HOUSINGAGAIN-L Bulletin #2

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@istar.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN // e-bulletin
November 15, 1999 // Number 2

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A twice-monthly electronic bulletin published in on what people are
doing
to Put Housing Back on the Public Agenda in Ontario, across Canada and
around the world.

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In this bulletin:

1 - Where's Home? Province-wide launch
2 - Peel Region: Taking action
3- Finance Committee: On the agenda 
4 - Ottawa: On the streets
5 - Housing Again: around the site

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1. Where's Home? Province-wide launch

Where's Home? Part 2, the most comprehensive and current review of
rental housing in Ontario, was released at a press conference at Queen's
Park (the Ontario Legislature) and in 13 centres across the province on
Thursday, November 4.

The story made headlines in newspapers across the province, on the CP
newswire, in television and radio reports, on radio phone-in programs
and in the local media in many communities.

Alan Redway, former federal housing minister (Progressive Conservative);
John Sweeney, former Ontario housing minister (Liberal); and Marion
Dewar, former Ottawa mayor (New Democratic Party); delivered the report
to a packed press gallery. The three are co-chairs of Putting Housing
Back on the Public Agenda.

The full Where's Home? study, parts 1 and 2, are posted on the Housing
Again website at http://housingagain.web.net.

The Where's Home? release capped a busy week on the housing front at the
Ontario Legislature. On the Tuesday, the Centre for Equality Rights in
Accommodation released its study on the 500-plus tenant evictions in
Toronto every week. On the Wednesday, the Liberals sponsored an
Opposition Day debate on housing issues. Their motion calling on the
provincial government to take action on housing was defeated (this was
expected since the governing Conservatives have a majority of seats),
but the debate effectively brought the spotlight on housing issues.

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2. Peel Region: Taking action

Peel Region, a fast-growing suburban municipality to the west of
Toronto,
is hiring a Co-ordinator of Homelessness Initiatives to tackle its
increasing serious housing and homelessness problems. Like many other
parts of Ontario and Canada, homeless shelters in Peel have seen huge
increases in overnight stays in recent years. Low-income households in
Peel are being pushed closer to the brink of homelessness.

"Some may think of homelessness as a big city problem, but it's also a
suburban and rural issue," says Terry Kingsmill of Peel Living, the
Region
of Peel's housing department. 

The new staff person will be responsible not only for co-ordinating
emergency services for homeless people, such as hostels and health
programs, but will also oversee the Region of Peel's new housing
initiatives. Peel sees efficiency apartments and other low-cost housing
as
part of the long-term solution to growing homelessness and housing
insecurity.

For information, call Terry Kingsmill at 905-453-2500, ext. 2698.
E-mail:
terry.kingsmill@region.peel.on.ca.

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3. Finance Committee: On the agenda

Housing and homelessness are squarely on the agenda as the House of
Commons Finance Committee starts its cross-country series of hearings
leading up to the next federal Budget, expected in February of 2000. 

Housing groups are working together across the country to put the
spotlight on the need for a new national housing strategy and increased
federal funding. Two active networks are the National Coalition on
Housing and Homelessness (which includes 20 national organizations) and
the National Housing and Homelessness Network (which includes one dozen
community-based local and regional groups).

To date, eight housing groups are scheduled to appear before the
committee in five locations, including: Toronto Disaster Relief
Committee and Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (Toronto); Metro
Non-Profit Housing Association (Halifax); Front d'Action Populaire en
Réamenagement Urbain (Quebec City); Housing and Homelessness Network of
B.C. and Tenants' Rights Action Coalition (Vancouver); and, Co-operative
Housing Federation of Canada, National Coalition on Housing and
Homelessness and Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (Ottawa). 

Many other groups are including a housing message in their pre-Budget
presentations to the committee.

The written submissions of these groups will be posted on the Housing
Again web site as they become available. Point your browser to:
http://www.housingagain.web.net.

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4. Ottawa: On the streets

Homelessness advocates are taking to the streets of the nation's capital
in
two separate actions in mid-November in actions designed to raise
awareness of Canada's growing homelssness disaster. 

Homes Not Bombs, a group of activists from several Ontario centres,
attempted "to convert the War Department into the Housing Department"
with a peaceful blockade of the Department of Defense headquarters on
November 12. About 200 people participated in the action, and there were
more than 50 arrests at the non-violent, civil disobedience action. The
event received extensive media coverage. The group was contrasting the
millions spent on bombing the former Yugoslavia by Canadian military
earlier this year with the lack of new funding for affordable housing.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, based in Toronto, will be take
seven or more busloads of homeless people and their allies to Parliament
Hill on November 17. As many as 300 people are expected to take part in
this action. They want to meet directly with Prime Minister Jean
Chretien to demand more money for housing. The group will gather on
Parliament Hill for its non-violent demonstration.

Details on both actions are posted on the Housing Again web site at
http://www.housingagain.web.net.

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5. Housing Again: around the site

Two weeks after our official launch, the Housing Again web site is
bursting with new information. Make sure to bookmark the site at
http://www.housingagain.web.net and visit often, as important new
material is being posted daily.

Some highlights:

RESOURCES: About 100 reports, studies articles and links on housing and
homelessness issues in Ontario, Canada and internationally. This is
growing to be one of the best single resource centres on Canadian
housing issues. 

CHECK OUT: "Canadian housing policy in the nineties" by McGill
University Professor Jeanne M. Wolfe. ". . . it is only in Canada that
the national government has, except for CMHC loans, withdrawn from the
social housing field. The rush to get out of the responsibility for
managing existing projects and building new, low-income housing has
taken advocates by surprise. It was never imagined that a system that
had taken 50 years to build-up could be dismantled so rapidly. Social
housing policy in Canada now consists of a checker-board of 12
provincial and territorial policies, and innumerable local policies. It
is truly post-modern," concludes Prof. Wolfe.

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