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HOUSING AGAIN • Bulletin No 77
December, 2004
The Housing Again Bulletin, sponsored by Raising the Roof
as a partner
in Housing Again.
A monthly electronic bulletin highlighting what people are doing to
put
housing back on the public agenda in Ontario, across Canada and
around the world.
Our web sites are:
Housing Again
http://www.housingagain.web.net .
Raising the Roof Shared Learnings on Homelessness
http://www.sharedlearnings.org
Raising the Roof
http://www.raisingtheroof.org
If you have any tips for the Bulletin please e-mail:
annemariea@nrupublishing.com or
haille6@rogers.com
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Community Spotlight: Calgary Homeless Foundation
Feature: Building on faith
News Briefs: Opening the door on crack; Rent supplements work; New
FCM
housing and homelessness reports; First national research
conference;
and Special book price for Housing Again readers.
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Calgary Homeless Foundation -
the bricks and mortar of affordable
housing
"All Calgarians will have access to housing where they feel safe
and
secure."
This was the dream for the founders of the Calgary Homeless
Foundation
when it was conceived in 1998 by a well known and successful
Calgary
businessmen Art Smith, who still remains involved on its board
of
directors. With the support of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, Mayor
Al Duerr
and city CEO Paul Dawson, together they were
determined to do
something about homelessness. And with the help of the
Calgary Chamber
of Commerce and the United Way of Calgary and
Area as sponsors, the
foundation was born.
Its mandate, the foundation's public affairs director Rion Sillito
told
Housing Again, is to "look after the capital funding for
affordable
housing projects." But, they also created a "Funders Table," which
is a
unique partnership between all three levels of government, United
Way,
private organizations and individuals to play a collaborative role
in
prioritizing and co-ordinating community housing projects.
The
foundation implemented the Collaborative Granting Process to ensure
that the
desires and priorities of the community were expressed as part
of any
decision-making about funding new initiatives.
The Funders Table resulted from the need to better coordinate funding
for
homeless initiatives among all levels of government. Once the
Funders Table
was established, it became apparent that other potential
funders in the
community could be approached, including private sector
donors, foundations
and government departments with discretionary funds,
but no history of
funding initiatives to help the homeless. (For more
information about the
Funders Table, go to www.sharedlearnings.org,
click on community initiatives and
do a keyword search for 'Funders'.)
New housing needs land, so the Calgary Homeless Foundation "incubated"
the
beginnings of an organization to make that happen.
The Calgary Community Land Trust is now a not-for-profit society
dedicated
to ensuring "perpetually affordable housing" in Calgary. The
Trust enables
affordable housing initiatives by finding and managing
donations of land,
land and buildings, or funds to purchase land.
Another mandate, Sillito said, is research and education.
Every two years, the foundation releases Housing our Homeless,
an
outline of the state of homelessness in Calgary and a guide to its
plans
to respond to the community's needs. This year's report
includes
"realistic, but ambitious plans" to add 200 units per year
of
transitional housing in the Calgary market over the next five years.
www.calgaryhomeless.com
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Feature:
Building on faith - Spiritual community find solutions to
homelessness
On November 22, National Housing Day, Anglican Bishop Colin
Johnson
spoke on the steps of Queen's Park as six people from the
Toronto
Disaster Relief Committee were being charged by police for
putting up a
few tents. "I say to the government. Power is in your hands. I
ask you
on behalf of the diocese and the people of Ontario to do the
right
thing," said Johnson, who urged his congregation - and the rest of
us
too - to work to make our political representatives keep their
promises
on affordable housing.
Why is it that spiritual leaders of all faiths and beliefs are
fighting
for a common goal like building social housing?
Last month, Housing Again featured St. Clare's Multi-faith
Housing
Society in Toronto, which highlighted faith-based solutions
to
homelessness. But, St. Clare's isn't the first spiritual group to
use
its commitment to community outreach to put roofs over people's
heads.
"The new world is inclusive," said Sandy Cook from Covenant
House in
Vancouver. "Faith is about building community - a bridge to a
better
life. So we set aside differences, embrace our differences really,
and
get to work."
Examples of faith-based organizations getting down to the business
of
affordable housing are evident all over the country - letter
writing
campaigns, fund-raising, political advocacy, community outreach,
feeding
the hungry and marginalized - they do it all.
Cook's group www.covenanthousebc.org, which helps
high-risk,
marginalized youths, is part of an international organization that
was
incorporated in 1972 in New York City. Its founder Father Bruce
Ritter
opened its doors after he found six youths sleeping in his
doorway. Now
there are sister centres all over North America. When a study
by
Covenant House in Toronto www.covenanthouse.on.ca revealed thousands of
young
runaways on the streets of B.C., the service opened in Vancouver
in 1997.
"One thing we in the faith groups have going for us is the
theological
basis (or gospel mandate, if you like) that challenges us and
demands of
us that we care for the neighbour," said United Minister Karen
MacKay
Llewellyn from the Homelessness Action Group. The program
is organized
and funded by seven congregations including, Traditional
Egalitarian
Jews, Quakers, Unitarians, United Church members, and
community
volunteers with no religious affiliation. www.homelessness.on.ca
Twenty-one churches and synagogues in Toronto - and many more across
the
country - run Out of the Cold programs, which provide meals
and
emergency shelter for the homeless.
"Out of the Cold isn't a solution to Toronto's housing crisis - it's
a
band-aid," said housing activist Judy Vellend. "But until
more
affordable rental housing is built, we will work to keep people warm
and
fed, and to offer some hope to those who are marginalized in
our
affluent society."
Habitat for Humanity, which is also connected to an
international
organization, is an ecumenical Christian housing ministry
inclusive of
all faiths and ethnicities. Its members believe in the
conviction "that
every man, woman and child should have a simple, decent,
affordable
place to live in dignity and safety regardless of their
religious
preference or background." www.habitat.org
Siloam Mission in Winnipeg, which describes itself as a
"life-changing
ministry," works with many Aboriginal men and women in need of
housing.
www.siloammission.com Provincial-wide organizations like
Ontario
Multifaith Council address homelessness and housing issues in
their
services. www.omc.ca
Community Action on Homelessness in Halifax lists
a number of
faith-based organizations. www.cahhalifax.org
Helen Iacovino says the Caring Alliance is a coalition of faith
groups
in Scarborough that assists families housed in motels, and is
also
involved in advocacy. www.caringalliance.ca Interfaith Social
Assistance
Reform Coalition (ISARC) is a coalition of faith groups
working on
issues of poverty, hunger and homelessness in Ontario. www.isarc.ca
Kehilla
Residential Programme identifies and champions affordable
housing
initiatives responsive to the needs of the Jewish community in
North
York. It recently held an affordable housing forum, Bagels
to
Bricks. www.kehilla.ca
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News briefs:
Opening The Door on Crack
Walter Cavalieri, from the Canadian
Harm Reduction Network, and Mark
Kinzly and Kevin Irwin
from Yale University organized a three-hour
interactive, action-oriented
workshop on crack cocaine at the 5th
National Harm Reduction Conference in
New Orleans, in November.
http://www.canadianharmreduction.com/
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Rent Supplements Work
The report: From Tent City to Housing - An
Evaluation of the City of
Toronto's Emergency Homelessness Pilot Project
is now posted on the City
of Toronto's website. It's an excellent
resource offering proof that
homeless people want housing, can manage their
own housing and that rent
supplements are an immediate means to that
end.
www.city.toronto.on.ca/housing/index.htm Toronto recently got
a signal
from the province that they may be open to rent supplements again
when a
pilot project for 400 low-income families was started that will see
them
receive up to $300 per month for a "housing allowance." Ontario
housing
minister John Gerretsen told Housing Again that both he
and federal
housing minister Joe Fontana are "open to getting back in
the business
of rent supplements." But, even he admitted that 400 units was a
"small
step" towards the 35,000 housing allowance spaces promised during
the
last election.
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FCM releases new housing reports
The Federation of Canadian
Municipalities released the next report in
its Quality of Life
Reporting System series, which focuses on incomes,
shelter and
necessities in 20 urban communities in Canada. A separate
report, "Moving
Forward: Refining the FCM Recommendations for a National
Affordable Housing
Strategy," was also released. www.fcm.ca
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First National Research Conference on Homelessness
On May 17 - 20,
2005, the Canadian Conference on Homelessness: Stories,
Research,
Solutions will be held at York University in Toronto - the
first
national, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary forum for sharing
and
collaboration in order to explore the links between research and
action, and
to continue to move towards effective long-term solutions in
homelessness
issues. The university has issued a call for papers and
presenters. The
deadline is December 10. www.homelessconference.ca
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Special Offer for Housing Again Bulletin Subscribers
Save 1/3 off
the cover price of Finding Room: Options for a Canadian
Rental Housing
Strategy (Eds. David Hulchanski and Michael Shapcott)
when you use the
coupon attached to this bulletin (pdf). Act now, offer
ends December 20,
2004.
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