Posts Tagged ‘housing’

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

Ontario pressing ahead on affordable housing

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Aug 30 2011
Queen’s Park is pushing ahead with plans to spend $481 million in federal-provincial funds on affordable housing initiatives despite the lack of a joint announcement of the deal… Ottawa and Queen’s Park inked a 50-50 cost-sharing agreement on July 12 to spend the money on new construction, renovation, rent supplements and affordable home ownership programs over the next three years.

Tags: ,
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


How the mayor could save $100 million

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Aug 31 2011
The scheme was drafted by a coalition of mental health activists… It calls on the city to move people with mental illness and addiction problems out of its homeless shelters. Civic workers would help them to apply for provincial disability support ($1,053 a month). This income would allow them to rent a private apartment… The beauty of this proposal is that the benefits outweigh the costs tenfold.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


The case for a new housing benefit

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Aug 28 2011
Declining tenant incomes have been a major underlying reason behind the growth of the affordability problem. In the City of Toronto alone, the median income of renter households fell by an average of $6,396 between 1981 and 2006… A new Ontario housing benefit would extend shelter benefits to the working poor, who also have high shelter costs, while also supporting those on social assistance… A carefully designed, fiscally prudent benefit is smart policy to help low-income renters make ends meet and take pressure off subsidized housing waiting lists.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »


Politics holding up $481M for affordable housing

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

August 26, 2011
… the agreement between Ottawa and Queen’s Park is formally announced, none of the money earmarked for Ontario can be spent. It means all new construction, rent supplements, renovations and affordable home ownership programs in the province are on hold. Sources say Ottawa is reluctant to sign off on an announcement so close to the provincial election for fear of giving Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals a boost… More than 152,000 Ontario households are on affordable housing waiting lists and an estimated 20 per cent of tenants are paying more than 50 per cent of their income on housing, advocates say.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »


faith to end poverty campaign

Friday, August 26th, 2011

August 17, 2011
On June 9, 2011, ISARC launched the Faith to End Poverty Campaign to ensure poverty issues such as food, housing, and employment remain relevant throughout the provincial election. It is time for governments to make the elimination of poverty a priority through jobs and training strategies, financing for affordable housing, child care and income security, especially when more and more of our labour force is part time, temporary, and contract jobs.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


Statistics Canada to stop tracking marriage and divorce rates

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Jul. 21, 2011
Statistics Canada will no longer collect and crunch numbers on the country’s annual marriage and divorce rates, a sign both of cost cuts at the agency and the changing nature of relationships, as definitions get fuzzier and harder to track… The absence of data will make it difficult to assess how the recession affected divorce rates because it ends at 2008. It will be harder to compare Canadian marriage or divorce rates… And policy makers say they will have a tougher time assessing where and how marital breakdown is affecting child poverty, housing, education and health care

Tags: , ,
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »


One in four Canadians have depended on social services: poll

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

May 25, 2011
Regardless of their personal feelings on why homeless people end up in that situation, an overwhelming majority of Canadians — 93% — believe nobody in the country should be homeless and housing access should be a fundamental right, according to 86% of the poll respondents. Almost all those polled said the homeless population “deserve a sense of dignity.”… Mental illness was also an area of focus in the survey, with it being cited as a suspected contributing cause of homelessness by 40 per cent of the respondents.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


Unhealthy neighbourhoods play big role in obesity, diabetes epidemic

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

May. 17, 2011
There is a worldwide epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Canada’s two million cases of diabetes are expected to double over the next decade, according to a 2008 report from the Canadian Diabetes Association. Three times as many young teenagers are overweight now as there were 25 years ago… People who live in the northern, unwalkable fringes of low-income Toronto… will live about 20 fewer years than those in downtown, vibrant neighbourhoods

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »


Ontario retaining right to veto sale of public housing

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Apr 20 2011
The Liberal government’s new housing legislation requires all municipalities to have affordable housing plans with goals and timetables. And it gives municipalities more flexibility to meet those goals. But advocates said the law, introduced last December as part of the McGuinty government’s long-awaited affordable housing strategy, when too far when it eliminated the requirement of provincial consent for selling housing… The province’s decision to retain ministerial consent may thwart Ootes’ decision earlier this month to sell 22 single-family homes owned by the housing company.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | 1 Comment »


Advocate wants election campaign to address poverty

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

April 11, 2011
Strong social programs will go a long way to improving health among Canadians and they cannot be achieved by cutting taxes, says Mary Boyd of the MacKillop Centre for Social Justice…. a proposal to cut corporate taxes causes us great concern because Canada needs that revenue for its social programs. We really want strong social programs funded by the federal government. Tax cuts are not the way to go about that… that’s the least effect way to create jobs, to help low income people who are in need and to take care of our universal health care system.”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »


« Older Entries | Newer Entries »