The powerful links between rising inequality, poor health and precarious housing form a toxic triangle – but there are practical actions that can reduce poverty and income inequality, advance population and personal health and prevent and end homelessness and precarious housing. The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott joined the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Trish Hennessy […]
Don’t sell-off 740 affordable homes as wait list hits 82,138 households: WI submission to Exec
The Wellesley Institute, in its formal submission to Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee on Jan 24, 2012, joins with four former Mayors of Toronto, leading urban researchers at the University of Toronto and, perhaps most importantly, a great many tenants of Toronto Community Housing in recommending that Executive Committee reject the proposal for the unprecedented […]
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a broad framework towards understanding and managing complex systems from a holistic perspective, drawing on various approaches and methodologies. It holds that problems are emergent properties of a system and they cannot be understood and addressed by simply reducing the system to its constituent components, but by focusing on their interconnections and […]
The “New Age” of Austerity
Austerity is bad for our health: Gender and distributional impacts of the Drummond recommendations.
Presentation to West Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, June 5, 2012
The Wellesley Institute’s Director of Housing and Innovation, Michael Shapcott, delivered the keynote presentation at a community forum hosted by the West Coalition on Housing and Homelessness on June 5, 2012. The presentation included federal, provincial, municipal and international issues in housing and homelessness… with tips for strategic action by coalition members. Brick by […]
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Wellesley Institute 100 Anniversary of Homewood Place
One hundred years ago today the Welleseley Hospital opened it’s first arm, a year after its founding by Dr. Herbert Bruce. The postcard below shows opening day of Wellesley Hospital Homewood Place on August 27, 1912. Over the years the Wellesley Hospital became known for its excellent and affordable patient care. The Wellesley Institute carries […]
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Mayor’s Motion: A bigger step is needed for the health of Torontonians
This post was written by David Leacock, Policy and Research Intern at the Wellesley Institute. On Thursday January 10th Mayor Rob Ford moved an omnibus motion, passed by the executive committee in an attempt to bolster a number programs and services in Toronto’s 2013 budget. The motion included small increases in funding to Fire Services, […]
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Full house in London for business-community roundtable on mental health and employment
A full house of 50 business and community leaders packed the boardroom of the London (ON) Chamber of Commerce for that community’s first-ever business-community roundtable on mental health and employment on April 26. The event was co-hosted by Pillar Non-Profit, the London Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of London and Middlesex, Prince’s Charities Canada […]
Urban Heat Island Effect Fuels Health Equity Conversation
The Toronto Star recently published an article on the health impacts of the Urban Heat Island Effect across different socio-demographic groups in different neighbourhoods across the city. The article offers a unique opportunity to interpret this issue as both an environmental concern and a “matter of social justice.” This is a refreshing take on urban […]
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Housing: HEIA in the 2014 Mayoral Election
Toronto is experiencing a housing crisis with three major challenges: a lack of affordable housing, poor quality and inadequate social housing, and homelessness. For too many Torontonians the lack of affordable homes means having to spend too much of their income on rent. Housing is considered unaffordable if it costs more than 30 percent of […]