Rally for Housing!

 

National Housing Day: Call to Action

SAVE THE DATE: NOVEMBER 22, 2022 – 12PM.
DAVID CROMBIE PARK, Toronto  (Baseball Diamond at Sherbourne/Esplanade)
Download poster here  – 
http://www.shjn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SHJN-tabloid.pdf

Housing in Canada is deeply unaffordable and the crisis escalates everyday. Across the country from Kingston to Vancouver, Iqaluit to Montreal, people are being priced out of rental stock, losing their housing and sleeping in tents, bus shelters and ravines because they cannot access housing or shelter. In Toronto a state of emergency ensues.  80,000 HOUSEHOLDS ARE ON THE WAITING LIST FOR SOCIAL HOUSING while 138 people a day are denied access to emergency shelters because shelters are at capacity. In 2021, the December ‘Toronto Homeless Memorial’ recorded the highest number of homeless deaths per month to date. Despite the dangerous shortage of shelter spaces and the dire lack of affordable housing, the City is planning to close shelter-hotels and continues to attack and displace encampment residents.

 

We must fight back!! 

 

November 22 is National Housing Day. The Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN) is calling for a mass rally to send a loud message to all levels of government: leaving people to suffer and die from lack of shelter and housing can not be allowed to continue. All level of governments MUST build social housing now!

 

If you care about your unhoused neighbour – 

If you are struggling to afford housing yourself – 

If you don’t want to let people freeze to death on our streets – 

 

Come out and show your support on Tuesday November 22 at David Crombie Park (baseball diamond, at the corner of Sherbourne and Esplanade). 

Lunch will be served at 11:45am with speakers, entertainment and rally to follow at noon. We will unite demanding the following: http://www.shjn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Demands-National-Housing-Day.pdf

 

The St. Lawrence Neighbourhood is a success story around the world. It was built when Canada still had a fully funded National Housing Program. The Co-ops, supportive housing and public housing units are homes for thousands of people. Today, the only signs of new housing in the community are cranes that are building unaffordable condos.

_________________________________________________

National Housing Day 

Demands to all levels of government

  1. The Federal Government must:
  • Immediately implement a national housing program that prioritizes the development of deeply affordable rent geared-to-income social housing 
  • Build rent geared-to-income social housing in Toronto: 10,000 units immediately to address homelessness and 90,000 units to address the growing waitlist 
  • Adequately fund housing for Indigenous people as a concrete step towards reconciliation
  • Adequately fund the Rapid Housing Initiative for the next five years to allow the City of Toronto to purchase and/or expropriate property to build social and supportive housing

 

  1. The Province of Ontario must:
  • Provide funds needed to maintain all existing shelter-hotels
  • Create additional non-congregate emergency shelter spaces
  • Increase the Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program shelter allowance to the average market rent in each region
  • Fully fund shelters for survivors of gender-based violence so that there is space for all those fleeing violence. 
  • Invest in supportive, transitional and long-term affordable housing to address the bottleneck faced by shelters 

 

  1. The City of Toronto must
  • Immediately stop the eviction of encampment residents
  • End the planned closure of shelter hotels. Existing hotel programs must remain open
  • Add an additional 2,700 non-congregate spaces to the shelter system and ensure the 90% capacity mandate is met and everyone can access safe emergency shelter

 

  1. All levels of government must:
  • Collaborate with people who use drugs to create access to a safer drug supply and safe shelter options
  • ACT NOW to stop the preventable deaths of homeless people and ensure everyone can access safe housing. Build social housing NOW! 

(Download PDF here: http://www.shjn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Demands-National-Housing-Day.pdf )