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Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT
Access to affordable and adequate housing is a key step in the successful integration of newcomers. While some immigrants are able to transition into home ownership quite rapidly, other newcomers are finding it increasing difficult to access basic shelter. There is little systematic knowledge about the extent of homelessness among immigrants and refugees in Greater Vancouver. This paper details the findings of a 2005 study entitled The Profile of Absolute and Relative Homelessness among Immigrants, Refugees, and Refugee Claimants in the GVRD. We highlight the extent to which some newcomers are increasingly at risk of "hidden homelessness," a term that describes precarious and unstable housing experiences. This paper also details the unique housing experiences of refugee claimants. Given their temporary legal status, claimants often face the most tenuous experiences in the housing market. Their experiences are often marked by poor residential conditions, crowding, and high rent-to-income ratios.
Resume
L'acces a un logement abordable et adequat est une etape importante dans l'integration reussie des nouveaux arrirants. Bien que quelques immigrants parviennent a devenir proprietaire de leur logement assez rapidement, d'autres nouveaux arrivants eprouvent des difficultes croissantes pour acceder a un abri de base. Il existe peu d'information systematique sur l'etendue du phenomene des sans-abris parmi les immigrants et les refugies dans le Grand Vancouver. Ce document met en exergue les resultats d'une (rude entreprise en 2005 et intitulee The Profile of Absolute and Relative Homelessness Among Immigrants, Refugees, and Refugee Claimants in the GVRD ("Le profil des sans-abris absolus et relatifs parmi des immigrants, les refugies, et les demandeurs du statut de refugies dans le DRGV"). Nous soulignons la mesure dans laquelle certains nouveaux arrivants sont de plus en plus a risque du sans-abrisme cache, un terme qui decrit des experiences de logemen t precaire et instable. Ce document detaille egalement les experiences uniques en matiere de logement des demandeurs du statut de refugie. Etant donne leur statut juridique provisoire, les demandeurs font face souvent a des experiences des plus ardues sur le marche du logement. Leurs experiences sont souvent caracterisees par des conditions de logement precaires, l'encombrement et des loyers eleves par rapport aux revenus.
Introduction
the longer a problem is ignored, the bigger it becomes ...
--sign on the side of Covenant House Vancouver
On any given day media headlines inundate readers with stories about Vancouver's housing market: "Vancouver real estate prices lead the Nation," "Real estate prices rise 11.2% in year," "Housing prices continue to climb"; Vancouver continues to be the most expensive real estate market in Canada. (1) In January 2007 the average house sold for $530,695 (an increase of 16 per cent over the same period last year) compared to the national average of $299,318, making the housing ownership market increasingly difficult to enter for the average Vancouver household. (2) Tenants face similar difficulties in accessing housing: Vancouver has the second highest rents in the country, with the majority of units in the private rental market. At the same time, recent research warns about the decreased economic fortunes of newcomers--as evidenced by longer catch-up times and lower wages. (3) "The New Face of Poverty" screams a January 2007 Globe and Mail headline: according to a report released by Statistics Canada educated and skilled immigrants have become the new face of poverty in Canada. (4) For refugees, who constitute a much smaller proportion of newcomers, the findings are grim: refugees are more likely to experience chronic low income and much less likely to exit poverty than were members of the skilled or family class. (5) The question arises: how have newcomers fared in accessing housing in Vancouver?
Recent research by Hiebert, Mendez, and Wyly indicates that housing trajectories continue to be upward for the majority of newcomers. (6) Almost 20 per cent of newcomers achieve homeownership within the first six months after arrival; astonishingly 6 per cent of respondents are mortgage-free after this short period of settlement in Canada. These positive outcomes, however, are not shared by all newcomers, a finding acknowledged by the authors of these reports. (7) While some newcomers are able to move rapidly into home ownership or are living in stable and secure housing, others are "living on the edge" in unsafe, insecure, or crowded conditions within the private rental market. Tenants in particular are identified by Hiebert, Mendez, and Wyly as a group who are not necessarily experiencing a progressive housing career: 20 per cent of all immigrant cohorts who rent are at risk of homelessness (i.e. spending close to, or beyond, 50 per cent of monthly household income on rent). Tenants, research suggests, are increasingly left behind as the gap between owners and renters continues to expand both in Vancouver and in Canada more generally. (8)
Although immigrants overall are faring well in the housing market, therefore, this is not the situation for all newcomers. This paper examines the results of a 2005 study on the circumstances of absolute and relative homelessness among immigrants and refugees in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). (9) In an earlier paper, "Restricted Access: The Role of Social Capital in Mitigating Absolute Homelessness among Immigrants and Refugees in the GVRD," we argued that access to social networks varies according to the mode of entry for immigrants (e.g. skilled immigrants vs. refugees). The findings indicate that refugee claimants (RCs) are the most likely of all respondents to "fall between the cracks" of the housing system. Building on the paper by D'Addario, Hiebert, and Sherrell, this paper examines the extent and profile of those experiencing absolute and relative homelessness in the GVRD. (10) The ability to access appropriate and adequate housing may be differentially experienced by immigrants and refugees, and at a finer scale by government-assisted refugees and refugee claimants. (11) What emerges from our research is a portrait of extremely precarious housing conditions amongst claimants in the GVRD.
Literature Review: Barriers to Housing for Immigrants and Refugees
Finding adequate housing is a kind of barometer indicating the degree of successful incorporation into a new society. Therefore, understanding the housing experiences of newcomers is an important first step in assessing the different levels of incorporation of new Canadians. For many newcomers, finding appropriate and adequate housing marks the first basic step towards settlement. However, as noted by Chambon et al., Canadians do not have equal access to adequate accommodation. (12) Moreover, even similar groups of people in similar circumstances vary in their access to the stock of available housing.
Financial Obstacles
There is a large literature contending that, upon arrival, immigrants earn less than the average Canadian-born person, but that, over time, this gap narrows. This process, also known as "economic assimilation," may no longer be a pervasive reality in Canada, especially among new immigrant cohorts. Although immigrants entering Canada during the 1970s have nearly reached economic parity with the average Canadian-born citizen, subsequent cohorts experience both a lower relative income upon entering Canada and a delayed catch-up period. (13) These findings are roughly consistent for both men and women immigrants entering during the same time period. Further, the same research shows that even well-educated immigrants share this economic disadvantage. Picot explains that educated immigrant males arriving during the 1970s entered the Canadian labour market earning 82 per cent of the earnings of the average male Canadian. (14) By the 1990s, new immigrant males earned only 50 per cent of their counterparts. The trend for educated women is similar. Pendakur and Pendakur extend the general story of income dynamics into the labour market, and show that recent immigrants earn wages well below the Canadian average. (15) In Vancouver, the average Canadian-born annual income was $26,213 in 1991, compared with $18,208 earned by immigrants of less than ten years' stay in Canada.
Between 1980 and 2000, the proportion of immigrant family incomes that fell below the low-income cut-off (LICO) has risen considerably. (16) Although the percentage of immigrant families living...
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