Julianna Beckett

Canadian point-in-time counts show that, on average, 26 per cent of people experiencing homelessness are over 50, double the percentage in 2009. A University of Toronto analysis reported that 32 per cent of people using shelters are now over 50. Given how much homelessness ages people, anyone who is experiencing homelessness and over 50 is … Read more

A very insightful article from a research partnership based in the University of Toronto argues that joint federal and Ontario government tax breaks and development charge reductions are a gift to the kinds of investors who created much of our crisis of unaffordable housing. Through measures announced this spring, over $5 billion in private tax … Read more

Tenants gained nothing, while the richest Canadians made huge gains. Federal policies that promoted real estate investment—and in emergencies, drove down interest rates—had a huge impact on pushing up the cost of buying a home since 1999. A recently published study showed that: The value of real estate wealth escalated faster than other forms of wealth, … Read more

ACORN Hamilton meets Friday to continue planning its campaign to improve the city’s Housing Emergency Fund. The fund is similar to the Housing Emergency Loan Program that our congregation helped launch in 1999 and which still exists. The city fund provides emergency money to low-income Hamilton tenant households to pay rent or utility arrears and … Read more

Judge’s ground-breaking ruling says discrimination against homeless people violates the Charter; Premier threatens to use “notwithstanding” clause to overrule it An Ontario court judge has rejected a Waterloo Region attempt to evict an encampment from a site where a transit hub is being constructed. And in doing so, Justice Michael Gilson made legal history last … Read more