[homeles_ot-l] Ottawa Sun article: "City still losing battle on homelessness says Alliance to End Homelessness"

[Linda O'Neil]

>From the Ottawa Sun (c)copyright Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - see  http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/04/16/city-still-losing-battle-on-homelessness-says-alliance-to-end-homelessness for several related articles.

City still losing battle on homelessness says Alliance to End Homelessness

On the whole, Ottawa's struggle to end homelessness is not going well.

There are 7,308 homeless people in the city - 858 families, more than 1,500 children.

Those numbers are up over last year, dramatically up from nine years ago when the Alliance to End Homelessness first started releasing an annual report card.

This year the grades range from A to F across the four categories the organization believe are the best way to combat homelessness.

Ottawa received its one and only A for making new affordable housing units available two years in a row - 886 of them last year, 139 which were newly created.

The target was 1,000 additional units.

Alliance executive director Lynne Browne said the city and local non-profit services went "above and beyond" in their efforts to get people out of shelters and into housing.

The other good news, according to Browne, was the number of homeless in Ottawa on the whole, has stayed relatively the same since 2011.

There was a decrease in the number of single women in shelters and the length of stay for both single men and women is down.

The good news ends there.

The worst grade, an F, was given in the "affordability of housing" category. The way the Alliance breaks this down is by calculating the percentage of a person's income required to pay for where they live.

Someone earning minimum wage would have to spend 49% of their income to stay in a bachelor apartment.

Someone on a disability pension would have to use 70% of their income while those who get their income from Ontario Works require 24% more than they earn to rent a bachelor apartment - or, 124% of their income.

Two Cs were given for both the number of homeless and the length of time they stay in emergency shelter.

The darkest figure here was the spike in the length of shelter stay of a family before they find housing - 88 days, a week longer in 2012 than 2011.

The average stay is 68 days, which has stayed the same for two years. Back when the Alliance first started these reports, the average stay was 49, it dipped to around 44 in 2006 and has steadily climbed ever since.

"Thanks for sticking with us," said Browne to supporters gathered Tuesday morning at the Booth Centre for the report's release.

"But, the work isn't done yet."

doug.hempstead at sunmedia.ca<mailto:doug.hempstead at sunmedia.ca>  Twitter: @DougHempstead<http://twitter.com%20doughempstead/>
Linda O'Neil
Chair, Public Affairs Working Group
The Alliance to End Homelessness

Public Education Consultant
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch
301-1355 Bank St., Ottawa ON, K1H 8K7
loneil at cmhaottawa.ca<mailto:loneil at cmhaottawa.ca>
Tel: (613) 737-7791 Ext 135

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