Our Housing Unit shares learnings on localizing the right to housing with the UN
Ombudsman Toronto has made a submission to Koldo Casla, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. Our submission responds to his call for input on how local governments and community-led initiatives can contribute to realizing the right to adequate housing.
In Beyond Aspiration: The role of independent oversight in advancing the right to housing, we draw on our Housing Unit’s work since 2023 to share what we have learned about advancing the right to housing at the municipal level.
What our submission covers
Our central message is that municipalities play a critical role in realizing the right to adequate housing, but they need strong accountability mechanisms, practical operational guidance and adequate resources to do so effectively. The submission:
- Explains how our Housing Unit, the first of its kind for a Canadian ombudsman office, provides independent oversight so the City’s right-to-housing commitments don’t remain commitments in name only
- Highlights the City’s Housing Rights Advisory Committee as a mechanism for public participation and centring diverse perspectives and lived experience of housing precarity to monitor progress and advise governments on the right to housing
- Identifies two key challenges in putting those commitments into practice: a lack of practical guidance for staff and the resource constraints facing municipal governments
- Recommends that local governments establish independent, proactive accountability mechanisms integrated with ongoing public engagement, and give staff practical tools and training to apply a rights-based approach in their day-to-day work
- Calls on all orders of government to work together and provide sustainable funding so municipalities can meet their housing responsibilities
Looking ahead
The Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council in early 2027. We look forward to reading it and to continuing our work to help move the City’s right-to-housing commitments beyond aspiration and into practice.
Read our submission
We invite you to read our submission, Beyond Aspiration: The role of independent oversight in advancing the right to housing.
