Technocratic localism and the constraints of Canada’s homelessness strategy

Despite substantial federal investments and recognising the right to housing, homelessness in Canada has risen sharply since 2019. We examine the evolution of Canada’s federal homelessness strategy through a ‘historically informed’ lens of neoliberal poverty governance. We introduce strategic action field theory (SAF) to conceptualise this governance arrangement as nested relations defined by vertical bureaucratic pressures, strategic contestation, and exogenous shocks. Drawing on a historical analysis of federal policy and a qualitative investigation of the current ‘Reaching Home’ strategy in Atlantic Canada, we identify an emergent ‘technocratic localism’ that devolves responsibility for complex social problems to local actors while constraining their actions through top-down technocratic interventions. Our findings demonstrate that this generates significant organisational resistance and competition which undermines collaboration, as local actors struggle to reconcile federal technocratic directives (specifically, Coordinated Access and data management systems) with the reality of affordable housing scarcity. Ultimately, this structure facilitates incremental adjustments that manage the symptoms of homelessness rather than resolving root causes. We conclude that eradicating homelessness requires transcending technocratic localism to enact structural transformations rooted in a justiciable right to housing, massive non-market housing investment, and preventative systems planning.