[homeles_ot-l] 10 year Housing & Homelessness Plan going to Planning Ctte Tues Sept 10th at 9:30 - Item 3 on agenda.

[Linda Lalonde]

Hi folks,
 
Under the (relatively) new Housing Services Act, the City is required to develop a ten-year housing plan. The Community & Social Services Department is presenting the draft 2014 - 2024 plan to the Planning Committee on September 10th at 9:30 in the Champlain Room at City Hall. I've put links to the report itself and its supporting documents below. Warning before you download: there are graphics in the documents which make for large files - that's why I didn't attach them. 
 
I don't want to spoil the excitement of reading the report and the accompanying documents for yourself so I'm not going to tell you how the story ends. Is it enough? No, it isn't. Can the City realistically have a plan that will end chronic homelessness in ten years without appropriate investments from our provincial and federal "partners" ('partners' is in quotes because it's a stretch for me to call them that based on their behaviour!)? No, they can't. Can the City make a difference for the unhoused and underhoused in this community? Yes, they can and the plan in this report is a good start.
 
The Department clearly understands that the issue isn't treating homelessness but preventing it and appears to be prepared to redirect its resources to that end. They are also committing to support and work with the community, the social housing and private housing sectors and other players. They also seem to get that it costs more financially and socially to not respond to the need in the community and that money is better spent on positive programs such as roofs over people's heads rather than on band-aid solutions like shelters and day programs.
 
I don't want city staff to have to spend all day Monday scouring the report and 'improving' it so please don't tell Steve K. this but there are substantial parts of this report that could have been written by me. I will reiterate my ongoing quibble with the name of the plan - I'd like it to be called the "Housing and Homeness Plan" which would be a more positive slant. We don't need to plan for homelessness but for unhomelessness or homeness.
 
Please have a look at the report and other material and, if you can't make it on Tuesday morning to the Committee meeting, get in touch with your councillor and/or Peter Hume, the chair of Planning Committee, who is at Peter.Hume at ottawa.ca or 613-580-2488. This is a ten-year plan, folks, and will substantially influence the financial and human resources that the City puts into housing and homing for that ten year period and beyond.
 
Linda.
 
 
Ten-year Housing & Homelessness Plan –
Report to Planning Ctte for Sept 10, 2013
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/i1uzsk50smeav322tuxhjl5n/7780009072013015724994.PDF
Document 1 – A Home for Everyone
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/i1uzsk50smeav322tuxhjl5n/7780109072013020702912.PDF 
Document 2 – Achievements from 2011 and
2012 
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/i1uzsk50smeav322tuxhjl5n/7780209072013021058660.PDF 
  
Document 3 – Housing Needs in Ottawa – An
Overview
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/i1uzsk50smeav322tuxhjl5n/7780309072013021552143.PDF
Document 4 – Housing System Working Group –
list of members
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/i1uzsk50smeav322tuxhjl5n/7780409072013021428574.PDF
“I want Ontario to be a place where everyone has the same opportunities and I want people to have the support they need. That’s what equity means. It means we have to create the conditions that will allow everybody to have that level playing field. Where it’s not level, we need to raise the floor up a bit.” - Premier Kathleen Wynne
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