"Keys to the Home: A Housing Strategy for Hamilton"
Presentation to the Public Health & Community Services Committee
By Craig Foye, Staff Lawyer McQuesten Legal & Community Services
November 9, 2004

Thank you very much for the opportunity to make some brief comments regarding the 'Keys to the Home' Document received by the Committee today. I, and many of my colleagues at the Community Legal Clinics, have read an earlier draft of this document, and I have had an opportunity to briefly look at the final product this past weekend.

It is important to note that the Community was consulted extensively in the drafting and re-drafting of this document. We at the Clinics were consulted, a draft was written and provided to us for review, we had another opportunity to comment before the final product. We at the Community Legal Clinics feel that this is an effective and necessary process for producing community research: a process producing more accurate and actionable research.

You'll be pleased to hear that I won't be speaking at length today about legal issues. I would however like to point out that there remain serious problems with the Tenant Protection Act and the Social Housing Reform Act, the two pieces of legislation that are most pertinent to the work we do with tenants. I have spoken to Council, previously about the need for appeal rights in the Social Housing Reform Act, as well as other problems with that legislation. There are also serious flaws in the Tenant Protection Act, and the Provincial government will be releasing draft legislation to replace the TPA any day now. I would urge those of you in the gallery, and individual members of council, to contact your local MPP and ask them to ensure that this new legislation gets rid of the default eviction process and guarantees tenants a right to a hearing before being evicted.

Although this document concerns overall housing policy in the City of Hamilton , I hope to comment today specifically with regard to housing issues facing low income individuals and families in Hamilton . Hamilton's 3 Community Legal Clinics are well-placed to comment on these issues given that we work with tenants facing problems with their landlords, including evictions, and maintenance issues. We also assist individuals and families with income maintenance issues. Through working with the some of the most vulnerable members of our Community on their housing and income issues, we thereby see the enormous disconnect between rental housing costs and incomes in Hamilton

I was encouraged to read recently that Joanne Priel, Director of Public Health & Community Services, had presented to this committee on the dire poverty issues in the City of Hamilton . This Committee knows that our poverty rate is now roughly equal to that of Toronto , that approximately one in five Hamiltonians is living in poverty, and about the hope-destroying inadequacy of our minimum wage and social assitstance rates.

You may be ware that the Social Planning & Research Council will be presenting their "Report on Incomes and Poverty in Hamilton ", on November 17 th at 9:30 am at the Beasley Community Centre. One statistic you will hear again on the 17 th is that 1 in 4 children under the age of 12 in Hamilton live in poverty. For lone parent families the numbers should set off alarm bells. For female-led lone parent families with children under 6, the incidence of low-income is 81 %. This is not acceptable. This is a very human disaster in our Community. It will also have serious consequences for the future of our Community, as poverty is a strong determinant of health and early childhood development.

It is important to point out that an investment in housing our vulnerable citizens is just that: "a social investment". The provision of adequate and affordable housing would have great effects with regard to future health and social costs, as well as near-immediate benefits with regard to education, training and employability. Indeed, the costs of dealing with absolute homelessness on a per household basis are far greater than are the costs of providing rental assistance and supports to that household in order to prevent absolute homelessness.

The Report before you today makes some reference to international commitments made by our country with regard to housing and other rights (IN particular I would refer you to Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). It is clear that we are currently not living up to these commitments. As you are aware, homelessness has been declared a national disaster in this country by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Hamilton City Council also declared homelessness a national disaster in 2000.

We would like to commend City Staff on this important first step in developing an effective and coherent housing strategy for the City of Hamilton . We see this as an opportunity to work and build upon the recommendations in this report, and we will continue to work with City staff on initiatives that will prevent homelessness for individuals and families in Hamilton.

You will notice that some of the policies to which I have made reference, and which are discussed in detail in this report, concern your counterparts in the provincial and federal governments. For this reasons, we would strongly suggest that politicians from all levels of government sit at the same table to discuss these issues, whether it be on a poverty task force, the Housing Flagship Initiative of the Social Vision, or perhaps an emergency task force to seriously reduce homelessness in our community.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.

Article 11

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.

2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:

(a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;

(b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.

See http://www.unhchr.ch/html/ m enu3/b/a_cescr.htm