The Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest’s (CoI) developed a policy brief, "A Portable Housing Benefit as an Indispensable Component of Ending Homelessness in Canada."
This policy brief describes why portable housing benefits are a critical part of services delivered by Housing First programs to assist people who have experienced chronic or episodic homelessness to become stably housed. It also presents the research that has demonstrated its effectiveness, along with a set of recommendations.
Current challenges in implementing a portable housing benefit in Canada include:
- the need to make it available to people experiencing homelessness;
- marked inconsistencies across communities in its implementation; and
- a lack of coordination across different levels of government and different government ministries.
The COI's recommendations include:
- the development of a national portable housing benefit, and one that is explicitly linked with a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness;
- the integration of federal and provincial policies regarding a PHB so that they are clear, consistent, coordinated, and coherent;
- the integration of policy for a portable housing benefit among ministries within Ontario so that the implementation of a PHB is clear, consistent, coordinated, and coherent; and
- the creation of PHBs available through the Homelessness Partnering Strategy.