HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin 11

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN -  Bulletin Number 11
April 28, 2000

A twice-monthly electronic bulletin published on what people are doing
to put housing back on the public agenda in Ontario, across Canada and
around the world. Our web site is http://www.housingagain.web.net

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In this bulletin:

1. Homelessness: Who benefits?
2. Taking action on Aboriginal housing
3. Big City Mayors on housing
4. Bracing for another Ontario budget
5. On our site: Supportive housing

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1. Homelessness: Who benefits?

Did the weather cause the mass homelessness common in Canada today?

No, says Dr. David Hulchanski, a leading housing scholar at the
University of Toronto. "Since the 1980s, there have been a number of
homeless-making processes set in motion," says Hulchanski. "These
‘processes’ are not caused by ‘nature’ - such as an earthquake, ice
storm, or flood. They are human-made processes."

Prof. Hulcanski has created a worksheet that allows people to identify
the homeless making processes in their community. Categories include
housing; public assistance; employment; health, mental health and
substance abuse; and family. In each sector, participants identify
homeless-making processes, such as evictions, low wages or abuse. Then
they identify pressures towards homelessness, such as loss of affordable
rental stock or inadequate social assistance programs. Finally, homeless
makers are identified, such as bankers, politicians or violent spouses.

"The worksheet can serve as a guide for action," says Prof. Hulchanski.
"It helps name the policies and practices of groups and institutions,
the homeless makers, that put in place and maintain homeless making
processes. It becomes a list of changes that have to be made." The
homeless-making worksheet is available in the Resources section of the
Housing Again website. Point your browser to:
http://housingagain.web.net and click on Resources.

Prof. Hulchanski will be part of a panel discussion called "Homelessness
- Who Benefits" on May 1 at 7.30 p.m. in Toronto at the Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street West.

Other panelists include:

- Sister Susan Moran, founder of the Out-of-the-Cold program that offers
temporary shelter in church basements to homeless people;

- Armine Yalnizyan, an economist with the Centre for Social Justuce and
author of recent studies on growing poverty in Canada;

- Paul Hellyer, a federal politician who headed a housing task force in
the late 1960s which lead to a major new social housing program in 1973.

For more information on this and other upcoming housing events, click on
the Events section of the Housing Again web site at http://housingagain.web.net.

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2. Taking action on Aboriginal housing

More than 100 Native housing providers and their associates are
gathering in Ottawa from April 27 to 29 for a symposium on Aboriginal
housing and homelessness. It’s the biggest gathering of its kind in
recent years and the goal of organizers is to emerge with a solid plan
of action for more Aboriginal housing, both on-reserve and off-reserve.

"Far too many Aboriginal people are living, and dying, on the streets of
communities across Ontario," says Charles Hill, President of the Native
Home Providers in Ontario (NHPO), which organized the symposium.  "It’s
bad enough now, but it’s going to get a lot worse as the federal and
provincial governments abandon social housing programs nationwide."  

Last November, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), on behalf
of the federal government, signed an agreement to transfer most of its
social housing programs, including its Urban Native Housing program
(UNH), to the government of Ontario. The government of Ontario is in
turn moving ahead with plans to transfer provincial housing programs to
the municipalities.

(UNH was set up by CMHC in the early 1970’s to help Native people obtain
safe, decent and affordable housing in cities across Canada. "The
transfer of the UNH Program to the province is a great step backward,
placing Aboriginal persons seeking housing in the same circumstances
they were in thirty years ago," says Hill. "Moreover, such action runs
counter to recent Supreme Court decisions which require consultation on
issues that affect Aboriginal peoples, and violates the federal
government’s fiduciary responsibility to the Aboriginal peoples."

During the three days of meetings, Native housing providers will plan
legal and political strategies.  "Over the years, Native housing
providers have obtained and successfully managed thousands of units of
housing, providing services by Aboriginal persons for Aboriginal
persons.  We know what needs to be done," says Hill. "We aren’t going to
let Ottawa and Queen’s Park abandon our housing programs and create even
more homelessness among Aboriginal peoples."

News from the symposium will be posted on the Housing Again web site in
the coming days.

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3. Big City Mayors on housing

Representatives of the largest municipalities in Canada are meeting in
London, Ontario, on April 27 and 28 for the Big City Mayors’ Caucus of
the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). 

In November of 1998, the Big City Mayors adopted a declaration calling
homelessness a national disaster. They called on the FCM to develop
options for a national housing policy. 

In June of 1999, the FCM adopted the National Housing Policy Options
Paper which set a target of 70,000 new units each year for ten years. Of
that total, 10,000 units would be renovated existing units, 20,000 would
be new units and 40,000 would be rent supplements paid to low-income
households. 

The FCM, led by the Big City Mayors, adopted a high-profile lobby of
federal politicians over the past year. 

Earlier this spring, the FCM called together a number of municipal and
non-governmental housing advocates in a one-day workshop that laid the
groundwork for a more detailed housing policy proposal, which includes
more than 100 very detailed recommendations. 

The Big City Mayors are expected to endorse the new national housing
proposal and call on the annual meeting of the FCM (which takes place in
June in London, Ontario)  to step up the campaign for a national housing 
strategy.

Details from the Big City Mayors meeting, including a media release,
will be posted on the Housing Again web site as soon as it is available.

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4. Bracing for another Ontario budget

The Ontario government will release its first provincial budget of the
new millennium on May 2. Housing advocates are not expecting any new
housing initiatives, but over the past year the Ontario government has
shifted slightly from its commitment first announced in 1995 to "get the
government out of the housing business".

In the past year, the Ontario government has announced a new supportive
housing program and new rent supplements for about 5,000 households -
both signs that the province is creeping back into the housing business.
Both initiatives, however, were funded entirely with federal surplus
dollars that came with the signing of the federal-provincial Social
Housing Agreement last November.

Housing advocates will be inside the budget "lock-up" on May 2nd. Any
details on housing initiatives or other significant items will be posted
on the Housing Again web site.

Meanwhile, the Ontario government is preparing legislation to complete
its plan to download social housing to 47 municipal agencies called
Consolidated Municipal Service Managers. The download  started in 1998
when the province started billing municipalities for the cost of social
housing. The law enforcing the municipal download could come as early as
June, but it might be delayed to the fall considering the complexity of
the changes required.

The province is holding a series of top-secret meetings with co-op and
non-profit housing providers and municipalities. The stakeholder groups
have been sworn to secrecy and are not allowed to reveal, even to their
members, issues that are discussed in the meetings.

Full details on the download will be posted on the Housing Again web
site and in future issues of the Housing Again bulletin as they are
available. 

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5. On our site: Supportive housing

Among the many useful features of the Housing Again web site is our
Discussion Area, which is open to everyone. Point your browser to
http://housingagain.web.net,  then  click on Discussion Area. If it’s
your first time, you will be prompted to answer a few simple questions.
You’ll need to make up your own password (and make sure to remember
it!). A day or two later, you will be notified that you can join in the debate.

The Discussion Area is a great place to post questions or  raise
concerns. 

One interesting string started several months ago with a general query
asking if anyone had experience with the Ontario government’s supportive
housing program. There has been a fair bit of traffic over time,
including a good deal of practical information for housing providers who
want to know more about the provincial program.

Take the time today to log into the Discussion Area!