FYI, for interested colleagues.  Barbara Krimgold

HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
SYMPOSIUM ON HOUSING, NEIGHBORHOODS, & HEALTH:
STATE OF THE EVIDENCE

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2003
8:30 AM - 6:00 PM

Harvard School of Public Health
FXB Building, Room G-12
651 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

The Harvard School of Public Health (Department of Society, Human
Development & Health) The Center for the Advancement of Health, W.K.
Kellogg Foundation, and the Harvard Center for Society and Health invite
you to an innovative one-day Symposium entitled "Housing, Neighborhoods,
&
Health: State of the Evidence". Presenters and attendees will discuss
the current evidence of housing, neighborhoods and health research,
interventions, and policies in North America.

The objectives of the Symposium are (1) to advance the housing,
neighborhoods and health research agenda; (2) to illuminate neglected
yet promising research areas; and (3) to initiate collaboration among
participants.

This one-day symposium features speakers from disciplines such as:
social epidemiology, public policy, housing studies, developmental
psychology, urban planning, geography, human ecology, environmental
health, physiology and sociology,

Housing markets are one of the most important engines of inequality in
North America. Inequalities generated by the housing system tend to
amplify other forms of social stratification, and are therefore
important social phenomena contributing to health disparities.

To register for this Symposium please email Dolores Acevedo-Garcia at
[log in to unmask] by June 16, 2003. Space is limited to 65
participants--continental breakfast and lunch will be served.

Attached please find an electronic copy of the agenda.

--
Dolores Acevedo-Garcia
Assistant Professor of Health and Social Behavior
Department of Health and Social Behavior
Harvard School of Public Health



-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Raphael [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 11:03 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New Homelessness and Housing Study

For Immediate Release

'Gimme Shelter' - the cry for more social housing going unheard new
study finds

 Toronto--While all levels of government talk about a national housing
strategy
and curbing homelessness and poverty, there is "unfortunately, no
commitment, no
leadership and above all no funding from any government. Ultimately,
tens and
thousands of Canadians including thousands of children are paying the
price for
our government's refusal to develop and commit to a coherent social
housing
policy."

 "This failure in social policy means that what we are allowing to
unfold is a
national disaster of increasing homelessness in Canada," says Nick Falvo
the
author of 'Gimme Shelter: Homelessness and Canada's Social Housing
Crisis', a
new study by the Canadian Centre for Social Justice.

 Falvo notes that all levels of government are dropping the ball and
that the
number of new social housing units built annually has declined by
ninety-five
percent from a high of 24,000 in 1980 to only some 940 in 2000.  From
coast to
coast, social housing activists have drawn attention to the plight of
the
homeless and as a result, the federal government has promised more new
money for
affordable housing.

 "But talk is cheap. The magnitude of homelessness and housing crisis
means that
the small progress that has been made is barely noticeable. The numbers
don't
lie.  Some 30,000 people stayed in Toronto's emergency shelters in
1999-2000, an
increase of forty percent since the early nineties," says Falvo.

But he adds that even more disturbing is the fact that number of
children
staying in shelters has skyrocketed by 130 per cent over the same
period.  All
are more likely to die, fall ill, and be victimized by others.

 The study concludes that each level of government must return to
spending at
least one per cent of their annual budgets on social housing.  The "1%
solution"
means an additional $2 billion a year from the federal government, and
an
additional $2 billion a year from the provincial and territorial
governments
combined.  This spending must be backed by a new housing bill of rights,
as well
as by new participatory budgeting measures.

-30-



The study can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format from
http://www.socialjustice.org/pubs/gimmeShelter.pdf (and the publication
cover
can be downloaded separately from
http://www.socialjustice.org/pubs/gimmeShelterCover.pdf).



For more information please contact:

Nick Falvo 416-407-3191

John Peters 647-222-8774       Centre for Social Justice

website: www.socialjustice.org

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