Ontario Election: Group Urges Voters to Make Homeless Crisis Key Issue

A Grassroots Group of Municipal Politicians is urgent voting to make homelessness a provincial election Issue, with the Equivalent of A City Larger Than Sarnia Living On the Streets Across Ontario.

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Calling Ecumpments that have cropped up in Communities Big and Small in recent Years a “Human Rights Crisis,” The Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People is asking Voters to consider where the Major Parties Stand on the Homelessness Crisis and their plans to fix it .

Chatham-Kent coun. Alysson Storey, a coalition member, hopes it will accomplish Several Things, the First Being Raising Awareness of the Issue with all parts During the Campaign.

“That Way, Whoever is Ultimately Elected Goes Into Term Knowning That People Are Paying Attention to How The Provincial Government is Treating People Experiencing Homelessness,” She Said.

The Crisis Ontario Municipalities Face Has Come About after successive Governments’ Inaction on Housing and Homelessness, The Coalition Says. It Wants the Next Ontario Government to Prioritize Providing A Home For Everyone Who Needs One and Upholding People’s Human Rights, Locat of Housing Status.

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The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Advocacy Group Estimates There Were More than 80,000 Homeless Ontarians in 2024, the Equivalent of A City Larger Than Sarnia. The Total has increesed by 25 per hundred since 2022.

There are more than 1,400 Homeless Provincewide camps, Amo Says.

Though Homelessness, Once Most Common in Larban Urban Centers, is now Being Felt in Smaller Communities, the problem is not a top Priority for Ontario Voters, A New Poll Suggests.

In A LEGER Poll Conded for postmedia and published feb. 10, Four per hundred of respondent Ranked Poverty, Homelessness and Encoxes As their Most Important Election Issue and the Deciding Factor in their vote. Three per hundred of respondents ransomed crime, Policing and Public Safety As Their Top Issue.

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The rising cost of living and housing affordability ranked highst in the light survey, at 20 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

The Coalition also is troubled by the previous government’s moves to add the homelessness crisis, Said Member Sam Trosow, A Professor Emeritus at Western University’s Law School.

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Government Tabled Legislation To Crack Down On Encholes and Drug uses in Public Spaces Late Last Year. They also vowed to use the notwithstanding clause, which lets legislatures temporal override certain sections of canada’s charts and freedoms, if the laws were challenged.

“It would tramp on the charter rights of very vulnerable and defenseless canadians,” Said Trosow, who’s also in London Councillor. “Just because the legislation is gone, because the legislature is not in session, do not mean that the thread is not still out there.”

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Storey Said the Coalition Wants A “Firm Commitment from All parts to Ensure That they will not consider the notwithstanding clause to strip som of the Most Vulnerable People in our Society of Their Human Rights.

“Our advocacy at the end of last year results in the first steppe back from his statement to use the notwithstanding clause,” storey said. “(That) Means we can shift the political tide on this outcome.

“No one in our community wants to see our Friends and family living in tents downtown when’s -20 degrees out,” she added. “The good news is we know what works – and that is building supportive housing for people experience Homelessness.

She added it is a proven method, Much Less Expensive and much safer for all involved.

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Another Challenge was the previous provincial government Didn’t Seem will to Join municipalities at the Table “To help us Tackle Humanitarian Crisis That is Homeless Encampments,” Storey Said.

She added it is “Confusing and disappointing” that chatham-kent, which has at least 10 Known camps, Received only $ 282,000 from the province to help down downdn Wind Much Smaller Southwestern Ontario Got Millions.

“Why?” Said Storey. “It’s Time to Ring the alarm Bells in Chatham-Kent and make sure that our needs are added when it is comas to dealing with frames.

How CAN Homeless people vote?

People within Permanent Address can still vote in the general election, but it requires some extra steps. Elections Ontario Considers The Place The Individual has returned to most often to eat or sleep in the last weekes as their Address.

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For people without identification showing both their name and home address, the administration of their shelter, food bank or community health-card facility can provide a temporal form of id the elector can use to vote.

Where the Stand Parties. . .

Liberals

As part of her party’s plan to add poverty, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has pledged to double ortario disability support program benefits. About 500,000 Ontarians Rely on the Payments support, Which Max Out at $ 1.368 in Month.

The Liberals also have pledged to introduce a phased-in back control system, similar to manitoba’s, and move to see disputes at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board Resolved Within Two Months.

The Party also Pledges to Establish the Rental Emergency Support for Tenants Fund to Help Vulnerable Reviction During Financial Emergencies.

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New Democrats

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles Has Vowed to End Chronic Homelessness and Make Encampments A Thing of the Past If Her Party Forms Government.

The party promised to create 60,000 new supportive housing units as part of its plan to build hungs of thousands of permanently affordable units in coming years.

The NDP also are pledging to have to the province Take over shelter funding, Tooben the barden offenies. The party also promised to introduce robust protections for renters and double social assistance rates to keep people in their homes.

Progressive conservative

The Progressive Conservative Government Announced Just Before the Election Call That It was Providing $ 75.5 Million to municipalities to help them Wind Down Camps by Creating More Emergency Shelter Spaces and Affordable Housing Units.

Days before Premier Doug Ford Called the Snap Election, The PC Government Committed $ 529 Million to Fund 18 New Addiction Treatment and Recovery Hubs, Including 60 Beds at London’s Salvation Army Center of Hope and Locations in Sarnia, Windsor and Oxford County.

The PC Government Tabled the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act in December, Which Prohibits Use of Illegal Drugs in Public Spaces. The Bill Died When the Snap Election was Called.

With Files from Ellwood Shreve, Chatham Daily News
[email protected]
@Jenatlfpress

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