HOUSINGAGAIN-L HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 18

["Catherine Nasmith" <cnasmith@sympatico.com>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 18
August 31, 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


In this bulletin
1. Ontario housing minister talks about downloading
2. Housing reparations in Turkey
3. Toronto neighbourhood association works for affordable housing
4. Announcements
5. Something new from the web site – check the “Alerts” section


1. Ontario housing minister talks about downloading

In mid-August, housing minister Tony Clement addressed participants at the
AMO conference in Ottawa.  He talked a lot about the province working
together with municipalities to eliminate duplication of services and reduce
costs.  He tried to address the question of how municipalities will make
ends meet financially by referring to money for infrastructure projects
coming in the next year from both federal and provincial governments.  He
also spoke about the importance of long-range financial planning, pretty
hard to do if you’re strapped for cash as many municipalities are.

He also spoke specifically about housing, and alluded to the promised
legislation, which should be coming up in the fall session.  The new law
will officially “download” all public housing and most social housing to the
new municipal CMSM’s (Consolidated Municipal Services Managers).

Public housing – all 84,000 units of it – will be transferred “as is” 
next
January 1.  This seems to be merely a transformation of the current Local
Housing Authorities (LHA’s), complete with all their current staff and
offices, into separate corporations.

Within 18 months, provincially administered co-op and non-profit housing
will be transferred, along with the non-profit housing previously downloaded
by the federal government.  The long lead time is to allow for planning and
a transition period where needed.  Federally administered co-ops won the
right to remain under federal administration a year and a half ago.

Clement says that they want to provide both flexibility and predictable
funding, creating province wide standards for some things such as the number
of geared-to-income units, while allowing room within the provincial
standards for municipalities to respond to local needs.  He promises
simplified administration and a simplified funding model, with economies of
scale for certain functions such as group insurance on a province-wide
basis.  Of course, the details of this apparent paradise have yet to be
worked out, and it will be a challenge to address the concerns of both
municipalities as well as the co-op and non-profit providers.

The provisions of the legislation will replace all operating agreements
currently in place for provincially administered projects.  Depending on
what the bill says and what happens during subsequent negotiations, this
could be an opportunity for a better program, or very bad news indeed.

A week after the speech, housing providers found out about this by getting a
copy of a long Ministry memo written to the heads of municipalities.  Much
of it had been known before, but the Ministry couldn’t even be bothered to
write a separate memo addressing the specific serious concerns of co-ops and
non-profits.


2. Housing reparations in Turkey

A disastrous earthquake in the Marmara region of Turkey a year ago left an
estimated 30,000 people dead and 200,000 homeless.  The main reason for the
extent of the disaster was the total lack of control over building codes and
construction standards in the country.  The Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) sent an assessment team composed of NGO’s Rooftops
Canada and International Centre for Sustainable Cities and CMHC’s Export
Centre.  Their work resulted in a couple of small projects just recently
completed.

In June, Rooftops Canada organized a 3-day symposium in Istanbul for
government officials, building professionals, contractors, unions and NGO’s
to tackle the question of code enforcement, particularly in the context of
retrofitting and re-construction of housing.  A number of Canadians made
presentations at the event, and Rooftops hopes that the resulting
person-to-person contacts and links will make a difference with these very
difficult issues.

International Centre for Sustainable Cities, working with Builders without
Borders (see profile in the announcements section below), are working with
women in temporary housing communities in Turkey to build capacity.  Three
Canadian women technicians volunteered their time to visit the region and
teach women to use power tools for woodworking and handcrafts and run small
businesses.  A fourth Canadian woman documented the process on video.


3. Toronto neighbourhood association works to help the homeless

Annexus: Into the Warmth Project is a neighbourhood-based project, created
in response to the crisis of poverty and homelessness.  Annexus is a
community connection system, whereby the needs of the homeless and near
homeless are matched with programs and services.  Their web site is at
www.annexus.on.ca, and contains information about housing programs and
services in their area, upcoming events and other useful information.

The organization provides a couple of useful services to the homeless
directly:
· Cool, Safe Drinking Water – they are currently distributing bottles of
cool, safe drinking water to people on the street in the Annex.  They will
also be providing permanent water coolers for two local drop-in centres.
· New Socks and Underwear – Currently in the planning stage, Annexus hopes
to collect and distribute new socks and underwear to those in need.

They also have a “matchmaker” service which links up organizations that need
things with people who have things – for example, they mention that
St.Stephen’s Corner
Drop-In is looking for a piano.  Annexus is holding a community meeting at
the Bloor Jewish Community Centre, Main Lounge on Thursday, September 28,
2000 at 8 pm.


4. Announcements

David Walsh tells us that Our Homes Association has $70,000 in a revolving
loan fund that is available for housing projects.  The money was generated
from the sale of properties that were no longer needed.

There are no targeted criteria as such – they’re interested in helping
groups with funds needed for deposits to secure a property, raise second
mortgages or whatever helps.  They can take a higher risk than usual but the
deal still has to make sense.

Interested people should contact David for further details at
dwalsh@web.net.

******************************************

Rooftops Canada is looking for two people to attend the World Assembly of
Urban Inhabitants Conference to be held in Mexico City on October 2 to 6.
The theme of the conference is “Rethinking the City from the Grassroots”.
The conference is organized by Mexican social housing organizations and the
Habitat International Coalition (Latin America).  It will be conducted in
English, Spanish and French and translation will be available.

Rooftops is looking for people who can volunteer their time and who have a
strong background in one or more of the following areas: housing and
homelessness, people’s / social movements, healthy cities, urban issues and
human rights.  All expenses will be paid by Rooftops.  Contact Carol Mundle
for more details – 416-366-1445 (phone), 416-366-3876 (fax) or
info@rooftops.ca.

******************************************

Builders without Borders is a relatively new Canadian NGO whose purpose is
to construct shelter and related infrastructure in regions that have been
devastated by natural disasters or armed conflicts.  Their aim is to help
those most in need without prejudice regarding race, religion, gender or
political affiliations.  Volunteers from within the Canadian building
industry who have experience in the planning, design, construction,
re-construction and maintenance of shelter spend time working with partner
organizations in countries affected by war and natural disasters.

For more information, check out their web site at
www.builderswithoutborders.ca or contact president Neil Griggs at
neilgriggs.bwb@telus.net.


5. News from the web site

Check out the “Alerts” section of the web site for late breaking news on an
ongoing basis.  The most recent item is –

Marchese calls for rent freeze – blanket rent freeze needed to help families
cope

NDP Housing Critic Rosario Marchese is calling for a blanket freeze on rents
across Ontario for the next two years to keep families from being thrown
into the streets.  He will introduce a private members bill to freeze rents
for the next two years, and introduce legislation similar to what was in
place before the so-called “Tenant Protection Act”.

Tenants across Ontario have been hit with huge rent increases in the last
two years, thanks to the Conservative government’s repeal of the NDP’s 
“Rent
Control Act”.  During the same period, evictions in Toronto jumped 15 per
cent, and, by the fall of 1999, landlords in Toronto alone had pocketed more
than $282 million in additional rent.

For more information, read the complete press release on our web site or
contact Gil Hardy in Marchese’s office at 416-325-7118.