[Fwd: Homeless Disaster @ C4LD]

Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:50:36 -0700 

----------forwarded message----------

> Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 23:34:19 -0400
> From: Gary Morton <command@interlog.com>
> Organization: Citizens on the Web - News
> Subject: Report on the Homeless Disaster
>
> Report on the Homeless Disaster
>
> Citizens for Local Democracy Meeting Oct. 19/98
> By Gary Morton for Citizens on the Web
> http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz
>
> Related information
> The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee wants Toronto declared a homeless
> disaster area  -- read the full article at
> http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/awar.htm
>
>      Joanne Campbell of the Shelter and Housing Support Division for the
> City of Toronto was the first speaker on the homeless and housing
> issues. She noted that Metro Housing and City Home have now merged. Some
> basic problems are -- the number of tenants who pay over 30 % of their
> income on rent shot up from 33% to 44% over ten years -- there is a low
> vacancy rate -- plus evictions are up. Increases in shelters and beds
> are not a real answer to the problem. Senior levels of government must
> get involved with the city. The feds and the province have been
> downloading all housing management to the city, and the city can't fully
> support it because its revenues are from unstable property tax and not
> income taxes. There isn't a new supply of rental housing in the works
> because there isn't any funding. Problems in development include the
> need for land and favourable financing terms. Developers have to pay the
> full GST and fees for mortgage insurance have doubled. The city could
> help with its zoning powers, granting density bonuses and cheap permits
> in the area of rental and affordable housing. The city could also pass a
> bylaw to the effect that if you want to build commercial you must also
> build some rental housing.
>    Joanne ended her talk saying that a political consensus involving
> citizens and poverty groups and all levels of government must be
> reached.
>
>      David Hulchanski of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee spoke
> next. From U of T, David is a sort of guru among poverty activists, who
> have been sending me his documents on housing for a couple years now.
> David said the city was at the point where it was studying refugee camps
> in order to find ways to aid and feed the growing homeless problem. At
> this point they decided the situation was a disaster. David said housing
> shortages are a political problem, governments create the problem -- he
> placed special blame on Mike Harris. Renters now only have half the
> income of homeowners, so that is why private sector developers build for
> homeowners. With renters now being such a low-income group, it is not
> profitable to build for them. Full private sector control of housing
> doesn't work for affordable housing. Developers end up in the hole for
> about 3,000 dollars per unit per year. Government involvement is
> necessary.
>    The gap between the rich and poor in Canada is double that of most
> other nations, meaning that a certain percentage of the people can't
> afford the necessities of life. We have organized our society
> incorrectly. At present only 1% of all government revenue goes to
> housing. Even the US spends more than Canada. Canada has the most
> privatized housing in the world, and Canada is not doing anything as a
> nation to solve the housing problem. David gave Finland as an example of
> a nation that did do something -- there they cut homelessness in half
> and did it during a recession when unemployment was at 20%.
>    The solution, according to David is for Canada to spend another 1%
> for supply and for supportive housing.
>
>    Councilor Jack Layton, Don River, spoke last on the issue. He said it
> was Cathy Crowe who declared the homeless situation a disaster after the
> city began studying refugee camps for tips on how to handle the homeless
> problem. Layton said he convinced one city official there is a crisis
> with a heart rending midnight tour of homeless Toronto. The immediate
> situation is that they are trying to keep ahead of the hostel crisis and
> place people. Still the homeless population will grow, families will end
> up on the street and people will die.
>    He had praise for Mayor Lastman, city officials and councilors. Mayor
> Lastman put Layton at the head of the city's homeless task force, and at
> present the Mayor has instructed his office to work with the task force.
> He is supportive of advice received. Right now Jack is trying to create
> a movement at the level of the Big City Mayors. This is working the
> concern for homelessness and housing that began with citizens, up to the
> next level.
>    He said they had a hundred of the brightest people in the housing
> area together at U of T the other night and that Megacity Council has
> changed its attitude on the issues. The old musings of sweeps of the
> poor and talk of how the homeless brought it on themselves has
> disappeared. Jack said that even councilors like King, Feldman and Chong
> are speaking out admirably on the homeless issues. His feeling is that
> something is happening and the city is going to move ahead to tackle the
> problem. The big roadblocks are city resources -- they are limited. The
> city can't build a lot of affordable housing, but it can create little
> projects to show what it can do. (One example might be Layton's new plan
> to develop the closed Doctors' Hospital as a shelter) Layton wants to
> come up with some Bright Light Projects to match up with those of other
> Canadian cities. This will create a range of choices, and once those
> choices are clear, there can be no more walking away from the issue by
> the feds and provinces.
>
> From: Gary Morton <command@interlog.com>
> --------------------------------------
>
>  Bob Olsen      Toronto         bobolsen@aracnet.net   (:-)

--
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Graeme Bacque <gbacque@idirect.com>
<http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/1962>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Sanitarium, leave me be,
Sanitarium, just leave me alone'

--Metallica, from their album Master of Puppets
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