Every day in Canada, 1.7 million households live in a home that is either unaffordable, overcrowded and/or needs major repairs, while 35,000 Canadians experience homelessness on any given night.

Further, 36% of Canadians have been homeless themselves or know someone who has been homeless.

Enter Vote Housing. Vote Housing is a national, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy campaign led by the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network (CLELN), the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, the Canadian Housing & Renewal Association, and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. The partner organizations represent the three leading national housing and homelessness sector organizations. CLELN is Canada’s leading national network for people who have or are experiencing homelessness.

Vote Housing's mission is to engage Canadians to pledge to vote housing in the upcoming federal election and ensure all political parties support making bold investments in affordable housing and ending homelessness.

Their stance is that homelessness and housing need are public policy choices. Vote Housing has developed 6 actionable policies that political parties should include in their platforms. You can read more about them here.

Homelessness and the lack of access to safe, affordable housing on the scale we see it today has not always existed. The rise of modern mass homelessness and shortage of affordable housing in Canada began in the 1980s and is the direct result of federal withdrawal from affordable housing investment and cuts to social services.

The opportunity to finally end homelessness and make housing safe and affordable is now.

To learn more about the campaign, and to make your pledge, head to www.votehousing.ca.