By any conventional measures, the Alberta economy is on fire. The unemployment rate is the lowest in Canada, and the annual increase in gross domestic product is the highest. Taxes are the lowest in the country. A rising tide lifts all boats. So, why is it that the affordable housing crisis and homelessness is so […]
Housing
Taking action on homelessness
It’s a short, three-block walk from the downtown Toronto studios of CBC Radio to the St. Patrick subway station (at King and University). After being a guest on CBC’s Metro Morning early on Friday, I made the stroll and counted six homeless people on grates and benches. Even after three decades as a housing and […]
Margaret's House in Dartmouth – sadly, business is booming
Many visitors to Halifax don’t bother to hop across the harbour to Dartmouth (the “poor sister” to Halifax). Fewer still wander up the hill from the ferry terminal in Dartmouth to a lovely, wooden heritage building. The sign outside reads “Margaret’s House”. Inside, business is booming – which is bad news for the staff and […]
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Housing Week in Halifax
Homeless and formerly homeless people, housing and homeless advocates, housing experts and others gathered for a day-long workshop in downtown Halifax on Thursday to help prepare a Community Blueprint on Housing. I was delighted to be invited to lead the session, especially since I have been working with a community reference group on the release […]
Standing room only at Wellesley municipal election housing event
It was standing room only at The Wellesley Institute on Tuesday evening for a special meeting to brief municipal election candidates on housing issues. Most of the time, during election campaigns, it’s the politicians that do the talking, but at the community housing meeting, it was the experts ” including street nurse Cathy Crowe, Toronto […]
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Framework For The Blueprint To End Homelessness In Toronto
Builders use a detailed blueprint to guide them from a good idea to a finished structure. That’s the idea behind the Blueprint to End Homelessness in Toronto.Our blueprint starts with the foundation of more than 30 years of detailed research and reports on housing and homelessness in Toronto by governments, academics and community groups. It […]
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The Blueprint To End Homelessness In Toronto
Builders use a detailed blueprint to guide them from a good idea to a finished structure. That’s the idea behind the Blueprint to End Homelessness in Toronto.Our blueprint starts with the foundation of more than 30 years of detailed research and reports on housing and homelessness in Toronto by governments, academics and community groups. It […]
Continue ReadingThe Blueprint To End Homelessness In Toronto Download PublicationThe Blueprint To End Homelessness In Toronto
Homeless numbers easing downward in NYC
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 […]
Is there a bubble? Will it burst?
The brave economists at the TD Bank are gamely attempting to accomplish several impossible tasks at once. Their latest “housing bubble watch” begins with the warning: – no one knows if there is a housing bubble in Canada, and “it is, by definition, impossible to identify a bubble before it bursts”. Okay, one question mark […]
Housing "downturn" could be next U.S. disaster
Exactly one year ago, Hurricane Katrina tore a devastating strip out of the U.S. economy, and revealed the failure of successive administrations – Democratic and Republican – to deal with poverty, housingand racism. The bigger lesson from Katrina has been that the steady dismantling of progressive social policy has a deadly impact on the lives […]
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