Systemic barriers to housing persist for vulnerable people, says Sask. Human Rights Commission

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission released an update Thursday to a 2018 report that highlighted seven key issues experienced in housing by people with disabilities, Indigenous people, and people marginalized by mental health and addiction issues.

In May 2018, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) released a 40-page report called Access and Equality for Renters in Receipt of Public Assistance: A Report to Stakeholders, known as the "red report" for its red-coloured cover.

The seven key issues were:

• Awareness of rights and responsibilities.

• Difficulty navigating the system.

• The disparity between public assistance levels and market rent costs.

• A lack of support for those with addictions and mental health problems

• Inaccessible complaint resolution processes.

• The need for landlords to improve property maintenance and pest control.

• A lack of affordable housing.

"This update turns a human rights lens to the issue of housing, and includes an understanding of the legal considerations related to housing, as well as a consideration of the international and national perspectives," Darrell Seib, director of systemic initiatives at SHRC, said during Thursday's release.

"The Saskatchewan Human Rights code clarifies that access to housing cannot be denied based on the prohibited grounds."

In 2015, a committee of landlords, renters, community groups, Government of Saskatchewan agencies and the City of Saskatoon was formed to advocate for renters receiving public assistance.

"In 2018, these advocates told the commission that their clients were facing numerous issues such as discriminatory advertising for rental accommodation, landlords refusing to rent to people in receipt of public assistance, among other issues," Barry Wilcox, the chief commissioner of the SHRC, said Thursday.

"The commission recognizes that many challenges still exist and issues are ongoing."

Barriers to housing and other challenges persist

Thursday's update says challenges remain, despite some reductions to discrimination in housing.

One of the challenges the update highlights is renters, landlords and housing organizations continuing to adjust to the new Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program.

"For many stakeholders, market rents compared to the public assistance rates remains a concern. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the operating environment, adding new challenges for renters," the report says.

Other challenges include ongoing demand for space for "hard to house" persons with active addictions and mental health issues, and access to effective tenant-landlord dispute resolution.

The panel members also identified addiction and mental health problems as "unfair barriers," especially during the pandemic, and said the public housing safety net is disappearing by the year, especially in Saskatoon.

The panel said there is also a lack of education for landlords.

"There really is no affordable accessible model for landlord education to know the basic rights and responsibilities in terms of providing housing," Cameron Choquette, CEO of Saskatchewan Landlord Association, said.

Choquette said their association would soon provide a landlord training program that will cover the baseline rights and responsibilities for landlords and rental housing providers in Saskatchewan.

SIS program fuelling homelessness

The report documented stakeholder reactions to the SIS program, which was announced last year as a way for people on assistance to become more self-sufficient. One of the key complaints about SIS was that assistance payments for rent and utilities go to the clients, rather than directly to landlords. The province has since changed that for some, but not all, SIS clients.

"Direct payment is largely not available to most clients on the program up until a couple weeks ago, when the ministry announced they were reinstating direct payment for high needs clients. So, we're hoping that it is a step in the right direction," Choquette told CBC.

"Long wait times and the centralized system where a client doesn't have a specific social worker are two of the main barriers for system navigation for clients and for agencies who advocate for their clients."

Choquette said the landlords association is working with the ministry to ensure clarity around who could benefit from direct payment and what the process for getting clients back to the system would look like.

"We've seen a homelessness increase as a result of the SIS program over the past number of months, demonstrated by increased folks on the street as well as the camp that was present in Regina for over a month. Those are the telling signs of homelessness," Choquette said.