PRESS RELEASE
OTTAWA, ON April 19th 2022 The University of Ottawa’s Centre for Research on Education and Community Services and the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa will host a virtual discussion on Wednesday, April 20th, at 7PM, to explore how Ottawa can and must stop the loss of affordable housing units in the city. This is the second event of the “Starts With Home” campaign, exploring one of its three key messages.
PRESS RELEASE
OTTAWA, ON - Two years following Ottawa’s declaration as the first Canadian city to have a housing and homelessness emergency, the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa has launched the “Starts With Home” campaign. The non-partisan campaign aims to rally residents together to support affordable housing with their vote in October’s municipal election.
The last week has been unlike any other in Ottawa. We are living in a city under siege, by a group of people who have shown deep disrespect for the people living here in serious and increasingly violent ways.
The Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa represents 70 organizations in Ottawa that support people who experience homelessness. Alliance member organizations have released statements expressing the serious impact that this occupation has had on their communities, staff, and the people they support. Today, we call for an immediate and peaceful end to the occupation.
In the past year, Ottawa’s housing prices have increased by 25-30%. Housing has become an investment, a commodity to build wealth. We have a housing market that incentivizes speculation, leading more and more people who rent vulnerable to losing their homes. Housing is not being treated as a basic human right, nor a fundamental tool to build a vibrant city. The people who work here are increasingly unable to live here.
I want to start this with one critical number - zero. That’s the number of chronically homeless families in Waterloo’s shelters right now. London, Ontario recently reached zero chronic veterans homelessness. Medicine Hat has reached zero for overall chronic homelessness. Ending homelessness is not a pipe dream. It’s happening in communities across the country, and it’s happening now. But it requires a change in approach.
“I grew up in the Golden Triangle. I played in your playgrounds, went to your schools, ate in your restaurants. My family was part of the community. I was part of the community. Neighbours would pass by and smile. I was 13 when things changed. Not overnight. For a little while, I didn’t look different enough. In fact, I’d be met with concern instead. People would stop outside the Shepherds of Good Hope and ask if I was OK, or lost. I was still your neighbour then.”
The vote to approve Hazelview Properties’ Official Plan Amendment (OPA) has set a troubling precedent in the fight for affordable housing. The affordability standards defined by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are too low and members of the Herongate community have been left underserved. In the midst of a housing and homelessness emergency, this agreement misses the mark.
We urge the City to renegotiate the terms of Hazelview's Official Plan Amendment (OPA) to create a more effective agreement for affordable housing. Despite significant efforts by City staff and Councillor Cloutier to negotiate the inclusion of affordable housing in the OPA for the Herongate community, the commitments by Hazelview are simply not good enough. As this deal with Hazelview is the first of its kind, it is critical to get this right.
Communities are reducing homelessness all over this country and showing that it can be done. Just two weeks ago, London, Ontario ended veterans' homelessness. Ottawa City Council declared a Housing and Homelessness Emergency last year in January, and while many of the key ingredients to reduce homelessness are outlined in the work plan, there is not enough urgency.
Aimed at housing 100 households in 100 days, the Housing Blitz was a community-wide effort to get people housed quickly and learn more about the barriers to affordable housing in our city. The initiative was led by the City of Ottawa and the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, working closely with Indigenous housing partners.
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