[homeles_ot-l] HousingNetworkofOntario re community start-up benefit campaign

Wed Sep 12 17:39:11 EDT 2012

FYI. . .  via HNO - community start-up benefit campaign

From: Yutaka Dirks (ACTO) [mailto:dirksy at lao.on.ca] 
Sent: September-05-12 10:21 AM
To: Lynne Browne
Subject: RE: Catch-up RE: community start-up benefit campaign

I've pasted an action alert email below, please forward along to your local
Ottawa-area contacts. 

Yutaka Dirks

Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator

Advocacy Centre for Tenants - Ontario

425 Adelaide St. W., 5th Flr.

Toronto, ON  M5V 3C1

Tel:   416-597-5855 x. 5243

Fax:  416-597-5821

www.acto.ca

Please forward widely! 

              Description: cid:image001.jpg at 01CD8B4F.A88D9260
Description: cid:image002.jpg at 01CD8B4F.A88D9260

Act Now to Save Housing Supports for People on OW and ODSP!

The 2012 provincial budget has eliminated two critically important programs
for people on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. 

The Community Start-up and Maintenance Benefit is being cut.

The Community Start-up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) is important because:

*	It is targeted to assist people on social assistance - people who
rely on OW or ODSP are among the most vulnerable in Ontario.  
*	It provides people with the direct assistance they need to retain
their housing and prevent homelessness - it can help them pay their rent or
utility arrears, or help them move to safer or more secure housing.  
*	It is a mandatory benefit - people that are denied are able to
appeal the decision. This oversight ensures a measure of fairness for
Ontarians with low-income and protects them from arbitrary decisions.  

These critically important aspects of CSUMB are likely to be lost in January
2013. That's when the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will get
half of current CSUMB funds and give it to municipalities for local housing
and homelessness programs, which are meant to serve an even larger pool of
low-income people.

The other half will be taken out of social assistance altogether. CSUMB will
cease to exist as of January 2013. 

And the Home Repairs Benefit is being cut.

The Home Repairs Benefit helps people on assistance pay for things like
emergency plumbing repairs, patching a leaky roof, or repairing damage from
fire or floods. 

The only alternative for people on OW or ODSP who own their own homes will
be programs that provide loans for repairs - which people on OW and ODSP
cannot afford to repay.

The government stopped accepting new applications for the Home Repairs
Benefit as of June 30, with the intention of spending all the remaining
funds in this year's budget by December 31, 2012.  

This cut will disproportionately affect people on ODSP, as well as people in
rural and northern communities. 

Act now to save these programs!

Tell your local MPP to do what they can to reverse these cuts: in person,
over the phone, or by mail. Attached to this email is a background kit that
contains more information that will be helpful for you to lobby your local
MPP. 

In the meantime, take a minute and
<http://incomesecurity.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=095b12c98935ecaadd3
27bf90&id=8f7a098f46&e=f67f28a7b9> click here to send an email against these
cuts!
<http://incomesecurity.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=095b12c98935ecaadd
327bf90&id=ea847a78a2&e=f67f28a7b9>  

Your email will go to John Milloy, Minister of Community and Social
Services, Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and
Dwight Duncan, Finance Minister, as well as the opposition critics for these
ministries, urging them to reverse these cuts and restore full-funding to
these critical programs. 

****************

LYNNE BROWNE

Executive Director

Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa

Please update your files to show:

171 George Street, Ottawa ON K1N 5W5

613-241-1573, ext. 314

 <mailto:lynnebrowne at endhomelessnessottawa.ca>
lynnebrowne at endhomelessnessottawa.ca 

<https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.endhomelessness
ottawa.ca> www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca

<https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.facebook.com/ho
me.php?%23!/pages/Alliance-to-End-Homelessness-Ottawa/136029386442398?v=wall
%26ref=ts> Facebook &
<https://mail.ysb.on.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://twitter.com/endhom
elessOTT> Twitter at endhomelessOTT

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