[homeles_ot-l] What's Missing? Draft City Strategic Directions - ATEH Media Release

[Lynne Browne]

Hello everyone,

 

At 1:00 pm July 9th, Perry Rowe, Acting Chair, will present the Alliance to
End Homelessness submission on the Draft City Strategic Directions to
Council.  Our media release, sent this afternoon, is below and attached.

 

Lynne Browne

 

 

For immediate release

 

July 9, 2007

City Council – Public Delegations on the 2007-2010 Draft City Strategic
Directions

Submission from Perry Rowe, Acting Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness

What’s Missing?

The Alliance to End Homelessness reviewed the Draft Strategic Directions
keeping in mind that a city is first and foremost a place to live, a place
to call home. It’s also a place to work in and engage in community services
and recreation and a place we need to be able to move around in. And it is
also the place where we need our elected representatives to plan for and
provide leadership in a crisis. Council’s job is to make sure all of that
happens on everyone’s behalf. 

Housing – that place we each need to call home in a city – is conspicuously
absent in the Draft Directions. The city’s role in housing whether
affordable or expensive is mentioned in only the three points on social
housing where uploading is stressed, an important concern but not an
over-arching municipal vision. We now ask Council to expressly highlight in
the full City Corporate Plan a municipal role in overseeing and creating
housing, emphasizing affordable and appropriate housing for 2007-2010.

The Alliance to End Homelessness assumes improved housing options or access
will be reflected the Draft’s objective to end homelessness in Ottawa in 10
years in cooperation with federal and provincial partner and our members
thank you for recognizing the homelessness crisis in our city. We also
appreciate the city’s commitment to pre-1995 levels of income for our
citizens on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program.

We request that the following six directions be included as specific
actions:

In Service Priorities, C. Infrastructure Renewal,
Add New Item after #4 

*      Spearhead the development of 1,000 units yearly that people on low
incomes can afford with the objective of closing the gap in affordable and
appropriate housing supply to reduce the need for low cost housing. The gap
is indicated by the 9,010 homeless people who stayed in a shelter in 2006
and the 10,055 households on the social housing waiting list and the 2.630
households on the supportive housing waiting list in 2006.

In Service Priorities, E. Sustainable Healthy and Active City,
Add New Item after #2

*      Set a high level and a proactive municipal response to meet the
social services, social housing, supported living and public health needs of
Ottawa residents. 

In Service Priorities, F Planning ans Growth Management,
Add to # 1

*      Become the leading edge in community and urban design including
creating housing, especially for those in the city living on low incomes.

In Transformation Priorities, A. Governance,
Replace # 3

*      Commit to and develop a democratic, engaging and visible process to
maximize input from citizens in the work of Council and in policy
development. 




In Transformation Priorities, B. Service Delivery,
Replace #1 

*      Create a client service culture that recognises and balances the
needs of all citizens in their encounters with city services, programs and
staff. 

In Transformation Priorities, C. Sustainable Finances,                Add to
# 2

*      Include closing the gap in affordable and appropriate housing supply
(New Item after #4 above) in this direction on how to fund infrastructure
renewal.

 

 

 

Lynne Browne 
Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness 
147 Besserer Street, Ottawa ON  K1N 6A7 
613-241-7913 x 205, lbrowne at ysb.on.ca 
www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca 

 

 


No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.1/888 - Release Date: 06/07/2007
6:36 AM
 
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.web.net/lists/private/homeles_ot-l/attachments/20070706/3a08b0bc/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATEH Submission - Draft City Strategic Directions July 9,	2007.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 50508 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.web.net/lists/private/homeles_ot-l/attachments/20070706/3a08b0bc/attachment-0001.pdf