[homeles_ot-l] Red Tents Get Federal Parties to Weigh in on Housing - today's media release

[Lynne Browne]

You are very welcome to circulate this information. The Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa has endorsed the Red Tent platform. 

 

Attached are: (1) today's media release and (2) the federal parties' answers to the Red Tent housing questionnaire. 

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness 

613-241-7913 ext. 205

lbrowne at ysb.on.ca <mailto:lbrowne at ysb.on.ca> 

147 Besserer St., Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7

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

NOW ATEH is on FACEBOOK HERE <http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alliance-to-End-Homelessness-Ottawa/136029386442398?v=wall&ref=ts>  &

on TWITTER HERE @endhomelessOTT <https://twitter.com/endhomelessOTT> 

 

Red Tents Get Federal Parties to Weigh in on Housing

Responses to Red Tent Campaign Questionnaire show strong support for housing reform from
Liberals, Bloc, NDP, and Greens. Conservatives remain silent.

 

For immediate release

 

Canada - April 19, 2011 - After weeks of silence on housing issues, four of the five Federal parties have come out in support of a federal housing strategy.   While all of the parties who responded to an election questionnaire on housing distributed by the Red Tent Campaign supported the creation of a federal housing strategy,  there was a lot of variation when it came down to attaching a dollar figure to addressing  what has been called Canada's "housing and homelessness crisis" by the United Nations. 

 

The Liberal Party of Canada was the most pragmatic in their response, committed to protecting the current level of federal funding, and pledging an addition 275 million in the immediate future, however MP John McCallum also left open the possibility of more in the future, stating "Over time, as the deficit comes down, we would hope to increase funding".

 

The Bloc Quebecois pledged the greatest level of financial support, calling for "a progressive reinvestment in social and affordable housing, with the goal of reaching an additional $2 billion per year of funding by the federal government", with the money to come from the retained earnings of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, often called the "CMHC surplus". 

 

The NDP announced that it will bring back Bill C-304 in the new parliament to enact a federal housing strategy, a return of the Homeowners Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP), and a commitment to invest 2.6 billion in social housing over the next 4 years.  

 

The Green party of Canada took the position of a national housing strategy one step further, pledging "the inclusion of a clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that specifically states that everyone living in Canada is entitled to safe shelter or affordable housing", along with "2.5 billion dollars in funding over the next three years to establish, in conjunction with the provinces, an affordable housing program." 

 

The Red Tent Campaign is a coalition of housing advocacy organizations and individuals from across the country. The questions were sent to the MPs or candidates responsible for the housing portfolio for their party. The Conservative Party of Canada chose not to respond.   

 

For more information, contact:

National:          Douglas King, at (778) 898-6349 or doug at pivotlegal.org <mailto:doug at pivotlegal.org>  

Local Ottawa:  Dan Sabourin, Vice-chair, Alliance to End Homelessness, (613) 513-6647 or lbrowne at ysb.on.ca

Local Toronto: Yutaka Dirks, Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (416) 597-5855 x.5243 or dirksy at lao.on.ca 

 

Or visit the Red Tent website at www.redtents.org <http://www.redtents.org/> 

Red Tent is a joint campaign effort of more than 20 housing and homelessness organizations, including: Pivot Legal Society <http://www.pivotlegal.org/> , CWP Advocacy Network <http://www.cwp-csp.ca/> , ACORN Canada <http://www.acorncanada.org/> , Impact on Communities Coalition <http://iocc.ca/> , the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario <http://www.acto.ca/> , Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa <http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/> , Right to Housing Manitoba <http://righttohousing.ca/> , et le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain <http://www.frapru.qc.ca/>  (FRAPRU)

 

 

 

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