“The federal government has an important role to play in reducing poverty in Canada,” according to the Commons HUMA committee in an important new report Federal Poverty Reduction Plan: Working in Partnership Towards Reducing Poverty in Canada. The HUMA (Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities) […]
Ontario introduces draft legislation to replace Social Housing Reform Act, allow secondary suites
The Ontario government has moved quickly to introduce draft legislation to replace the Social Housing Reform Act yesterday, tabling Bill 140 in the Legislature on the same day that it announced its proposed new provincial affordable housing plan. The new legislation weighs in at more than 90 pages, so it will take some time to work […]
Vivacity One: UforChange Launches Its Week Of Graduation Celebrations
Amazing evening at UforChange at its Vivacity One showcase on Monday as the arts-based youth training and employment project launched a week-long celebration for its second cohort of graduates. Students were at the National Ballet School’s Currie Hall to showcase video, spoken word, improv, photography, website design and other great skills that they have honed […]
Continue ReadingVivacity One: UforChange Launches Its Week Of Graduation Celebrations
The staggering health and financial costs of inequality – in Europe and in Canada
Inequality is bad for those lower on the income scale. It’s also bad for almost everyone else, as Richard Wilkinson noted during his recent Canadian tour. More research evidence on the costs of health inequality emerged this week in an article in the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that reports: “Inequality related losses […]
Continue ReadingThe staggering health and financial costs of inequality – in Europe and in Canada
Let freedom ring: Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s words continue to inspire decades on…
As our colleagues and friends in the United States mark January 17, 2011, as Martin Luther King Jr Day, Canadians can also take time to remember his call to action for equality and justice. “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great […]
Continue ReadingLet freedom ring: Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s words continue to inspire decades on…
Wellesley Institute staffers at CivicAction Summit: Analyzing critical issues, networking for action
Wellesley Institute staffers Rick Blickstead, Sheila Block and Michael Shapcott joined hundreds of other leaders from across the Greater Toronto Region for the CivicAction 2011 Greater Toronto Summit on Thursday. They’ll be back again for day two on Friday. Thursday was a day of high-level analysis, on-the-ground focus and – perhaps most importantly – an incredible […]
Federal budget 2011: Nothing to reverse erosion in national housing / homelessness investments
The 2011 federal budget – released earlier this afternoon – does nothing to reverse the two decades of erosion in federal affordable housing investments (as set out in the Wellesley Institute’s Precarious Housing in Canada 2010).
Toronto urgently needs city-wide plan for healthy, inclusive neighbourhoods
The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott warns in the lead letter in today’s Toronto Star that bad gentrification in Toronto has led to increased inequality, poor health, a loss of affordable and supportive housing and deeper divisions between rich and poor. He cites research reports from the Wellesley Institute and others on the costs of growing […]
Continue ReadingToronto urgently needs city-wide plan for healthy, inclusive neighbourhoods
Practical solutions to ease health burden of bad housing
People who suffer from mental illness, poverty and precarious housing face a terrible burden of increased illness and early death. Forty Is Too Young to Die documents the health challenges and sets out four practical measures for health and housing authorities. The report has been prepared by Mainstay Housing, a Toronto non-profit agency that provides housing […]
Continue ReadingPractical solutions to ease health burden of bad housing
Toronto Exec calls for TCHC task force as Drummond report calls for increased federal / Ontario housing support
Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee has rejected a request from its Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) Board of Directors to sell off 740 homes in 675 buildings, and is instead calling on Councillor Ana Bailao, chair of Council’s Affordable Housing Committee, to chair a special task force. The Wellesley Institute joined TCHC tenants and others […]