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MEDIA RELEASE

Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership releases report on homelessness in Canada

CALGARY, June 26 /Troy Media Corporation/ -- A decade of inaction on homelessness, according to a report released today by The Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership, has cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated  $49.5 billion. The report further estimates the annual public cost of homelessness at $4.5 billion.

The report's author, Gordon Laird, writes that federal spending on homelessness amounted to only 17 cents per Canadian per day in 2006, down from 20 cents in 1991. The report, Shelter: Homelessness in a Growth Economy, cites a lack of national leadership for the intransigence of homelessness in Canada. "Canadian governments" said Laird, "have focused more on short-term crisis management over long-term strategic investment. Their response to homelessness over the last decade has sometimes bordered on outright neglect. In practical terms, absenteeism on housing and homelessness has exacerbated efforts to reduce poverty in Canada."

Laird found that:

• Housing insecurity is a national concern, with more than 2.7 million households paying too much of their income to keep a roof over their heads.

• In 2005, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Canadians were homeless.

• Nearly one-in-seven users of emergency shelters across Canada are children.

• One third of Canada's homeless is between the ages of 16 to 24.

• An estimated 1.2 million children, one in six, live in poverty in Canada.

• Aboriginal Canadians are vastly overrepresented in homeless counts.

• In 2006, nearly one quarter of all new Canadians were paying more than half of their family income on rent.

• Poverty is now the leading cause of homelessness in Canada.

• Roughly half of all Canadians live in fear of poverty.

• A lack of affordable housing threatens both low and middle income Canadians.

• Homelessness costs Canadian taxpayers between $4.5 and $6 billion every year.

• Homelessness leads to other societal ills, including malnutrition, unemployment, addiction, mental illness and family strife.

To combat homelessness, Laird recommends in his report:

• Relieve low-income Canadians from making a choice between food and shelter by indexing welfare, shelter and social assistance to inflation.

• Develop alternatives to traditional home ownership, including developing market and non-market units, rent-to-own, with incentives for households, builders and municipalities.

• Invest in affordable housing alternatives such as independent housing trusts, mixed income co-operatives, and even non-traditional interim shelters such as Tent City.

• Municipalities rezone for new basement suites.

• Government downloading of responsibilities should be stopped unless accompanied by funding.

• Use rent supplements to make up the difference between affordability and market rents.

"It isn't necessary for governments to continue studying the problem of homelessness," said Laird. "It has been studied to death. It is now time to take action and formulate an effective strategy to eradicate homelessness."

To download a copy of Shelter: Homelessness in a Growth Economy, click here or copy and paste http://www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca/main/page.php?page_id=107

About the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership

The Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership was created from a bequest by Sheldon M. Chumir, Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, businessman, civil libertarian and Alberta MLA (1986 - 1992). Mr. Chumir believed that ethical values are fundamental to a healthy society, and wished this Foundation to operate so as to influence ethical actions in the practical world of politics, business, government as well as community structures and processes.

Mr. Chumir has been described as a "challenging man" in that he challenged his friends and society to be all they could be. He chose to dedicate the bulk of his assets to the creation of a foundation to continue his challenge to us - to ensure leadership motivated by ethical resolve and purpose.

www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca

For more information:

Gary Slywchuk

Troy Media Corporation

(403) 835-8192

gary.slywchuk@troymedia.com

 

This email was sent by: Troy Media Corporation. 10512 Braeside Dr. SW Calgary AB T2W 1B8 Canada.