THe SHift's Resources

This easy-to-understand visual resource explains where the right to housing comes from, why it is a transformational approach to the housing crisis and many other pressing global problems, and gives the 10 essential steps for implementing the right to housing.

For more information on the ten steps included in this visual framework, check out Guidelines on the Implementation of the Right to Housing, written by Leilani Farha in her capacity as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing in 2019.

Canada’s very first human rights-based review panel was on the issue of “the financialization of purpose-built rental housing.” The council received over 190 written submissions and held oral hearings from October 23 to December 5, 2023. Submissions were received from people affected by financialization, civil society organizations, housing and human rights experts, and representatives from the purpose-built rental housing sector.

On 24 November 2023 the Global Director of The Shift and the Executive Director of the Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network wrote to Mayor Guthrie and their City Council to express concern over the Nov. 16th proposed motion “Encampments within the Downtown,” and his revised motion Nov. 22nd motion, “Encampments and Safe Spaces for All.”

The National Working Group on Homeless Encampments (NWG-HE) – convened by The Shift since January 2023 – presents a Municipal Engagement Guidance. This Guidance is intended to support municipalities in engaging homeless encampments in a constructive and peaceful manner. The Guidance is not a road map to solving homelessness. It is an effort to establish national standards, based in human rights, for municipal government engagement with encampments across the country of Canada. It is intended to help ensure the best outcomes for those living in encampments and their communities in the short term, while establishing a foundation for longer-term solutions.

The National Working Group on Homeless Encampments (NWG-HE) – convened by The Shift since January 2023 – presents a Municipal Engagement Guidance. This Guidance is intended to support municipalities in engaging homeless encampments in a constructive and peaceful manner. The Guidance is not a road map to solving homelessness. It is an effort to establish national standards, based in human rights, for municipal government engagement with encampments across the country of Canada. It is intended to help ensure the best outcomes for those living in encampments and their communities in the short term, while establishing a foundation for longer-term solutions.

Since 2021, we have been working with the Norwegian Refugee Council in “Area C” of the West Bank in Palestine to envision a planning regime that – with the support of the Palestinian Authority and the international community – would lead to Palestinian development, laying the foundation for statehood.