Posts Tagged ‘housing’
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Hunger on the rise
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 24 2011
Monthly visits to food banks have jumped 28 per cent since the economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. It does none of us any good to have more than 400,000 children, adults and seniors relying on the precarious generosity of strangers for such a basic need. The report notes that “recessions tend to expose the weak links in society.” The last few years have certainly exposed, yet again, the inadequacy of our social safety net.
Tags: Health, housing, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
A good start for our kids will keep them out of jails
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
March 22, 2011
They need proper nutrition and educational supports, better access to subsidized childcare as well as geared-to- income housing. Their caregivers need better training to create new employment opportunities. Help the parent, help the child. For everything Canada has to brag about on the world stage, at home we are failing our children, and they deserve better. More police and more guns on our streets, or harsher sentences for criminals, will never prevent crime. Until we are ready and financially committed to addressing the root causes society’s ills, they will continue to make victims of us all.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Economic dreams and reality
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Mar 08 2011
The budget of my dream explains that education cannot again be collateral damage in a war on the deficit. So the 3 per cent annual growth in the Canada Social Transfer will be maintained after 2013-14. It would put a clear emphasis on giving access to post-secondary education to students who do not typically attend. The budget acknowledges the deplorable state of education on First Nations reserves and commits to thorough reforms backed by necessary funding.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, Indigenous, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ousted housing board betrayed the public trust
Monday, March 7th, 2011
Mar 07 2011
There was never any effort by management or the board to develop the potential of their tenants, to ensure that tenant representatives had proper training and exposure to anti-racism and anti-oppression skills, so that those labelled mentally ill were not hounded, harassed and bullied. Tenants lived with the frustration of repairs never done; eviction notices handed out without thought or kindness; management’s failure to realize how much tenants dreamed of a better place, where their individual talents could be used, where their contributions could be recognized and their ideas turned into reality.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Summit participants face a painful truth [CivicAction Alliance]
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Feb 17 2011
For the past 20 years, social activists have clung to an idealized image of Toronto as a city that cares for the vulnerable. They have churned out policy proposals and issued demands as if politicians and business leaders were listening. Last week, they acknowledged reality: They aren’t… But the smallest session of the summit had one big benefit: A badly needed conversation began.
Tags: Health, housing, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Slim bridge between Toronto’s two solitudes [housing the poor]
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Jan 17 2011
The recommendations in Vertical Poverty echo the proposals of anti-poverty activists and social agencies. The report calls for a national housing strategy; an Ontario Housing Benefit to help low-income tenants stave off eviction; an increase in funding for non-profit housing; a zoning amendment requiring developers to include affordable housing in residential highrises; a public investment in retrofitting aging apartments and an industry-government task force to tackle the problem of chronic elevator breakdown. In an era of retrenchment, this is going to be a hard sell.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, poverty
Posted in Inclusion Debates | 4 Comments »
Toronto increasingly becoming a city of vertical poverty
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
Jan. 12, 2011
…Toronto’s low-income population is concentrated not only by neighbourhood but by building – in the 50-year-old concrete slab towers clustered around the inner suburbs, according to numbers provided to The Globe and Mail. Many are decrepit and crumbling; their elevators are so unreliable that a United Way report coming out Wednesday calls for a task force specifically targeting their repair. Thousands of interviews with residents indicate these buildings have grown notorious for vermin and vandalism.
Tags: economy, housing, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Push is on for national housing policy
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Dec 04 2010
Surely we’ve reached the tipping point. It’s time to act… Bill C-304, a private member’s bill introduced by MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East)… calls for “a national housing strategy to ensure that the cost of housing in Canada does not prevent individuals and families from meeting other basic needs, including food, clothing and access to education.” To attend or endorse the meeting, email Yutaka Dirks at dirksy@lao.on.ca.
Tags: disabilities, homelessness, housing, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Impoverished voices speak out
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Dec. 4, 2010
“… As soon as that housing piece is not there, not safe, or not appropriate to their needs, it really impacts negatively on other aspects of their lives”… there seems to be some “disincentives” in the forms of clawbacks within social assistance programs. “There’s a constant fear people live with that they’re going to be kicked off their benefits and then they’ll lose their homes and won’t be able to pay the bills,”… each interviewee had a story about how the system works against them and frustrates them. They spoke of a system that fosters fear and disincentive to work.
Tags: homelessness, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Province streamlines social housing strategy
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Dec. 1, 2010
“We look forward to… begin to consolidate housing and homelessness programs, so as to better serve Ontarians…” said David Rennie, the president of the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association… Local reaction, though, wasn’t as enthusiastic… “Our housing programs are so disjointed that it takes a lot of energy to ferret out what anything means,”…The provincial share of affordable housing operating funding was $169 million in the last fiscal year, which is down 14 per cent from 2003. The impact of inflation over the last seven years decreases the funding value even more”…
Tags: budget, housing, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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