Columnist Gary Mason was right when he wrote in the Sept. 5, 2006,Globe and Mail that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s housing campaign is producing results, but thenumbers are not quite so dramatic as he reports. The number of homeless people in NYC shelters reached an all-time high in 2003 of 38,310 women, men […]
Commons' finance committee calls for housing, homelessness action
Earlierthis week, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance released its recommendations after pre-budget consultations across Canada. I was invited to appear in front of the committee earlier in the fall as an expert witness on housing and homelessness on behalf of the Wellesley Institute.
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Will federal budget deliver new housing program?
The Harper government will deliver its second federal budget on Monday, March 19, 2007. Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, and the federal government continues to run multi-billion dollar surpluses (largely because of huge spending cuts – including housing spending – in the 1980s and 1990s). The Wellesley Institute’s 2007 federal […]
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Talkin' housing with the Bush man!
The charming, even charismatic, Philip Mangano – U.S. President George W. Bush’s “homeless czar” – was the keynote speaker on day one of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association annual congress in Calgary on Thursday, and he didn’t disappoint! Of course, you’d expect that a senior political appointee for the Bush administration would be a […]
TD urges social investment for TO’s "deep pools of poverty"
Toronto and the surrouding Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are “a powerful economic locomotive which produces nearly one-fifth of the entire nation’s GDP”, along with many other economic advantages, according to a new report from TD Economics called “Canada’s Primary Economic Locomotive in Need of Repairs“.
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Wanted: Efficient and fair taxes!
It doesn’t take an advanced degree in tax law or accountancy to figure out that the best tax is an efficient and fair tax. As part of its annual pre-budget consultation, the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance has asked Canadians to tell them about the kind of taxes that we need. The Wellesley […]
25 in 5 poverty reduction campaign
A group of prominent Ontarians, backed by a network of community organizations (including the Wellesley Institute) has launched the “25-in-5” poverty reduction campaign at the start of Ontario’s provincial election. The goal of this non-partisan campaign is to get all political parties contesting Ontario’s provincial election to make two commitments: First, to adopt a target […]
Don't cannibalize TO's affordable housing stock
Toronto City Council will consider a plan to sell about 500 “scattered” affordable homes that are owned by the city on November 20, 2007. The sponsors of the scheme say that that some of the millions of dollars that would be generated from the sale could be used to re-house the 500 households, and the […]
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Homeless for the holidays
With grateful acknowledgement to Clement Clarke Moore, whose poem “Twas the night before Christmas” provided the inspiration for this more contemporary rendering, here is a holiday greeting to one and all:
Unnatural causes – new PBS web site on health inequalities
“Unnatural causes” is a new on-line resource from the U.S. public broadcaster PBS that provides important info on the intersection between poverty, race and health. From the intro: “What connections exist between healthy bodies, healthy bank accounts, and skin color? Four individuals from different walks of life demonstrate how one’s position in society – shaped […]
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