Safe, stable, affordable and secure housing is not only a basic human right, it is also one of the core determinants of health, behaviour and capacity to learn. Nurturing the creation of a positive, safe home environment where potential can be realized and where stability enables citizens to reach out and link with their neighbours creates greater neighbourhood cohesion and social capacity thereby increasing both individual and collective efficacy.

The goals of the Homelessness and Housing pillar of the Social Development Division are:

• To use the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) data to discern the patterns and causes of homelessness and instability in housing in Prince Albert,
• To work with the community to help them understand the systemic causes of homelessness,
• To expand the use of HIFIS in the community, and
• To increase the amount of supportive, transitional and affordable housing in Prince Albert.

The core actions for 2010 include:

• To support the work of the City's Housing Committee,
• To support the work of the Community Networking Coalition (CNC) whose core focus in housing is to develop the requested presentation "Good News/Accomplishments in Housing in 2008-09" for the spring workshop in May,
• To support the work of the Regional Intersectoral Committee for whom housing is a core focus,
• To update the Community Action Plan (through a contract from Service Canada),
• To oversee the entry of historical data for existing HIFIS clients,
• To expand HIFIS family,
• To arrange for the signing of the data sharing protocol agreements by various organizations and the City that will support this work,
• To develop a social development database utilizing data from HIFIS and a range of health, education, social services, Statistics Canada and community-based organization data to present a multi-dimensional view of Prince Albert,
• To represent this data visually in maps in order to encourage broader participation in problem solving,
• To write reports using the HIFIS data in order to help the community understand the causes of homelessness and help them use the evidence base for solution-based problem-solving, and
• To oversee the Homelessness Partnering Strategy projects that include the following:
  • HIFIS
  • Historical data entry for HIFIS
  • Potential community plan development
  • Horizontal project on Homelessness and HIV/AIDS or those vulnerable to it.

Reports