(FWD) Ontario Government Homelessness Report, Oct 9
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 19:53:52 -0700
-----------forwarded message-------------
The Ontario Government's
REPORT OF THE PROVINCIAL TASK FORCE ON HOMELESSNESS
was released at 3:00 pm, Oct 9, 1998
The report is available in PDF format at:
http://www.gov.on.ca/CSS/page/news/oct998.html
Provided below:
1. the government press release announcing the report, Oct 9
2. the Toronto Star (front page) article about the report, Oct 10
"Homeless report branded `pitiful' -- Queen's Park to
cities: It's your job to solve the crisis "
3. Toronto Star Columnist, "A History Lesson on Homelessness"
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1. ONTARIO GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE
=====================================
October 9, 1998
ONTARIO TO ACT ON RECOMMENDATIONS OF PROVINCIAL TASK
FORCE ON HOMELESSNESS
Ontario's Task Force on Homelessness, chaired by Jack Carroll,
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community and Social
Services, has presented the government with its final report on
homelessness.
The mandate of the Provincial Task Force on Homelessness was to
consult with municipalities and service providers around the province
and to develop short- and long-term responses to help municipalities
respond to local needs.
In January Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker
announced the creation of the Provincial Task Force on Homelessness
and committed to provide an additional $4 million per year to
municipalities to implement innovative approaches to deal with
homelessness in their communities.
In January Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer also announced the
investment of an additional $2.5 million into front-line mental health
outreach programs in four communities across the province. Toronto has
received $1.8 million; Ottawa, $350,000; London, $200,000; and Hamilton,
$150,000. This is on top of the more than $100 million the province
already devotes to services and supports for homeless people in Ontario.
Accepting the report on behalf of the government, Minister Ecker said,
"The province is concerned about homelessness and its impact on
community life and will move immediately to implement the Task Force
recommendations."
"Our recommendations," said Mr. Carroll, "build on recent government
initiatives addressing homelessness, such as the $60 million for
improvements to community-based mental health services and an option
under Ontario Works that allows municipalities to pay rent directly to
landlords on behalf of welfare recipients who are at risk of losing
their housing."
In June the government announced that it had accepted an interim
recommendation from the Task Force. The province agreed to assume major
funding responsibility for domiciliary hostels retroactive to the start
of this year. "The province's decision to act on our preliminary
recommendation," said Mr. Carroll, "will provide approximately $14
million per year in funding to municipalities."
The Report of the Provincial Task Force on Homelessness provides advice
to the government on how to allocate the $4 million and makes additional
recommendations, including:
Municipalities should be given the flexibility to use some of their
hostel funding for creative approaches to prevent people from
becoming homeless.
The province should continue to fund 80 per cent of the cost of both
domiciliary and emergency hostels.
Municipalities, which have the expertise and local involvement,
should pull together a local service system for homelessness services
and oversee it.
Provincial ministries should ensure that their programs and policies
support municipalities in their role as manager of the local service
system.
The federal government should review its housing and tax policies to
improve their support for the creation of private sector rental
accommodation.
"Current responses to homelessness rely too much on crisis
intervention and emergency services. This approach is ineffective in
reducing or preventing homelessness," said Mr. Carroll. "Greater
emphasis should be given to the early identification and prevention
of homelessness among at-risk populations, as well as helping people
retain and maintain housing."
"We need to work with municipalities to help people become
reconnected to their communities. We believe this will ultimately
reduce homelessness," said Mr. Carroll. "Our recommendations and
recent Ontario government initiatives will help municipalities deal
with this serious issue in both the short and long term."
The full report of the Provincial Task Force on Homelessness is
available on the Internet (PDF format)
-30 -
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2. TORONTO STAR
==============================
Toronto Star, October 10, 1998
Homeless report branded `pitiful'
Queen's Park to cities: It's your job to solve the crisis
By Caroline Mallan, Toronto Star Queen's Park Bureau
The provincial government's much-touted plan to tackle Ontario's
homeless crisis landed yesterday - with a giant thud.
It was immediately branded `pitiful' by critics.
The 22-page report calls on all parties in the community, from
shelter workers to police to municipal officials to help combat the
problem. But it ultimately leaves responsibility for any real or
decisive action on the doorstep of municipalities.
Toronto Councillor Jack Layton said he was ``flabbergasted'' by how
the report's team of five MPPs chose to state the obvious and failed
to offer any solid ideas.
``They say: `Cities, we want you to work on the problem.' They don't
say anything about what they should do. And they tell the cities to
get people off the streets and put them into the hostels. But the
hostels are full.''
A call went out earlier this week - in a declaration prepared by the
Toronto disaster relief committee - for all governments to declare
the level of homelessness a national disaster.
In Toronto alone, 26,000 used emergency shelters last year. Each
night, up to 4,700 people are homeless in the city with about 4,200
filling emergency shelters and the rest sleeping outside.
Rosario Marchese, the New Democrat MPP for Fort York, said the Tory
report is shallow and clearly shows the government has nothing to
offer.
``They are not terribly proud of this report, nor should they be -
it's pitiful.''
Without housing for the homeless, there is no real hope of getting
people off the streets, Marchese added.
``This is a man-made crisis that can only be corrected by the
provincial government taking the lead - and that means housing.''
Anne Golden, head of Toronto's homelessness task force, said the
provincial report acknowledges the complexity of the issue but
ignores:
The issues of poverty and the housing market.
Ontario's shortage of supportive housing so necessary for keeping
the mentally ill off the streets.
Accountability and co-ordination of services. ``Our task force will
make it clear that people are homeless either because they are too
poor to pay for the housing available or because of the shortage of
low-income housing,'' Golden said of her report expected early in
the new year.
The province declined to participate in Golden's task force.
The city turned down an invitation from the province to sit on its
task force.
Hence the two reports just months apart.
MPP Jack Carroll, author of the report and parliamentary assistant
to Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker, said it gives
cities and towns the control they sought.
``We have given them the right and the ability to find their own
solutions. That's what we heard them asking for.''
The report recommends:
Giving cities and towns the flexibility to divert some of their
hostel funding into other areas aimed at preventing homelessness.
Continuing provincial funding of 80 per cent of hostel costs for
cities and towns, with no limit attached, so it can grow to meet
extra needs during the winter months.
Asking municipalities to set up a co-ordinated approach to delivering
services for the homeless.
Telling municipalities to screen hostel users to ensure people
relying on them on a regular basis are not ``double-dipping'' by
collecting welfare cheques each month.
Calling on Ottawa to offer tax incentives for building low-cost
rental housing. The report accuses the federal government of costing
Ontario $80 million a year in welfare money because of delays in
dealing with refugee claimants, many of whom are forced to live in
hostels upon arrival.
Carroll, MPP for Chatham-Kent, said the report's release on a Friday
afternoon before a long weekend just one day after the homeless
situation was labelled a ``national disaster'' is purely
coincidental.
``We planned to release it today (yesterday). As a courtesy, we gave
our municipal partners a heads-up that it was coming,'' Carroll said
of the report begun nine months ago. Beric German of the Toronto
Disaster Relief Committee, which released its dramatic assessment of
the deepening crisis earlier this week, accused the province of
abandoning its responsibilities.
``This report is scandalous. We have a disaster around homelessness
here in Toronto that requires that this government, the provincial
government, call together the feds and the cities and begin to deal
with this now.
``People are going to die. And they will be responsible and we will
point to them.''
Carroll and four other Tory MPPs toured the province to research the
problem.
The report sets out how a $4 million emergency fund Ecker announced
in January will be handed out to municipalities.
Carroll said the much-anticipated cash must be spent on ``creative
ways'' that steer clear of relying on hostels. ``It will flow before
the end of this fiscal year (next spring).''
Slightly more than $1 million is to come to Toronto.
Critics, including Marchese and a coalition of poverty activists,
say the Tory decisions to cut welfare rates by 21 per cent and to
get out of the housing business are the real reasons behind the
crisis.
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With files from Laurie Monsebraaten and John Spears
Copyright c 1998, The Toronto Star.
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3. TORONTO STAR COLUMN
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Toronto Star, October 12, 1998
A history lesson on homelessness
---------------------------------------------
by Colin Vaughan
Homelessness made it to the front pages last week. The media sat up
and took notice after the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee declared
a national state of emergency and called for urgent intervention to
ease the plight of the growing army of homeless forced to live on
the streets, not just in Toronto, but across the country.
The danger is that most of the coverage focused on immediate needs.
Buried was the committee's equally urgent demand for new social
housing to head off homelessness in the long run.
While the newsworthy here-and-now tugs at the heart strings, reason
will have to come into play if a perpetual crisis is to be averted.
A history lesson is in order. It's no coincidence the homeless became
much more visible shortly after the federal government abandoned the
social housing field in 1993 and the Ontario government followed suit
in 1995. Until then, an average of 2,100 affordable housing units
were coming on stream in Toronto every year. As tenants moved in, the
low-cost accommodation they once occupied came on the market for
those still on the waiting list. That's two units for the price of
one. A bargain. That way, Toronto just kept its head above water
meeting housing demand.
Now, no social housing is being built in the city. Low-income tenants
are staying put. Units are no longer recycled. The neediest end up on
the street. Homelessness is seen on every corner.
Then, there's the scope of the need: 280,000 tenants in the Greater
Toronto Area are paying more than the accepted limit of 30 per cent
of income on rent.
And, calculations show that an income of $20,000 plus a nest egg,
plus a guarantor is needed to purchase one of the few bare-bones,
low-cost condos that have been trickling onto the market. In 1995, in
the City of Toronto alone, there were 400,460 households with annual
incomes lower than $20,000. That represented 36 per cent of all
families in the city. Of these, 37,000 are on a 15-year waiting list
for social housing. Another 40,000 are described as ``precariously
housed.''
Since the province backed out, Housing Minister Al Leach has been
talking about free enterprise filling the social housing gap.
Developers tell him that's a no-go without a government handout of
one sort or another. Leach also talks of rent subsidies for
low-income tenants. The province is all talk.
Now, there's a glimmer of hope from Ottawa. After the Relief
Committee went public last week, GTA minister David Collenette was
quoted as saying ``Long-term, the focus should be on increasing
social housing,'' and ``The federal government won't be willing to
hand over that responsibility to the province until it is assured
that it won't be downloaded further.'' Don't hold your breath,
David.
How much will government have to shell out to meet the demand? Relief
committee figures show that housing eats up a miserly 1 per cent of
all government expenditures coast-to-coast. That adds up to $3.83
billion, of which $2.1 billion is federal money maintaining rent
support and other commitments made prior to 1993.
A 1997 study by Winnipeg professor Tom Carter for Housing Policy
Debate concludes that 6 per cent of Canadian households live in
661,000 social housing units of one sort or another but that ``More
than 1 million households, or 12 per cent of all households, have
housing that falls below acceptable standards: these people are in
core need. Approximately 31 per cent of the households in need are
headed by non-elderly, unattached individuals. Another 29 per cent
are seniors, 22 per cent are two-parent families and 18 per cent are
single-parent families.''
To pick up the 6 per cent slack, the relief committee recommends
doubling government housing expenditures. Hardly an outrageous
demand. Government spills more than that over coffee every day.
Sorry about the stats, folks. But now you'll be able to dazzle your
dinner companions with your grasp of the problem. And you can quote
the numbers when you write your MP and MPP demanding action. And you
should.
Morality insists that we shield those living on the street from a
frozen death in the bitter winter being forecast.
But, unless government swings back into action, the cry for
short-term, patchwork relief will remain an annual event.
Canada has signed the 1966 international covenant guaranteeing
``adequate food, clothing and shelter'' for every citizen.
As a first step toward honouring that commitment, the powers-that-be
should be required to spend a sub-zero night or two on the street.
At least they'd quickly come to grips with the concept of basic
``adequate shelter.'' Not a bad start.
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Colin Vaughan reports on politics and urban affairs for CITY-TV.
Copyright c 1998, The Toronto Star.