Kasari Govender took office as B.C.’s first independent Human Rights Commissioner in 2019. We talk to her about the groundbreaking work she’s doing as commissioner and her office’s recent report on the grandmother’s perspective, which is about disaggregating data collection. Her role is to lead the promotion and protection of human rights in British Columbia through the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. Govender has devoted her life to promoting human rights as a lawyer and community builder in an effort to create a more equitable and just province.

Margaret Pfoh is Tsimshian from the Eagle Clan of the Gitga’at First Nation. She joined the non-profit housing sector 25 years ago and is the CEO of the Aboriginal Housing Management Association. She talks to us about AHMA as the first housing authority of its kind in Canada and how the model could be replicated across the country–delivering housing for Indigenous by Indigenous Peoples. 

Reporting from the font lines of the drug poisoning crisis, Garth Mullins is a drug user activist and award-winning radio documentarian. He is host and executive producer of the Crackdown Podcast where drug users cover the drug war as war correspondents. This is Garth’s second overdose crisis. He used injection heroin for over a decade and is now on methadone. He is a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and is also a trade union organizer and musician.

Jen St. Denis is an award-winning journalist who’s spent her career providing in-depth reporting on housing and city politics. Today, she is working with The Tyee, an independent news magazine based in Vancouver, BC, focusing her eye on the complex Vancouver Downtown Eastside. Her investigative coverage has shed light on both the beauty and tragedy the community experiences, from grassroots advocacy to over-policing and gentrification. But unlike mainstream media, Jen also covers the unique culture and strong ties of this neighbourhood—the front lines of homelessness, the drug war, and Vancouver’s affordable housing crisis.

Targeting housing experts and professionals, CMHC’s Housing Supply Challenge aims to remove or reduce barriers that hinder housing supply. And there’s $300 million in funding to be awarded over 5 years for those up for it. Hear from CMHC’s Brigit and Sarah about how to stand out and apply. This On the Way Home episode was brought to you by the good people at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Sekani Dakelth is from the Tl’azt’en Nation and calls the Vancovuer Downtown Eastside home. She is passionate about trans rights, sex worker rights and harm reduction. Like many of her peers, Sekani knows firsthand how stigma around drug use acts as a barrier to accessing health care. She has worked as a vendor with Megaphone, a monthly magazine based in the Downtown Eastside and Victoria, BC, for years and officially joined the team in 2018 to help build the Speakers Bureau.

Lorraine Lam has spent the last decade hanging out and working with Sanctuary, a community in the heart of Toronto that seeks to particularly value individuals who live in the margins of society. These individuals often bear the brunt of the weight of systemic oppression, including homelessness, stigma, and more. Her friendships at Sanctuary have changed her life and her hope is for others to experience the same kind of transformational relationships.

In order to solve youth homelessness, young people experiencing it or aging out of the foster care system must be at the table where solutions are being discussed. Nicholas Ridiculous shares his lived experience and Michelle German, Vice President of Policy and Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services, talks about their critical new report, New Housing Models for Youth Transitioning Out of Care, a Solutions Lab Roadmap. As Nicholas notes, there are lots of reports but we must act to end youth homelessness!

David Ireland has been a housing advocate all his working life, from local authorities to government, to media and charities. Now he’s the Chief Executive of World Habitat based in the UK, whose vision is “a world where everyone has a safe and secure home in a successful community.” World Habitat recently released a report about how organizations across Europe worked together to save lives during the pandemic, and supported people’s journey out of homelessness.

Laural Raine is Director of Service Planning & Integrity at Shelter, Support and Housing Administration with the City of Toronto. Recently, the city released its shelter system data publicly to inform solutions to homelessness. Every month, the data is updated and the city is expanding on the data it collects. Hear more about why transparency and data are key pillars to ending homelessness.