HOUSING IS HEALTH BY ALEC STRATFORD, MSW, RSW
Tim Houston’s new Progressive Conservative government is aiming to offer solutions for major political issues. The solutions they propose will be guided by the values and principles of their cabinet, and the government’s capacity to stretch outside of conventional conservative principles will be key to tackling both issues at the top of their list: health
Good public policy recognizes these challenges are interconnected, and political decision-making must champion policy solutions that can tackle multiple challenges at once.
care and housing. As we head out of the global pandemic that unveiled the deep structural inequities, the erosion of the social safety net, and the deep racial inequities that exist in our justice, health, and child protection systems, and as we continue to address the substantial challenge of climate change, we are called on to examine our core values and press ourselves to respond differently.
Housing policy is an area where many of these underlying issues could be addressed if we had the right values and principles guiding us. Recently the Affordable Housing Commission produced a report grounded in siloed, individualistic, and marketdriven policy traditions that prioritize profit over people, balanced budgets over suffering, and corporate greed over
Fall 2021 | Connection 21
