US based researchers Jacqueline White and Mallory VanMeeter join us on the podcast this week to talk about the importance of Family and Natural supports for youth experiencing homelessness. We discuss how a sense of community matters to finding and keeping housing for young people, and how by adjusting policies, practices and programs, we can keep youth in housing with natural family supports and out of the formal homelessness system.

Chef Cori Doern has worked tirelessly over the years to create equal access to good food through sharing knowledge around cooking, food, nutrition, and how to stretch your food dollar way further. With food insecurity at an all time high, we talk about what drives her to create access to good food, how she’s done it, and what has to change moving forward.

How is homelessness being approached in New York City? We talk to the CEO of City Relief, Josiah Haken this week on the pod, around what homelessness looks like in NYC post pandemic, what strategies are being used to prevent and end it, and what has to happen in the near future to support their most vulnerable citizens.

This week we are joined by Gary Gladstone from Reena, a non-profit organization that promotes dignity, individuality, independence, personal growth and community inclusion for people with diverse abilities within a framework of Jewish culture and values. We chat about the disproportionality between the large portion of people experiencing homelessness who have diverse abilities and the elusiveness of funding to meet their housing and support needs. Hear about the amazing work Reena has done to support adults with diverse abilities over the last 50 years and what has to happen in the future to put us on a better path.

Housing is on everyone’s mind these days, and the top issue in Toronto, Canada’s largest city’s upcoming Mayoral election. This week on the pod, we bring together four amazing experts and ask the question, “If you were the Mayor, what would your housing platform be?”. You don’t want to miss it as John Fox, Ene Underwood, Diana Chan McNally, and Andrew McKenzie join us for a thought provoking and entertaining conversation.

Professor David Green joins us to talk about a new book he co-authored called “Basic Income and a Just Society: Policy Choices for Canada’s Social Safety Net”, where he and a team took a deep dive into Universal Basic Income. This resulted in them recommending broad policy changes moving forward. The learnings are surprising and fascinating so tune in to hear the insights.

This week we’re joined by Shannon Downs, the Executive Director of the Waterloo Community Legal Clinic, and John Fox, Partner at Robins Appleby, to discuss the recent court ruling around encampments in Waterloo and what it means moving forward.  We learn how the ruling came to be in a real-life David vs Goliath story, and hear from both of these amazing experts about what the decision means for encampments across the country.

While government and policy play a huge part in ending homelessness in Canada, so does community involvement. This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Community Advocate, Marj Andre, who has worked tirelessly to rally her community to be a caring, supportive, and inclusive place to live. We talk about Marj’s journey, why it’s so important to have community involved in being a part of the solution to big challenges like housing and health, and why she decided to start a new podcast to create knowledge mobilization and connection. It’s a master class in community engagement you won’t want to miss.

As immigration to Canada continues to grow, so do the challenges to ensure immigrants are set up for success. Our guest this week on the podcast is Allan Reesor-McDowell, the Executive Director of Matthew House in Ottawa, an organization dedicated to providing housing and other supports to the over 20,000 migrants each year that arrive in Ottawa. We talk about the great work they are doing at Matthew House, the need for a national comprehensive plan to support immigrants, and the opportunities immigration presents.

Tune in this week to the On The Way Home podcast as we welcome researcher, political economist, and author, Ricardo Tranjan, who talks about his recently released book, “The Tenant Class”. The book challenges the notion of a “Housing Crisis”, tackles myths about tenants, and discusses the history of bad policy that paved the way for the challenges we face today in housing and homelessness. We discuss all of this and more and you won’t want to miss it!