>Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
>
>Media advisory         April 18, 2000
>
>Homelessness: Who benefits?
>Who are the homeless makers in Toronto?
>Panelists available for pre-interviews
>
>A growing number of homeless people are dying on the streets of Toronto.
>More than 65,000 people will stay in homeless shelters this year,
>including more than 6,000 children. More than 110,000 tenant households
>are on the brink of homelessness. Since tenants make up more than half
>of the city's households, that means about one in every eight households
>in Toronto are at risk of homelessness. Are a growing number of people
>making a personal, lifestyle choice to become homeless? Is the city's
>Homelessness Disaster an act of God? Are there deliberate political and
>economic decisions being made that create homelessness? Who are the
>homeless makers in Toronto? Who is benefitting from homelessness?
>
>The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and the March to End Homeless are
>co-sponsoring a forum called "Homelessness - Who Benefits?" on Monday,
>May 1st at 7:30 p.m. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
>252 Bloor Street West (at St. George subway station). The moderator is
>Michael Valpy, religious and ethics columnist for The Globe and Mail.
>Panelists include:
>
>Sister Susan Moran, founder of the Out of the Cold program, which
>provides temporary shelter in church basements for homeless people.
>
>Armine Yalnizyan, economist and social policy analyst, whose recent
>studies include The Growing Gap: A report on growing inequality between
>the rich and poor in Canada; and Canada's Great Divide: The politics of
>the growing gap between rich and poor in the 1990s.
>
>Paul Hellyer, leader of the Canadian Action Party and a long-time
>federal politician, whose housing task force in the 1960s led to the
>development of Canada's national co-op and non- profit housing programs
>in 1973 and the construction of several hundred thousand units of
>affordable housing.
>
>Prof. David Hulchanski, an internationally recognized housing
>researcher, who has done extensive work on homeless-making processes in
>Toronto and around the world.
>
>Panelists are available for interviews in advance of the forum.
>
>Please call:  Kira Heineck, Co-ordinator of the Toronto Disaster Relief
>Committee,
>  at 416-703-8482, ext. 113
>
>
>


Housing Now!

Cathy Crowe, RN
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416-703-8482 (117)
416-703-6190 (fax)