The Ontario government opened the current session of the provincial Legislature on Thursday, November 29, with a promise to “begin work” on “reducing child poverty” by developing a poverty reduction strategy that would include “more affordable housing”. This promise needs to be matched with funding and programs before it will have any impact on actually […]
Housing
National Housing Day: Despite Promises, Few New Homes And Scarce Dollars
National Housing Day is November 22, 2007, which marks the day in 1998 when the mayors of Canada’s biggest cities declared homelessness a “national disaster.” Nine years on, senior levels of government have failed to deliver on agreements and commitments for new housing spending, and few new affordable homes have been built in recent years. […]
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Ten Things You Should Know About Housing And Homelessness
Everyone in Canada has the right to a safe, secure, adequate and affordable home. The federal government is obliged in international law to ensure people have a home. That, in short form, is the international right to adequate housing as set out in numerous treaties and other legal instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, […]
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Housing And The 2007 Ontario Election
Ontario’s affordable housing crisis remains deep and persistent. More than 600,000 households (that’s more than 1.5 million women, men and children) are in core housing need1, and many more are directly affected by a shortage of homes and high housing prices. The affordable housing crisis affects the personal health of individual Ontarians, it disrupts communities and […]
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Brrrrrr… it's dangerously cold!
The City of Toronto has issued its first extreme cold alert for the winter season of 2007/08 today. Many meteorologists with lots of computer power work together to make the call about extreme cold alerts, but the bottom line is that the weather can be deadly for those who are outside, such as homeless people.
Don't cannibalize TO's affordable housing stock
Toronto City Council will consider a plan to sell about 500 “scattered” affordable homes that are owned by the city on November 20, 2007. The sponsors of the scheme say that that some of the millions of dollars that would be generated from the sale could be used to re-house the 500 households, and the […]
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TO set to launch 10-year housing plan
It has been a while coming, but the City of Toronto is set to launch its 10-year housing plan on Wednesday, Nov. 7. The city's plan is called Housing Opportunities Toronto (HOT) and it comes one year after the Wellesley Institute's Blueprint to End Homelessness was launched. The HOT plan draws on many of the […]
UN to Canada: Take action on housing, homelessness!
Canada has received both a sharp reprimand and a strong call to action in the preliminary observations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, in his preliminary observations at the end of his fact-finding mission to Canada (October 22, 2007).
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Federal throne speech Tuesday: Three questions…
The Speech from the Throne, which will be read on Tuesday, October 16, sets the key objectives for the federal government in the next session of Parliament. The throne speech, along with the budget (which is usually released in February), are the two most important annual policy statements of the federal government. The policy environment […]
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Affordable housing forum with United Nations' expert
A public forum with MILOON KOTHARI, United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and BARBARA HALL, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission. Friday, Oct. 19, 6 p.m., Church of the Holy Trinity, Trinity Square (southwest of Yonge and Dundas). Miloon Kothari, the UN-appointed expert on housing rights, is on a fact-finding mission […]
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