Poverty and Housing

We have committed ourselves internationally as a Canadian nation to upholding fundamental rights and freedoms. In the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights* (December 1948), we specifically committed ourselves to the belief that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." (Article 25) Adequate, affordable shelter is an important aspect of ensuring quality of life and provision of basic need.

All Residents of Canada:

1. Shall be entitled to an adequate standard of living to ensure healthy physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and social development and a good quality of life.
2. Shall be entitled to safe, affordable housing, which reflects the normal standard of their community, is provided in a timely fashion and shall be appropriate to family size.
3. Shall be entitled to participate in decisions about assessment of need and housing location.
4. Shall be entitled to accessible and supportive housing as there is need.
5. Shall be entitled to emergency housing and shelter in the event of housing crisis or homelessness, recognizing that this is only a temporary measure.
6. Shall be entitled to basic social service or welfare income that will provide adequate cost of safe affordable housing.
7. Have the right to be served by governments which acknowledge their responsibility to improve the health and well-being of all Canadians and work co-operatively to ensure adequate and suitable funding for housing.

The foregoing rights shall apply to all Canadians without discrimination according to race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, ability/disability, ethnic origin, language, region, property or class, religion or any other distinction. This may entail the use of affirmative action or equity programs in order to redress situations of special individual, community or regional disadvantage.

This charter was developed by London Conference and adopted as a United Church charter in 2000.