[homeles_ot-l] ATEH Jan 21: Mayor Watson's address & our media release

[Lynne Browne]

Hello everyone,

 

Please see below for our media release for the ATEH general meeting last
Friday. The full text of Mayor Jim Watson's address at the meeting is
attached. You are very welcome to circulate both.

 

Mayor Jim Watson: 

"I am moved to do something to fight for those trying to set their lives
right, deal with addiction or mental health issues or financial
distress, to get the dignity of home back in their lives."

 

Lynne

 


Media Release & Invitation Jan. 20, 2011




 

Mayor Watson to address Alliance to End Homelessness

 

Mayor Jim Watson will open the third annual meeting of the member
organizations of the Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH) at 8:30 a.m. on
Friday, Jan. 21 at the Richelieu Vanier Community Centre.  

"The Mayor was invited to be our guest speaker because of his strong and
determined leadership. He committed to put much needed financial
resources towards homelessness and affordable housing," says ATEH chair
Marion Wright. "The next four years present a real opportunity to make
big gains in ending homelessness in our community."

Wednesday's draft budget included a $10 million investment in housing
and poverty reduction in addition to a $4 million capital investment for
housing initiatives. Wright says their member organizations will be
hoping to hear more details and compare them to his election platform.

Last fall, Watson promised to devote $14 million to the issue, including
$5 million to fund an expanded rent supplement program as the most
efficient way to make quick progress on waiting lists and alleviate
pressure on emergency shelters. He also pledged to create an
Opportunities Fund with an annual budget of $5 million to fund a variety
of needs, from new construction and renovations to supportive housing;
and to dedicate an additional $4 million of base capital funding to fix
to add to the low-income housing available in the city.

"Since last summer, there's an escalating crisis in the emergency
shelters, said Wright. "We have 996 shelter beds and each night we have
1300 to 1400 individuals - single women and men, youth, and families
with children - who are homeless.  Families with children and single
women are facing appalling challenges in our shelter system." 

In 2009, people stayed in emergency shelters an average of 57 days
before finding housing, with families staying an average of 64 days.
Wright says those long stays are the result of the lack of rental
housing that people on low incomes can afford and the low vacancy rate
now at 1.6%.

"Rents have risen 6% for three-bedroom apartments in the past year which
will very likely show up in the numbers of families forced into the two
family shelters and overflow locations in 2011."

"The annual meeting also provides us with an opportunity to recognize
leadership," says Wright. "We are very proud to present our first 'Award
for an Academic Sector Contribution to Ending Homelessness' to Allan
Rock, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Ottawa."

The Alliance to End Homelessness was founded in 1995 and currently has
75 member organizations.

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness 

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

Office: 613-241-1573, ext. 205 

(note this phone # is in use temporarily until Jan 2011 )

Mailing addr: 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> 

 

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