[homeles_ot-l] Your help needed next Tuesday on homeless motion at CSEDC

[Lynne Browne]

Please circulate widely

 

Hello everyone,

 

Next Tuesday, a motion to include a referendum question on homelessness on
the municipal election ballot will be on the Corporate Services and Economic
Development Committee agenda. 

 

Late yesterday, the Alliance to End Homelessness suggested to Council Hume
that the motion be reworded so that it is inclusive of everyone who
experiences homelessness in our community, including parents and children,
youth, single women and single men. You may have seen in the news that his
wording to date limited new funds to those who are chronically homeless
which by the City of Ottawa's definition will exclude 84% of the 7,745
individuals who were homeless in 2009. (The city uses a definition of 60
cumulative days in a shelter and in need of supports to be housed.)

 

We pointed out that among the 7,745 were 775 families comprised of 1,317
children 16 and under and 1,167 adults and children over 16. There were also
411 youth 18 and under, 974 single adult women and 3,570 single adult men.
The average length of stay in a shelter was 57 days a 12% increase over
2008. Parents and their children stayed an average of 64 days before they
found housing in Ottawa. Everyone who became homeless in Ottawa in 2009
stayed longer in the shelters so the use of shelter beds increased by 9.6%
increase to 421,500 times last year. We are confident that the city's many
community partners will have good recommendations for how to use this
additional 5M annually to reduce homelessness for a diversity of homeless
people.

 

We ask that you, your agency or network sign up to speak next Tuesday so
that any motion that passes and goes forward to Council for consideration is
a motion that is inclusive of all homeless community members. 

 

Here's what ATEH sent him as a change to the motion:

 

Should the City of Ottawa, in consultation with community partners such as
the Alliance to End Homelessness and the Leadership Table on Homelessness,
implement a comprehensive strategy, with an investment of at least $5
million a year, toward the goal of ending homelessness in Ottawa by 2014?

 

To sign up to speak, please contact Carole Langford, 580-2424, ext. 28934,
Carole.Langford at ottawa.ca 

 

Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee meets: 

*       Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 10:00 a.m.

*       In Andrew S. Haydon Hall, at 110 Laurier Avenue West.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Lynne

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

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

Cell 613-513-6647

Office 613-241-7913, ext. 205

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

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.web.net/lists/private/homeles_ot-l/attachments/20100401/b85d76c6/attachment.htm>