Rallies will be held in many cities across Canada to support ‘Housing as a Human Right’, which is part of the Pan-Canadian Week of Action for Housing event. The intent is to raise awareness of the crisis faced by thousands of people who are either inadequately housed or are homeless in Canada. Many of these people are the elderly struggling to survive on fixed incomes.
In the GTA, the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing are collaborating to seek more long-term and sustainable provincial and federal government funding to close this housing gap. The purpose of this funding is to increase the amount of social housing and also address outstanding social housing capital repairs.
The GTA Housing Gap Campaign rallies are in response to combined efforts by Councillor Ana Bailão (City of Toronto) and Gene Jones (CEO TCHC) Toronto Community Housing to raise awareness of the housing gap.
Check these links for information on the rallies:
Toronto – November 22, 2013, Pan-Canadian Week of Action for Housing
(Yonge & Dundas Square) 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Housing as a Human Right http://action4housing.wordpress.com/
www.toronto.ca/affordablehousing
http://www.anabailao.com/the_gap_housing_campaign
It is common knowledge there is a huge backlog of people desperately seeking affordable housing in the GTA. Adequate and affordable housing is essential for supporting economic development, ending homelessness, and maintaining stable communities in the GTA and across Canada. Striving for a more equitable society will not be so elusive if this housing gap is closed.
_________________________________________________________
REMINDERS:
1) The FMTA is inviting all Tenant Association leaders and tenant advocates to a “Tenant Meet and Greet” on November 29th at 1pm!
This is your chance to meet other tenant associations as well as councillors and MPP’s. The event will be at 644 Sheppard Avenue East (in the tenant Party room). The building is within walking distance from Bayview Station. Special thanks to the Bayview Village Place Tenants Association for hosting!
Refer to this flyer: FMTA-Meet&Greet
2) Support the “Closing The Housing Gap” campaign by signing the petition at this link:
Petition To Close The Housing Gap http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/close-the-gap/social-housing-campaign-petition/
East York Tenants Group 
Why is there this crisis in affordable housing? Lots of reasons … the economy, insufficient or reduced govt. funding, little commitment to building affordable housing as there is little or no profit margin for developers. And, yes, THERE ARE TOO MANY ALLOWED TO JUMP THE QUEUE UNDER FALSE PRETENCES. Social housing should be for the most vulnerable among us.
An increasing number of people are barely able to feed their families let alone have enough to pay these exhorbitant rents. Some of us work 2 jobs to survive. More affordable housing is needed. This indifference to the shortage of affordable housing is not only causing tremendous difficulties to ordinary people but is a blight on Canada’s reputation.
Governments are indifferent to the financial needs of senior citizens with fixed incomes. Necessities of daily living and housing should be reduced for senior citizens and government regulated. Being old has become a liability in our money-oriented society. Senior citizens are the lowest priority especially to our governments because their tax contributions are the lowest in our population and they cost governments money. They are considered a burden after spending a lifetime serving society through their hard labour. Their only weapon is their vote, but no party seems to defend some of the weakest citizens beyond electoral promises. No one should be paying more than 50% of their income for housing. It is a disgrace and everyone’s responsibility to react to rectify the situation. Who wants our votes?
I AM A sENIOR CITIZEN WHO APPLIED FOR sENIOR HOUSING SOME SEVEN YEARS ( HOUSING CONNECTIONS ) AGO TO NO AVAIL. RIGHT NOW I LIVE ON A GOVERNMENT PENSION AND AM PAYING MORE THAN 50% IN RENT.PAYING HEAT,HYDRO,PHONE,CABLE ETC; leaves me little or nothing for any extras. I have worked hard, paid taxes,WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR ME TO GET AFFORDABLE HOUSING?