National Housing Day
Demands to all levels of government
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 )