VIDEO: The head of the Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre says housing should be a human right

A leading scholar on homelessness says the issue has to be re-framed for what it is: a public health crisis.

And while Canadians are used to the idea of health care being something everybody deserves, he believes we have to start looking at housing in the same way.

"We have to look at it as a human right," said John Graham.

He heads up the Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre.

"We have to get our heads around the idea that some people who simply can't work," he said, "we need to invest in them to see that they're safely sheltered."

To get it done, he believes we need better political cooperation from all levels of government.

And he says it will take investing in the causes of homelessness, and the people who find themselves living on our streets.

"It's cheaper in the long run," said Graham, "and it's better from a human rights perspective."

At the street level, he supports all of the efforts that have been aimed at getting people housed.

"Anything we can do to reduce the number of people living rough on the street is a good thing," said Graham.

He remains supportive of the concept of 'housing first'.

"You house people first and then you deal with the matters at hand," he said, 'whether it's substance abuse disorder, psychosis or whatever. Not the other way around."

But he said we have to couple our efforts at the 'upstream' part of the problem, or the causes of homelessness at the same time.

"You've got to do both at once," said Graham.

Otherwise, he believes it will all be futile.

"It's a little bit like Niagra Falls is teaming down and we're running around with little buckets trying to pick up the water."

Those upstream causes according to Graham are many.

He believes we are still suffering the results of decades-old cuts to federal housing programs, and the closure of mental hospitals which was not coupled with adequate support in our communities.

"It could be insufficient access to mental health services, substance misuse services, family violence, whatever those broader upstream issues are, that could cause the pre-conditions to put people at risk."

But he sees a shortage of political will to take on the gravity of the issue.

"Political will and also societal will. There's enough money sloshing around in our society."

Homelessness is a problem from coast to coast in Canada where there are an estimated 235,000 homeless people.

And while fixing it may be expensive, so is not fixing it.

"I've read some stats, it's upwards of $6 billion or more a year just on the sheer cost of homelessness."

Graham believes the regularly taken point-in-time estimates on the extent of the problem tend to come up with low numbers.

In Kelowna, for instance, Graham believes there are about 400 homeless people right now, and that they all deserve better.