[homeles_ot-l] Great news - Housing and Homelessness Enter Election Fray

[Lynne Browne]

Great news everyone,

 

The release below has gone out to the media and will be sent to our national
partners and contacts plus local candidates. We’ve all worked very hard to
help make this success happen. Now we can build on it to get the other
political parties to start talking about homelessness and housing and the
need for a National Housing Strategy.

 

Our release is attached plus a housing primer with some national statistics
put together by Michael Shapcott at the Wellesley Institute.

 

Lynne

 

 


September 18, 2008 – For Immediate Release


For more information please contact Lynne Browne, Alliance to End
Homelessness (ATEH) Coordinator 


Cell (613) 513-6647, Office (613) 241-7913 x 205


 




Housing and Homelessness Enter Election Fray 

 Funding news extends 3 programs 5 years.

What will other parties do?

Yesterday, Perry Rowe who is Chair of the Alliance to End Homelessness, a
non-partisan coalition in Ottawa, welcomed a $1.9 billion five year
commitment to affordable housing and homelessness programs made by
Conservatives Monte Solberg and John Baird. This is the first solid election
announcement on a fundamentally critical issue in Canada,” said Mr. Rowe. 

 

“The people we serve worry if they have enough food to put on the table to
feed their family or whether they have enough money to pay this month’s rent
or pay for heat and light,” stated Mr. Rowe. “They don’t have the luxury of
worrying about issues beyond day to day survival. This $1.9 billion
commitment will end our immediate fear that essential services would end or
be reduced this winter.”

 

The announcement extended funding five years after next March for the
Affordable Housing Initiative, the Homelessness Partnering Strategy programs
and the housing renovation programs, including the Residential
Rehabilitation Assistance Program.

 

Mr. Rowe said he was very pleased to hear Minister Solberg tell reporters
that this is a government commitment, not a platform announcement, and it
isn’t affected by the election short of the new government rescinding it.
The Alliance to End Homelessness is now looking forward to hearing what the
Conservatives have to say about a creating National Housing Strategy and
ending homelessness in Canada. 

 

“We need to hear from the other parties too,” said Mr. Rowe. “What will they
do to make a National Housing Strategy a reality for Canada? Will they too
commit to keeping these housing and homelessness programs in place? Will
they increase federal help for homeless people? Our coalition intends to
keep the issue front and centre over the next weeks as we wait to hear from
Liberal Leader, Stéphane Dion, NDP Leader, Jack Layton, Bloc Leader, Gilles
Duceppe, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

 

Mr Rowe used the example of Ottawa where 9,567 households, approximately
25,000 individuals, received help in 2007 to stay housed through a
combination of federal, city and provincial funds. In spite of those
efforts, there were still 8,915 individuals who had to stay in an emergency
shelter in Ottawa alone. 

 

“Many stakeholders, in communities from Victoria, B.C. to St. John’s, N.F.
are coming together, like never before, to find innovative, local solutions
to prevent and end homelessness, said Mr. Rowe. “It should be no surprise
that we expect all political parties to address housing and homelessness in
their platforms.” 

 

In his comments Mr. Rowe made three commitments on behalf of the Alliance to
End Homelessness to whichever party forms the next government, “We will be
there to remind the government about the commitments made during this
election so that ’promises made become promises kept’. We will do our part
to ensure that agreements are signed and monies are flowed with minimal
disruption in the services to those who depend on us. And lastly, we will
continue to provide effective, innovative, efficient and collaborative
services for the families and individuals who are now homeless or facing the
risk of losing their housing.”

 

 -30-

 

For more information or to speak with Perry Rowe, please contact:


Lynne Browne, Coordinator


Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

Cell (613) 513-6647, Office (613) 241-7913 x 205

147 Besserer Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7 
 <mailto:lbrowne at ysb.on.ca> lbrowne at ysb.on.ca,  613-241-7913 ext 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca  

 

 

 

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)
147 Besserer Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7 
lbrowne at ysb.on.ca,  613-241-7913 ext 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca  

 

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