Advancing the right to housing so that everyone has an adequate, accessible and affordable place to call home.
About our work advancing the right to housing in Canada
For over 35 years, the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) has worked tirelessly at the intersection of human rights and housing.
Every day, we work to advance the right to housing across Canada and beyond so that everyone has an adequate, accessible and affordable place to call home.
We do this by:
- Engaging communities and proposing solutions.
- Creating knowledge and informing solutions.
- Sharing knowledge and tools to transform lives.
- Empowering renters to claim their rights and stay housed.
- Seeking justice for impacted communities.
About the right to housing in Canada
The right to housing is a framework that we use in our work to achieve a country in which everyone has an adequate, affordable and accessible place to call home.
Under international human rights law, the ‘right to housing’ is recognized as the right of every person to a safe and adequate home where they can live in security, peace, and with dignity. A set of adequacy standards have also been recognized to ensure that homes are affordable, secure, habitable, accessible, close to services, in an acceptable location, and culturally appropriate.
Canada is obligated under international law to:
- Respect every person’s right to housing
- Protect every person’s right to housing
- Take steps to fulfil the right to housing over time for all people.
All of these international standards apply to housing standards in Canada, and all governments in Canada are responsible for ensuring Canadians’ right to housing is realized.
We work across Canada to hold governments accountable to meeting their human rights obligations, and to empower communities to claim their right to housing.
