OCTOBER 2, 1999 - Housing For All!

On Saturday, October 2nd, 1999 join the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
(TDRC) in a big day of action on housing and homelessness. We encourage you
and all our allies across Toronto and in other cities and towns across
Canada to plan your own actions so that we can build a powerful chain right
across the country. The themes of the day are "Housing For All" and "Build
Homes Now!"

October 2nd was selected because it is the closest Saturday to World
Habitat Day, designated by the United Nations to be the first Monday in
October. October 2nd is also an important strategic date because it will
demonstrate public support for government re-investment in affordable
housing just before the federal government's Throne Speech in mid October,
in which they traditionally identify their policy priorities for the year
to come and in the next federal budget. The date also coincides with the
debate in parliament of MP Libby Davies' private member's motion, M-604,
calling for a national housing strategy and the implementation of the One
Percent Solution.

Our event in Toronto will expose the depths of the homeless disaster and
its impact on people and communities. We will also point to the solutions,
including housing and services, that can end homelessness in Canada. With
your help the October 2nd event will send a powerful message to Ottawa and
provincial governments that housing for the homeless has to be a top
priority. We're calling on both levels of government to adopt the One
Percent Solution - which would double the amount of funding for housing and
services.

Our big event will get started at noon at Allan Gardens, a part of Toronto
where homeless people have historically taken refuge, and continues to
collect many of the victims of the Homeless Disaster. Then, together with
the homeless, we will walk through this neighbourhood which is one of the
Disaster's worst sites, where large numbers of homeless people sleep in the
parks, the alleys and the stairwells. Our march will end in the St.
Lawrence neighbourhood, an area dominated by successful non-profit, co-op
and Cityhome housing - an area that demonstrates how social housing can
work effectively to house people and create vibrant, healthy communities.
During the event, there will be music, speakers and food.
Visit our Web Site for information about our Seniors Participatory and
Community Quality of Life Projects!  Free Reports Also.

  http://www.utoronto.ca/qol      http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors

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  Long have I looked for the truth about the life of people together.
  That life is crisscrossed, tangled, and difficult to understand.
  I have worked hard to understand it and when I had done so
  I told the truth as I found it.

  - Bertolt Brecht
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Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice:    (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail:   [log in to unmask]