Posts Tagged ‘homelessness’
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There’s money for police and the World Cup. So why did council give the cold shoulder to warming centres?
Thursday, February 9th, 2023
The city owns big heated buildings that are empty at night. We could unlock the doors and let them sit inside… Instead, [Council] made yet another request to the provincial and federal governments to chip in dollars to help out… the city’s current shelter system “has the ability to meet the need” without doing so… On the icy Toronto streets, when our city government fails to act, lives are at stake.
Tags: budget, homelessness, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
A judge’s ruling focuses attention on the homeless crisis
Monday, February 6th, 2023
A court ruling that Waterloo cannot dismantle an encampment may oblige governments to do a better job of ensuring that people have shelter… Clearing encampments is traumatizing for those being moved, costly for taxpayers and ultimately counter-productive, since it only serves to displace unhoused individuals rather than provide lasting accommodation.
Tags: Health, homelessness, ideology, poverty, rights
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario court rules encampments can stay if there’s a shortage of shelter beds
Monday, January 30th, 2023
In a precedent-setting decision that will have implications across the province, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has denied a municipality’s request to remove a homeless encampment on the basis that doing so – when there is no adequate indoor space – would violate the residents’ Charter rights.
Tags: homelessness, ideology, rights
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Why don’t we zone for rental apartments?
Sunday, January 8th, 2023
The speculation-driven condo business model encourages high prices for land, a dynamic that favours firms that want to get in and out quickly instead of operating a rental building for decades… a dynamic encouraged by the strange fact that apartment buildings are taxed higher than condos. Today, we build almost nothing but condos.
Tags: economy, homelessness, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Moving from theory to implementation on human rights and poverty
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022
Where and how do we advocate for changes in the way our public systems operate so that people experience their human rights in their everyday lives? What can we learn from the way our community partners serve individuals and families? … the people who live with the consequences of our systems that are built to put and keep people in poverty, must be active participants in shaping the solutions that will impact their lives the most.
Tags: disabilities, Health, homelessness, ideology, multiculturalism, participation, philanthropy, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
The toll of police work
Monday, October 24th, 2022
Due to tears in the social safety net, many vulnerable people fall through the cracks, and it then falls to police to pick them up. Police therefore become, by default, de facto doctors, nurses and social workers, as they have to deal with issues for which they’re neither qualified nor equipped: homelessness, addictions and mental illness. This adds enormously to operational stress — and to trauma — for overpoliced, vulnerable people who need care, not cops.
Tags: crime prevention, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Tackling the opioid crisis
Tuesday, October 11th, 2022
… statistics point us to two solutions: First, we need to regulate, rather than criminalize, all psychoactive drugs, and second, we ought to provide a safe supply of drugs to users. Those two solutions were, respectively, the “core” and “urgent” priorities identified by an expert task force last year, but so far, Ottawa has done relatively little toward making them a reality.
Tags: corrections, Health, homelessness, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Profit and affordable housing don’t mix. Period
Sunday, May 22nd, 2022
Canada has a long tradition of governments at all levels providing affordable housing. Absent a profit motive, they can, as they once did, provide decent homes at reasonable prices and rents… The profit motive has its place in our mixed economy. But it has failed us in the provision of affordable housing. Housing will not be a human right until we accompany that noble sentiment with an abundance of affordable shelter.
Tags: economy, homelessness, housing, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Raising the incomes of the poorest Ontarians
Friday, May 6th, 2022
While the cost of living is going up dramatically, Ontario Works and ODSP rates have been frozen since 2018… more than 843,000 Ontarians are living in deep poverty. / Ontario is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. / … precarious working conditions… the minimum wage well below the living wage. / Long-term care residents have suffered more than almost any other group in our province during the pandemic.
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, Health, homelessness, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
We can’t simply build our way out of our housing crisis
Friday, April 29th, 2022
More new housing will help if it’s the kind of housing that is currently lacking, built for the people who need it most. Various studies indicate that 40 to 50 per cent of people in Canada are living paycheque-to-paycheque. That is, nearly half the population of this prosperous country are income insecure. Plans for new housing must prioritize these people.
Tags: budget, featured, homelessness, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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