Fw: Ontario's homeless need housing
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 23:18:21 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Shapcott <mshapcot@web.net>
To: mshapcott@chfc.ca <mshapcott@chfc.ca>
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 1998 7:45 PM
Subject: ACT-CUTS-ONT-L: Ontario's homeless need housing
The following press release was issued on October 14, 1998,
by the Homefront Ontario coalition
#506 - 498 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6G 1A5
For immediate release
Ontario's homeless need housing,
not buck-passing by provincial government
The Ontario government's task force on homelessness spent months studying
the issue and still managed to miss the common sense conclusion: homeless
people urgently need homes. "No wonder the province decided to sneak out
its final report on the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend," says Ann
Fitzpatrick of HomeFront Ontario, a provincial coalition of housing groups
and tenant advocates.
"Homelessness is a national disaster and urgent action is required by all
levels of government, including Queen's Park. Families with children are
the fastest-growing group of homeless," says Fitzpatrick. "The homeless
crisis was created by a series of policy decisions primarily by federal and
provincial governments. The Ontario government can try to dump the problem
on municipalities, or even point the finger at Ottawa, but it doesn't take
away from its role in manufacturing the current crisis." Among the key
provincial decisions that have generated homelessness:
- new social housing construction ended. About 17,000 units of co-op and
non-profit housing were killed in 1995. In the past three years, the
private sector has built less than 2,000 units of rental housing across the
entire province.
- 21.6% cut in welfare. Shelter allowances paid to welfare recipients were
radically cut in 1995. There was an immediate, dramatic increase in the
number of economic evictions as poor tenants were unable to pay their rent.
- tenant laws gutted. Rent control and tenant protection laws were gutted
in the summer of 1998. This has already triggered massive rent increases
and will lead to an ongoing cycle of economic evictions and increasingly
expensive housing.
The provincial government's housing policy disasters were compounded when
it decided to download the cost and administration of social housing to 47
municipal bureaucracies. Queen's Park has dumped the problem on local
governments, yet cash-strapped municipalities are unable to finance the
development of new affordable housing.
"The recent task force report shows that the provincial government is
continuing to refuse to accept its responsibility for solving the homeless
disaster," says Fitzpatrick. "This is a resolvable problem. Ontario's
homeless disaster will begin to ease the day that the provincial Ministry
of Municipal Affairs and Housing is ordered to get back into the housing
business."
For more information: Ann Fitzpatrick (416) 924-4640 x 3482, or Barbara
Hurd (416) 533-5778
HOMEFRONT ONTARIO Mission Statement: All Ontario Residents, regardless of
their economic circumstance, have a right to decent housing without
discrimination. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that all people
are able to attain housing which is affordable, adequate and secure.
HOMEFRONT ONTARIO Mission Statement: All Ontario Residents, regardless of
their economic circumstance, have a right to decent housing without
discrimination. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that all people
are able to attain housing which is affordable, adequate and secure.
-----------------------
For information, e-mail: mshapcott@chfc.ca