What we do
Housing and Homelessness
Canada Bureau for African and Caribbean Immigrants (CBACI)
According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; people experiencing homelessness in Canada include a disproportionate number of individuals from racialized and newcomer communities. Factors such as discrimination, language barriers, historical trauma and colonization have a cumulative effect -- they are also linked to experiencing homelessness and being unable to break the cycle of homelessness in Canadian society.
Because the realities experienced by individuals who are part of racialized and newcomer communities are different from that of other communities, it is important to recognize the unique challenges they may face.
This where CBACi comes in; and our programming is aimed at recognizing and working with these communities; particularly young people; to try and understand and eventually deal with the issues of homelessness in this group.
Our programs will aim to, amongst others
To ensure that all young people have a safe and stable place to live, and the resources needed to thrive and grow into adulthood, our project proposal makes the following recommendations:
- Development of a unified definition of homelessness in the areas where we work;
- Focus on prevention of homelessness in the areas where we work;
- Directing funding to basic needs and other homelessness risks;
- Creating supportive cross-systems partnerships with other nonprofits and agencies;
- Elevating the voices of the homeless themselves across the areas where we work – nothing for them, without them;
- Working with other stakeholders to seek transformation of the justice system response to homelessness issues – for example why homeless persons get arrested in a lot of jurisdictions across Canada