Combating the stigma of homelessness - GVAT and the Existence Project

Detail from Cory Resilient’s story infographic

The lack of affordable housing  in this region has always been a shared priority for GVAT member organizations. We have also always understood that as long as this failure on the part of our society is stigmatized as an individual failure, decision makers attempting to make affordable housing available would face some resistance from communities where people are housed. 

We began by listening to members of the unhoused community who generously gave their time to help us understand. Then we invited Marko and Meera of The Existence Project to address ART meetings and helped them with responses to the pilot of their community presentation.  Subsequently, in 2020-2021 GVAT member groups invited their members to the virtual town halls organized by the Project bringing stories of people in the region with lived experience of being unhoused to various community associations and allied groups in Victoria. We helped with some funding and looked  after some technical details so that the stories of people like Cory Resilient (who also attended some Mental Health ART meetings) and Serafina  could  reach a wider audience. Members of the Housing and Mental Health  ARTs also joined the Existence  Project community dialogues as members of their presentation team. The Project’s  recent shift from community dialogues  to the making of documentaries has reduced our opportunity for this kind of direct participation. 

We continue to value the Project’s ability to present the lived experience of people who are homeless and insecurely housed to a wider audience, and value the way our continuing relationship with Meera, Marko and the EP team helps further our campaign for housing as a human right inextricably linked with physical and mental wellness and with our ability to meet the challenges of climate change.

Find out more about the Existence Project at www.theexistenceproject.ca