[homeles_ot-l] "Accountability on housing needed" Metro news on ATEH Forum

[Lynne Browne]

More Alliance to End Homelessness Forum Coverage - 


Homelessness forum seeks action on issues


Accountability on housing needed: Chair

 

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Ottawa's homeless situation is not improving, said Alliance to End
Homelessness chairwoman Marion Wright yesterday. A forum held at uOttawa
marked National Housing Day. 

 

 

TRACEY TONG 

METRO OTTAWA 

November 24, 2009 

 

Ten years ago, psychiatric survivor Terence Williams was isolated and
collecting disability support. But when he learned about the Parkdale
Activity Recreation Centre, it turned his life around. 

The organization serves people in the mental health system, psychiatric
survivors, the homeless, refugees, new immigrants and low-income men, women
and families, said Williams. 

Now an ambassador for the organization, he talks to the public "to change
stigma attached to mental illness, homelessness and poverty" and to educate
local residents who may oppose the development of affordable housing
projects in their neighbourhoods.

Williams was one of the speakers at the 2009 Community Forum on Homelessness
yesterday.

Held to coincide with National Housing Day, the forum, presented by the
Alliance to End Homelessness, gathers researchers, housing and homeless
advocates and city staff to share ideas - all with the common goal of ending
homelessness, said alliance chairwoman Marion Wright. 

"This takes what's going on in research and turns it into action," she said.


"One of the things we can do is hold the politicians at the three levels
accountable for doing a number of things," said Wright. "One is a national
housing strategy, and two would be to look at supports for individuals who
have mental health and addiction issues."

The government has failed to deliver on their affordable housing strategy in
Ottawa, Wright said.

While there have been 134 new units built this year, it's a long way off
from the target of 500 units a year, Wright said.

In 2008, 7,044 individuals in Ottawa, including 1,179 children under 16,
stayed in emergency shelters. By mid-year, shelters were running out of beds
every night.

 "And this was before the economic downturn that has so characterized this
year," Wright said. 

"For the 2009 report card, we're expecting even more staggering numbers."

 

 

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

147 Besserer St., 2nd Floor, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7

Office 613-241-7913, ext. 205, Cell 613-513-6647

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca <http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/> 

 

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