Who is she?
Kaite Burkholder Harris is the executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa.
What is her background?
In a talk she gave in 2019, Burkholder Harris described how she was a social work student at Carleton when she got a job at a downtown drop-in centre in Ottawa. There, she said, she first saw how the previously unpredictable behaviour of some unhoused people could be improved through a positive environment.
She advocates for a more active approach to housing, not waiting for people to become homeless before they are eligible for government assistance. Burkholder Harris said, in her talk, that Ottawa’s current approach to homelessness “looks like somebody having to stay in shelter, cumulatively, for six months before they can access affordable housing.”
What is she known for in Ottawa?
She is a strong advocate for a “Housing First” approach for the homeless population, meaning that before we offer people other services, we get a roof over their head.
More recently, Burkholder Harris has voiced her disappointment over the loss of affordable housing in the Lansdowne 2.0 proposal. Burkholder Harris told the Ottawa Citizen the change in the Lansdowne plan was “really discouraging because it is a such short-sighted move.”
What do people say about her?
Meg McCallum, the interim executive director at Alliance to End Homelessness, described Burkholder Harris as a “visionary leader.”
“She has built a team of staff and volunteers, attracted grants and donations to support the work, grown the Alliance’s membership and become a trusted adviser to governments, community agencies and the broader Ottawa community,” McCallum said.
Admittedly, the Housing First approach proposed by Alliance to End Homelessness has met some major challenges in Ottawa. “The funding for damage to the property is limited and it’s clear that the support from the government and from agencies is also limited,” Tony Miller, the former chair of the Ottawa Small Landlords Association, told CBC.
What is a lesser known fact about her?
Burkholder Harris and her husband, Tyler Harris, both enjoy exploring Canada’s mountains — with a majority of their Instagram posts taken at the end of a hike.
