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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Good afternoon,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa released its <b><i><a href="http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/homelessness/2012ReportCard.cfm">Report Card on Ending Homelessness in Ottawa, Jan-Dec 2012</a></i></b> at a well-attended press conference this morning at 10 am. Watch for media coverage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>For the second year in a row, the Alliance gave <b>grades ranging from “F” to “A”</b> for its four indicators of homelessness in the Ottawa: <i>affordability of housing; increase in new affordable units; total number of homeless individuals and family members who stayed in an emergency shelter; and average amount of time they spent there before housing was found. </i><b><a href="http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/index.cfm">Download the 2012 Report Card to lean more.</a> </b>(English and French PDFs)<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>ATEH’s new campaign <b><span style='color:red'><a href="http://www.raiseyourvoicecanada.org/">Raise Your Voice Canada</a> </span></b>came about because of the F and C grades. This campaign asks concerned community members to “turn up the volume on homelessness”, to increase the <b>"noise" </b>about this issue on <b>Twitter</b> and <b>Facebook. </b>Make some noise yourself! Use the hash tag<b> <span style='color:red'>#raiseyourvoicecanada</span></b> to help bring about change to the existing Federal and Provincial programs and strategies on homelessness. <i>(See back page of the Report Card).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>As an Ottawa-based non-profit, non-partisan organization the ATEH’s 43 member organizations work together to generate ideas and solutions that address homelessness. At the end of each year <strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal'>the status of homelessness in Ottawa</span></strong> is assessed using a set of statistical sources tied to the four indicators in relation to ATEH’s four “ending homelessness” targets.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The biggest challenge faced by communities and municipal governments is that they are</span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <b>provided with too little support from senior governments to be able to end homelessness.</b> <b>Communities and municipalities can’t do that alone!</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The impact of additional municipal spending was clearly demonstrated in the 2012 gains made with the City of Ottawa’s $14M. <span style='color:red'>It’s a lesson the senior governments still need to learn.</span></span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture when so many helpful things are happening. Those good things are what keep us hovering around the status quo instead of things getting even worse.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Read the Alliance’s specific recommendations for the federal and provincial governments so that their investments reduce the level of homelessness. Most of the factors</span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> that increase the risk of homelessness, such as the lack of affordable housing and the level of low income support and social services, are<b> not within the purview of the municipal government and the non-profit sector. </b>While there is some good news regarding federal and provincial investments, the general trend is that the higher levels of governments are doing less, even while making it seem as though they are doing enough! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>**********<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span class=style471><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>ATEH greatly appreciates that the </span></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=style44 style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span class=style81><b><span style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Community Foundation of Ottawa</span></b></span><strong><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span></strong><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class=style471><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>provided a grant to produce the 2012 Report Card.</span></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=reg-text-sm><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=177 height=68 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CE3AA4.D42F72D0" alt="CFO_LOGO_CMYK.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>**********<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>Lynne Browne<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>Executive Director<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>171 George Street, </span></i><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>Ottawa ON K1N 5W5<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'>613-241-1573, ext. 314<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'><a href="mailto:lynnebrowne@endhomelessnessottawa.ca"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>lynnebrowne@endhomelessnessottawa.ca</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#17365D;letter-spacing:.6pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'><a href="https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca" target="_blank"><span style='color:#17365D'>www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#17365D;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-CA'><a href="https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.facebook.com/home.php?%23!/pages/Alliance-to-End-Homelessness-Ottawa/136029386442398?v=wall%26ref=ts" target="_blank" title="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alliance-to-End-Homelessness-Ottawa/136029386442398?v=wall&ref=ts"><span style='color:#17365D;letter-spacing:.6pt'>Facebook</span></a><span style='color:#17365D;letter-spacing:.6pt'> & </span><a href="https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://twitter.com/endhomelessOTT" target="_blank" title="https://twitter.com/endhomelessOTT"><span style='color:#17365D;letter-spacing:.6pt'>Twitter@endhomelessOTT</span></a><span style='color:#17365D;letter-spacing:.6pt'><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>