Mr. Speaker, this week the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, reported on the national housing and homelessness emergency in Canada. His major recommendation was that Canada needs to once again embark on a large scale building of social housing units across the country.
Groups forced to the margins, including women and aboriginal people, require funding specific to their needs.
For women, inadequate housing means they often stay with violent partners, or their children are apprehended by social welfare agencies.
In consultation with women, Canada should implement measures to address the urgent, short and long term housing needs of women.
He said that the housing and homelessness conditions facing aboriginal people both on and off reserve are shocking.
Mr. Kothari called on Canada to provide specific, flexible and culturally adequate housing solutions for aboriginal populations.
He clearly said that access to secure housing is not an afterthought but a human right. Inadequate housing is a national emergency and it is time to act.