[homeles_ot-l] WI backgrounder: Ontario's holiday gift to Toronto restores some of the funding that was cut

[Linda Lalonde]

Hi folks,
 
Some of this $42M will be coming Ottawa's way and will help fill the gaps that Council couldn't cover completely in the 2013 budget. I'm sure the city will be announcing in the near future how/where these funds will be allocated. However that's done, we'll be in a much better position than folks in many other municipalities thanks to the commitment of Ottawa's Community Services staff and community members.
 
We still need to keep up the lobby efforts both provincially and municipally to get improvements, not just restoration of the cuts, in housing programs. How about building a 1,000 desparately-needed units this year in Ottawa??????
 
Linda.

--- On Fri, 1/4/13, Michael Shapcott <Michael at WELLESLEYINSTITUTE.COM> wrote:







The Ontario government rushed out an announcement of one-time funding for certain housing and homelessness initiatives in the middle of the holiday season. The money is a partial replacement for funding cuts to CSUMB and other housing and homelessness programs that took effect on January 1st – and the announcement is a credit to the determined efforts of advocates to restore the cuts. Here is a full text copy of a short backgrounder from the Wellesley Institute on the Toronto context for the provincial announcement. 
 
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Toronto will get a $12.3 million holiday gift from the province – partial repayment, for one year only, of $21 million in housing and homelessness funding cuts that took effect on January 1st. The Ontario government rushed out its announcement of $42 million in transitional housing and homelessness funds to municipalities in the middle of the holiday season, just days before major cuts to provincial housing and homelessness funding were due to take place. While the new funds are one-time only and only a partial replacement for the funds that were cut, municipal and community advocates are welcoming the news as a partial victory in their campaign to restore funding for the cuts to Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit and other provincial housing and homeless funding.
 
Toronto officials are meeting to consider how to allocate the transitional funding from the province. The provincial cuts had triggered a number of cuts in the City of Toronto’s 2013 proposed budget for Shelter, Support and Housing, including plans to eliminate Personal Needs Allowance. This is a $3 million annual program that provides a small allowance to people who are forced to live in the city’s homeless shelters to buy personal items, such as sanitary napkins or transit tokens. There is no word from the city, as yet, on whether it will use part of the restored funding to renew PNA.
 
Other funding and service cuts that are still part of the draft 2013 Toronto budget and will be considered by Toronto City Council in the coming days as it completes its budget deliberations:
§  A cut of 41,172 bednights in the homeless shelter system, including 24% of the bednights at the city’s family residence (for homeless families), and a 10% cut in bednights at Robertson House, the city’s main shelter for homeless women.
§  A 50% cut in funding for new affordable homes at a time when the city’s affordable housing wait list continues to set a new record every month.
 
There has been a spike in the number of reported homeless deaths in Toronto in December, leaving advocates concerned that cuts to housing and homeless funding could lead to increased homelessness and a continuing heavy burden of poor health and premature death.
 
The full posting is here: http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/news/ontarios-holiday-gift-to-toronto-restores-some-of-housing-and-homeless-funding-that-was-cut/
 
***
 
-          Michael

 
***
 
Michael Shapcott
Director, Housing and Innovation, Wellesley Institute
 
10 Alcorn Ave Suite 300
Toronto, ON, Canada   M4V 3B2
 
e: michael at wellesleyinstitute.com
o: 416.972.1010 ex. 231
c: 416.605-8316
w: www.wellesleyinstitute.com 
 
Get the Wellesley Institute newsletter here. 
 
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