports for physical and mental health, and school-based early intervention to help youth avoid becoming homelessness. We need to address and stop homelessness before it starts.

How do we make prevention the basis for homelessness policies in Canada?

GAETZ: We need municipal, provincial and federal governments and all government departments to come together and take one unified approach to preventing homelessness. We can’t just rely on the department responsible for housing or community services to have policies around homelessness. We need to look at issues around child protection as a gateway to homelessness. What happens when a person is discharged from prison or the hospital? Do they have a place to go? Through our , we know the key ages when people enter homelessness are between 12 and 20 years old. If we were to focus on the prevention of youth homelessness it would have a huge impact on chronic homelessness across the country.

What impact has your research had in Canada?

GAETZ: My goal is to make research matter to all those involved, including policy makers. Our research teams who are part of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Homeless Hub are now leaders in the idea of prevention. We’ve developed the that helps policy makers guide support for homelessness prevention. Thanks to funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) we’ve created , which supports research projects that focus on the prevention of youth homelessness. Because of our research, governments and our partners are now understanding the role prevention plays in addressing homelessness. That is huge. We have led the shift from crisis response to prevention and now have outcomes that show early interventions work to reduce homelessness, like our intervention model that has proved if we can find youth a safe place to live before addressing any other issues in their life, they will have a much higher chance of reaching their goals and exiting homelessness for good.

Do you have the ear of governments?

GAETZ: Yes, but it will take time before the listening turns to action.

What can Canada learn from other countries?

GAETZ: From Australia, we can learn that if you want to prevent youth homelessness then you have to work in collaboration with schools. Unlike Canada, the Scandinavian countries continued to build social housing so they have a robust supply which directly relates to lower incidents of homelessness in those countries. One of my favourite examples is in Wales where they have developed that requires local authorities to intervene at the first sign of someone at risk of homelessness. Canada invented the Housing First for Youth intervention model but, ironically, it’s taking off in Europe more than it is here.

If you could enact one piece of legislation or policy in Canada right now, what would it be?

GAETZ: I would make prevention of homelessness the core of every policy and strategy at all levels of government. A by McGill economist Eric Latimer determined it costs on average $59,000 a year to keep someone in a state of homelessness in Canada. So, we ask, what can you do with $59,000? You could certainly think about renting a place and paying for much needed health and social supports. Instead, as a country we think, ‘it’s too bad, it’s a crisis and emergency shelters are the best we can do’. The reality is that’s a super expensive way to deal with a problem that does not produce great outcomes. We need to get creative, be bold, be proactive, and invest in prevention and helping people exit homelessness in a sustainable way.

What role does advocacy play in research?

GAETZ: Research is rarely the thing that will be the big motivator of political change and investment, but we need to use knowledge mobilization to engage governments and community partners to influence policy on a larger scale and advocate for change. Our Homeless Hub is the largest research library on homelessness in the world. If we can present evidence-based knowledge in clear language with practical applications, we believe we can drive solutions to homelessness in Canada and abroad.

Why do you do what you do?

GAETZ: I think it’s a travesty that we allow homelessness to continue and to grow in a country like Canada. It’s a travesty that we make people wait until they are homeless before we can help them. It’s like people walking into a hospital and saying to them, ‘We’re not going to help you, come back in a couple of years when you’re really sick, and then we’ll help you.’ We know from research that prolonged exposure to homelessness damages lives. We can do better. We must do better before we lose more Canadians to this crisis.

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On Nov. 21, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Faculty of Education Public Research Series will feature Stephen Gaetz, a Faculty professor and 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact, who will explore the role social innovation can have in inspiring change in the response to youth homelessness in Canada.

Titled “Making Research Matter: Mobilizing research to impact on homelessness policy,” Gaetz’s talk will discuss the latest results from the work of Making the Shift – Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab (MtS), a partnership between the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada. He will argue that while MtS has developed a solid evidence base for the prevention of youth homelessness, the production of quality research alone is not enough to produce the change needed.

Gaetz’s lecture will further discuss the knowledge mobilization strategies required to help engage service providers and all orders of government to inform, change minds, and contribute to a change in how to think about and respond to this seemingly intractable problem.

The lecture is an extension of Gaetz’s long-standing interest in understanding homelessness – its causes, how it is experienced and potential solutions. His program of research has been defined by his desire to “make research matter” through conducting and mobilizing rigorous scholarly research that contributes not only to a shared knowledge base on homelessness but to solutions that impact policy, practice and public opinion.

In 2017, he was named a member of the Order of Canada for his ongoing work.

Those who wish to register for the event, which will be held in the Nick Mirkopolous Screening Room in the Accolade East Building on 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus, can do so here: .

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Social innovation involves designing and testing new ways of addressing old problems. Dr. Stephen Gaetz explores the role of social innovation in inspiring change in how we respond to youth homelessness in Canada. The focus of this presentation will be on the latest results from the work of Making the Shift-Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab (MtS) - a partnership between the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada. While MtS has developed a solid evidence base for the prevention of youth homelessness, it is clear that the production of quality research alone is not enough to produce the change we want to see. Dr. Gaetz will discuss the knowledge mobilization strategies employed by MtS to help engage service providers and all orders of government to inform, change minds, and contribute to a change in how we think about, and respond to this seemingly intractable problem. For those interested in research impact, this is a compelling example of how to achieve it.

Dr. Stephen Gaetz is a professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, in Toronto Canada. In 2021, he was named 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact. As a scholar, Gaetz has had a long-standing interest in understanding homelessness – its causes, how it is experienced, and potential solutions. His program of research has been defined by his desire to ‘make research matter’ through conducting and mobilizing rigorous scholarly research that contributes not only to our knowledge base on homelessness but also to solutions to homelessness that impact on policy, practice and public opinion.

Dr. Gaetz is the President of the and the at 91��ɫ as well as the Scientific Director of . In 2017 he was awarded the Member of the Order of Canada. In 2021 and in partnership with A Way Home Canada, the collective body of work on youth homelessness prevention was designated by the United Nations as the .

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 (MtS), a youth homelessness social innovation lab co-led by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at 91��ɫ, will host a virtual discussion on “Using Data and Evidence to End Homelessness: Drawing lessons from the United Kingdom” on Nov. 17 at 11 a.m.

The housing crisis in Canada is continuing and getting worse. This means that the homeless-prevention sector needs to review its current interventions and develop new ones. Even more of our vulnerable populations are struggling to access housing, especially our young people. Embracing data and evidence-based decision-making are key steps to finding solutions.

Join Stephen Gaetz, professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and director of the  and the , and Lígia Teixaira, co-editor of the book Using Evidence to End Homelessness, for a discussion on how leaders in government, academia and communities are developing and using evidence to end homelessness.

To create Using Evidence to End Homelessness, the Centre for Homelessness Impact brought together a range of expert voices to form a definitive evidence-led approach to bring about a sustainable end to homelessness. The contributors to this volume envisage a future in which data and rigorous evidence is created efficiently, as a routine part of government operations, and is used to drive improvements to policies and services aimed at helping people access and maintain stable, affordable housing.

Leveraging data and technology is a key strategy for Making the Shift in preventing and ending youth homelessness, with the goals of using data to impact policy and practice as well as drive the creation of innovative tools and resources to support communities.

for the event, or visit for more information.

Article originally posted in the November 10, 2022 issue of

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Housing affordability and homelessness are hot topics in municipal politics these days. But ironically, unhoused citizens are left out of the civic debate that most impacts their lives.

As Ontario approaches municipal elections in October, our concept of “the public” is needed to remind us of our commitment not only to the  but to one another.

Toronto City Council has engaged in several heated debates this year ,   in the city. The same is true in many Canadian cities.

What comes up, again and again, are comments about “citizens” or “residents” of our cities. Much of the time, councillors, media pundits and journalists use these words to refer to people with adequate housing. Emergency shelter-hotels were unfair to  Encampments disrupt the lives of 

In a speech given during one of these debates in April 2022, Toronto Coun. Shelley Carroll asked the question: “Who is the public?”

Read the full article authored by 91��ɫ Graduate Program in Education Ph.D. candidate Timothy Martin in .

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Doctoral student Timothy Martin wrote an article for about how the coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity to address homelessness.

“I research public responses to homelessness, and I believe that we can do better,” says Martin. “Through education and dialogue, we can begin to recognize that we all want the same thing: the end of homelessness, safer neighbourhoods and adequate housing for all.”

Martin also says that “homelessness need not be viewed as an inevitable part of the fabric of North American society. It was not always omnipresent, and need not continue to be. It has only really become pervasive, and increasing since the 1980s in Canada. Research has argued that it is preventable.”

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Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Innovatus, a special issue of YFile that is devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91��ɫ.

This issue of Innovatus focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education. I am so pleased by the rich variety of stories offered in this issue because they showcase the expansive depth of the Faculty's approach to the "act of education" to quote Interim Dean Sharon Murphy.

Education is universal and the Faculty's work with refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya, homeless youth and in re-envisioning early childhood education are displayed among the fine stories offered in this issue. As well, Dean Murphy's letter is a testament to the Faculty's commitment to excellence, and the story highlighting the innovation shown in moving the Faculty of Education's Summer Institute online and transforming it to a year-long effort is amazing. Encore!

Thank you again for the many wonderful comments about our September and October issues. I value each of your responses. Please continue to contact me with your ideas, classroom innovations and thoughts about teaching, learning and the student experience.

As I close, the snow is starting to fly and with it, the holidays are approaching. I would like to take a moment to wish each of you good health and happiness at home, which is especially important this year.

Featured in the November 2020 issue of Innovatus

In her letter to the community, Interim Dean Sharon Murphy writes about how the Faculty of Education is constantly working to enliven new visions of education and society, visions of possibility, equity and social justice. "Our work focuses not only inward on curriculum and pedagogy, but very much looks outward towards the idea of education being situated within a complex and seemingly evermore fragile world."

One of 91��ɫ's hallowed traditions, the Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI), may have bowed to COVID-19 in terms of format, but it is unbowed in terms of mission and content. For 2020-2021, the institute has morphed into a series of five free webinars titled Up Close and Personal: Conversations on Anti-Oppression.

Stephen Gaetz, the 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact and a professor in the Faculty of Education, is using his excellent research and communications skills and grant-writing ability to attack the challenges within youth homelessness, which need broad solutions and a meeting of many perspectives.

Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91��ɫ, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the Faculty's Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program. The series considers the issues arising from the confluence of education, the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

Lucy Angus and Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, assistant professors new to 91��ɫ and the Faculty of Education, have created a lecture series titled Disrupting Early Childhood: Inheritance, Pedagogy, Curriculum to explore new ideas about early childhood education (ECE) and create a space to bring together the innovative research conversations that are changing the field of ECE.

Innovatus is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.

I extend a personal invitation to you to share your experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at .

Will Gage
Associate Vice-President, Teaching & Learning

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