Strong stats in
this new report looking at the "nearly homeless" in Canada, an estimated 400,000 people. If we presume our region still has at least 1,000 people living homeless, that puts our population of nearly homeless at 23,000 based on the finding in this report that for every homeless person there's 23 others living at significant risk. Our inability to support people with brain injuries really comes across in this study - two-thirds of the people they looked at in the category of "nearly homeless" had an acquired brain injury.
Not good enough for the federal government to say that housing is a provincial responsibility. There used to be much, much more federal money flowing into the provinces for subsidized housing - let's get those taps open again, because the provinces can't fix the mess that's been created on their own.
1 comment:
At one time the federal government funded Co-operative Housing. This went the way of all good things during the Mulroney years. It was eventually transferred to the provinces and doesn't work the way it once did and no new co-operative housing is now built.
We either have "low income housing" or nothing. Mixed housing will result in a better social balance.
Supportive housing will work for those with head injuries and other health issues.
What would it actually cost to build this, without private companies wanting to make a huge profit? I am sure not as much as the current situation does.
Without decent housing people can not get on with their lives nor children grow to their full potential.
In a country as rich as Canada, decent housing should be a right not subject to market fluxuations or corporate profits or political whims.
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