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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