[homeles_ot-l] National Report Card on the State of Public Housing. By Sara Falconer.

[lj1967 at sympatico.ca]

      Community Garden.  
      July 10th, 2008 
     
     
National Report Card on the State of Public Housing. 
Sara Falconer, ottawaxpress. 
 
Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill were more extravagant than ever this year, with $105,000 spent on fireworks alone. But on July 10 the federal government will receive a "National Report Card on the State of Affordable Housing," and there is very little to celebrate. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are homeless, and many more are on the brink. 
In Ottawa, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) plans to deliver its report card to Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. ACORN members will also demonstrate in Toronto and Vancouver to advocate a national housing strategy. The group recently marked a victory in housing conditions when they were able to get TransGlobe Property Management's CEO to meet their demands. 

"I think our politicians don't understand," says ACORN leader Kat Fortin, who lives in public housing in Mechanicsville. "It's only when you're in that situation that you realize there's a problem." 

Waiting lists for affordable housing can be as long as seven years. Fortin counts herself "lucky"; because of her disability, she had to wait only two years, trying to scrape together money for rent and staying with relatives.  She says that funding for housing initiatives needs to be increased. 

"If that is being jeopardized we're going to find more and more people with no options ending up on the street." 

In November 2007, United Nations Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari called on Canada's government to deal with <http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/BannerRedirect.asp?FlightID=537927&Page=&PluID=0&Pos=9177> <http://athena.voir.ca/a.aspx?ZoneID=1300&Task=Click&Mode=HTML&SiteID=1&PageID=93843>  
what he termed a "national housing crisis." The National Homelessness Secretariat estimates that there are 150,000 homeless and 1.5 million at risk of homelessness in Canada, but other researchers have suggested that the numbers could be at least double that amount. 

Factors such as rising housing prices and insufficient social assistance rates compound the problem, and women and aboriginal people are particularly affected. 

Solberg insists that his administration will "invest more in affordable and supportive housing this year than any government in history." In February, he announced the funding of 505 projects worth almost $150-million across Canada as part of the Homelessness Partnering Strategy. He did not comment on the upcoming ACORN protest. 

"The federal government has not increased the money that they are putting into affordable housing for many, many years, and yet the population keeps growing, and we have more people in need of housing," 

counters councillor Diane Holmes, who will join MP Paul Dewar and others at Solberg's office on Thursday. 

"We can't even afford to maintain what we already have," she says. Many affordable housing projects have fallen into disrepair because of limited budgets. 

"We have done some small projects on homelessness in Ottawa, but we need so much more." Holmes adds that people often spend years in shelters that are intended for emergency use. "Shelters are no place to spend any length of time." 
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