[Fwd: Homeless Declaration 28 Oct, Metro Hall]

Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Fri, 23 Oct 1998 19:02:28 -0700 

-------- Original Message --------

	TORONTO DISASTER RELIEF COMMITTEE

 Toronto City Council will consider the following motion on Wednesday,
 Oct 28, 10:00 am at Metro Hall.

	"That the Provincial and Federal Governments be requested to
	declare homelessness a national disaster requiring emergency
	humanitarian relief and be urged to immediately develop and
	implement a National Homelessness Relief and Prevention Strategy
	using disaster relief funds, both to provide the homeless with
	immmediate health protection and housing and to prevent further
	homelessness."

 This summer (1998), faced with the disastrous increase in homelessness
 in the city, homeless people, formerly homeless people, health care
 workers, members of the faith community, academics and anti-poverty
 activists formed the Toronto Disaster Relief committee.

 People asked: "Why is the homeless crisis not treated like the ice
 storm in Montreal or the flood in Winnipeg?"  "Why are governments not
 responding to the deaths of hundreds of homeless people on the street?"
 "Why are they ignoring the threat of diseases such as tuberculosis, 
 HIV/AIDS, and hepatitis, which are related to homelessness?"  "The
 homelessness disaster is one of the largest and most serious disasters
 in Canadian history.  Why is it ignored?"

 The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee decided to call on governments
for
 disaster relief.  We sent our call out across the country.  Over three
 hundred organizations and several hundred individuals have endorsed our
 call to have all levels of government "immediately develop and
implement
 a National Homelessness Relief and Prevention Strategy using disaster
 relief funds both to provide the homeless with immediate health
 protection and housing and to prevent further homelessness."

 Canada signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural
 Rights guaranteeing everyone's right to "an adequate standard of
 living...including adequate food, clothing and housing."  Canada
clearly
 is not complying with the UN covenant.

 David Hulchancki, professor of social work at the University of
Toronto,
 and a member of the TDRC, together with other housing experts, found
that
 on average all levels of government in Canada spend about 1% of their
 budgets on housing and related support services.  This percentage of
 spending is one of the lowest in the industrialized world. 

 They found that homelessness in Canada could be eliminated if all
 governments were to spend just 1% more of their budgets on housing,
 increasing their spending on housing to 2% of their budgets.  The TDRC
 insists that housing spending be increased to 2% of government budgets
 immediately. This is the 1% solution to eliminate homelessness in
Canada.

 The Childrens' Aid Society of Toronto, St. Michael's Hospital, the
 Canadian AIDS Society, community health centres across Canada, and
 hundreds of other organizations endorse this solution. 

 "It's a basic human rights issue," says Laura Cowan, executive director
 of Street Health, an organization of nurses and social workers who
serve
 the homeless, "You can see notices posted in every government building
 asking that people be treated equally. If there was a flood in Toronto
 and flood victims had to share the shelters with poor people who had
also
 lost their homes, would government officials call an emergency and only
 replace the homes of the flood victims and leave poor people crowded in
 the shelters and on the streets? I hope not."

 The Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness says that 80,000 people in
Toronto
 face homelessness. There are thousands of homeless people in the
streets.
 The time to act is now.

 Will City Council decide that homeless people should be treated like
 everyone else expects to be treated?

 The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee asks everyone in Toronto,
homeless
 or not, to come to Metro Hall at 55 John Street at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday
 the 28th of October to support the call for a declaration of disaster.


        Beric German
        Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
        416-964-2459
	.............