Ontario’s Big City Mayors, led by Burlington Mayor Marianne Weed, have created a good video that explains the need for much more federal and provincial government help municipalities to tackle homelessness. https://solvethecrisis.ca/ The senior levels of government do need to do much more. However, the mayors’ call for action lacks a specific request and focuses only on homelessness and related mental health and addictions challenges. Homelessness is just the visible tip of the affordable housing iceberg, and it won’t be solved without fixing the housing system to at minimum stop the losses of existing affordable units, protect tenants from no-fault evictions, and build hundreds of thousands of permanently affordable not-for-profit and co-operative homes. The mayors also endorsed legal measures to deal with encampments that should raise concerns about how they balance issues of order and public drug use with people’s rights, including their right to housing.
The First Unitarian Church of Hamilton
A Liberal Spiritual Community Since 1889