HOUSING AGAIN • Bulletin
Number 82 • June 1,
2005
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
Shared Learnings on
Homelessness
http://www.sharedlearnings.org
/
http://www.liaison-itinerance.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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In this Issue:
Community Profile: Action
for Neighbourhood Change
Feature: First National
Conference on Homelessness a Major Success
News Briefs: New
Funding Announcements; New Housing Framework coming Soon
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Community
Spotlight:
Action for
Neighbourhood Change to Address Homelessness
In May, Federal Housing Minister Joe Fontana announced $4
million in funding for Action for Neighbourhood Change (ANC) – a new
learning initiative in five cities throughout Canada that hopes to find
long-term solutions to homelessness. It will explore approaches to
locally-driven neighbourhood revitalization projects that can enhance the
capacity of individuals and families to build and sustain strong, healthy
communities. A big part of ANC’s mandate is to document activities, processes
and outcomes, and use that knowledge to improve the way Canadians address and
manage complex social issues like homelessness.
ANC is funded by the Government of Canada and coordinated by United Way
Canada—Centraide Canada in partnership with their local affiliates, as well
as the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Tamarack: An Institute for
Community Engagement and the National Film Board of Canada. Working
with local residents, not-for-profit agencies and public and private sector
partners, the initiative combines resources in new ways to develop local
solutions for community development and revitalization. The NFB will provide
video cameras and training for youth in all five pilot neighbourhoods. This will
help establish communications linkages and capture important lessons learned in
a personal, creative and meaningful way.
ANC, which is a two-year initiative, will begin in
Surrey, Regina, Thunder Bay, Toronto and
Halifax and based on the results, may be expanded to a number of
additional communities. Funding is being provided through numerous federal
programs within Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Health Canada,
and Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
“This initiative provides a unique opportunity for Surrey
residents to engage in a unique community partnership, where we can build on the
current strengths and relationships to achieve sustainable community change,”
said Linda Western, Project Manager, United Way of the Lower Mainland.
Studies have long shown that as poverty concentrates in
particular neighbourhoods, housing tends to deteriorate, while the incidence of
difficulties like unemployment, illiteracy, substance abuse and crime tends to
rise. Left unchecked, these increased stresses on a neighbourhood can lead to a
self-perpetuating cycle of decline and decay. By building capacity and
leadership at the local level, while providing better coordination of federal
programs, the ANC pilot initiative will help communities strengthen their
ability to build healthy, vibrant neighbourhoods, Western said.
Action for Neighbourhood Change begins with all
stakeholders coming together to identify assets – leaders, facilitators,
organizations and networks – and then develop a vision for neighbourhood
renewal. http://www.homelessness.gc.ca/news/shownewsrelease_e.asp?id=505
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Feature:
York
University Hosts First National Homelessness Conference
Housing advocates initially
hoped that a few hundred people might be eager enough to travel to
Toronto to attend a national conference on homelessness—the first of its
kind in Canada. They were ambitious in their hopes that at least 100 people
would be willing to share their experiences dealing with the national crisis.
“We
were more than overwhelmed, however, after we were flooded with presentation
proposals and more than 800 people sent in their registrations,” said York University associate professor and
chair of the conference organizing committee Steve Gaetz. “We had to free up more
room!”
“This conference is about
sharing and collaboration – finding solutions by learning from people on the
ground, doing the work,” Gaetz told Housing Again. “Often there is a gap
between available knowledge and decision-makers, so the fact that a lot of
municipal staff were interested was quite encouraging.”
Gaetz was expecting about
100 requests from presenters, but instead received 350 submissions for
workshops, book and video launches, research presentations and panel
discussions.
“The submissions were very
impressive and came from all over Canada and abroad and from a variety of
sectors,” he said. “We had to create more space.”
The conference, which was held May 17 – May 20 at York
University in Toronto, was a national, cross-sectoral and
interdisciplinary forum,
Gaetz said. It was designed to be inclusive,
integrating the experiences and perspectives of all stakeholders and sectors,
including researchers, policy and decision makers, service providers, and
individuals who are homeless or at-risk of being homeless.
“It was an opportunity to explore the links between research
and action, and to move towards effective long-term solutions,” Gaetz
said. “In spite of our efforts to date, homelessness continues to exist.
The time was right to bring together researchers of all stripes into one
forum. We wanted to encourage collaboration during and after the
conference, to identify and address any gaps in the current knowledge.”
Federal housing minister Joe Fontana opened the conference,
followed by a keynote address by journalist and author Linda McQuaig
entitled, “Resurrecting the Notion of the Common Good.”
The conference closed with a final session featuring a panel
of stakeholders from across Canada. They provided a summary of the key themes
developed during the conference, as well as a range of identified solutions
(both national and local) to homelessness. And finally, the panel discussed the
next steps in developing a national action plan for homelessness.
Watch for a summary report coming soon.
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NEWS BRIEFS:
Federal Budget
Promises Unconditional Housing Cash
Last month’s federal 2005 budget vote drama approved in
principle the NDP-Liberal deal, which promises $1.6 billion in funding—cash that
isn’t conditional on matching provincial contributions—for desperately-needed
social housing. There are two big roadblocks, however, which could render the
promise a distant dream.
First, the minority Liberal government must continue to
survive anticipated confidence votes in the House of Commons. The second
hurdle—politicians must work co-operatively to pass the budget bills that are
attached to each budget before any new funding streams are approved.
And just in case you think that isn’t a big deal…the 2004
federal budget hasn’t been passed as yet!
Fontana Hints to New
National Housing Framework
The federal government spent the first half of the year
consulting with provinces, municipalities, developers and housing providers
about a new national housing framework. Federal Housing Minister Joe Fontana
spoke recently at the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association annual
conference in Montreal providing a few hints as to what is to come in the new
framework, which is expected to be released soon.
See the full text of
Minister Fontana´s speech on CHRA’s website:
www.chra-achru.ca/CMFiles/The_Hon_Joe_Fontana19FS-5162005-693.pdf
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