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An extra $2 million toward affordable housing and fighting homelessness each year was promised by Jim Watson at his first campaign announcement Sunday.
If re-elected as mayor, Watson said he would direct the city to increase its current $14-million housing and homelessness budget to $16 million annually.
“The focus of these dollars is to reduce chronic homelessness by building a city where everyone has a safe and affordable place to live,” Watson said at his campaign office Sunday afternoon.
Watson also said he would aim for a 15-per-cent reduction of emergency-shelter use in the next five years. “That means helping about 1,000 people get the support they need to stay out of a shelter,” he said. “To reach this goal, I will take steps to shift our collective focus away from short-term fixes towards long-term solutions.”
The extra $2 million each year would come from provincial upload money to the city, said Watson, who was the provincial minister in charge of setting those agreements. He said he’s confirmed the upload funding with Premier Kathleen Wynne. Ottawa expected to receive about $4.5 million this year in upload funding for social assistance.
He highlighted that the city has, since 2010, reduced the number of families living in motels as emergency-shelter overflow by 50 per cent. However, the average length of stay in a shelter has gone from 88 nights in 2012 to 98 in 2013, Watson said.
“We have made progress in the last four years and we need to continue to work together to improve access to supportive housing in our city,” Watson said.
The extra funding would be divvied up as follows: 50 per cent would go to rent supplements and housing allowances, 25 per cent to preventive community supports and 25 per cent to repair existing units.
There are five other people so far registered to be on the mayoral ballot for the Oct. 27 election. The nomination deadline is Friday.
cmills@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/CarysMills
查看原文...
If re-elected as mayor, Watson said he would direct the city to increase its current $14-million housing and homelessness budget to $16 million annually.
“The focus of these dollars is to reduce chronic homelessness by building a city where everyone has a safe and affordable place to live,” Watson said at his campaign office Sunday afternoon.
Watson also said he would aim for a 15-per-cent reduction of emergency-shelter use in the next five years. “That means helping about 1,000 people get the support they need to stay out of a shelter,” he said. “To reach this goal, I will take steps to shift our collective focus away from short-term fixes towards long-term solutions.”
The extra $2 million each year would come from provincial upload money to the city, said Watson, who was the provincial minister in charge of setting those agreements. He said he’s confirmed the upload funding with Premier Kathleen Wynne. Ottawa expected to receive about $4.5 million this year in upload funding for social assistance.
He highlighted that the city has, since 2010, reduced the number of families living in motels as emergency-shelter overflow by 50 per cent. However, the average length of stay in a shelter has gone from 88 nights in 2012 to 98 in 2013, Watson said.
“We have made progress in the last four years and we need to continue to work together to improve access to supportive housing in our city,” Watson said.
The extra funding would be divvied up as follows: 50 per cent would go to rent supplements and housing allowances, 25 per cent to preventive community supports and 25 per cent to repair existing units.
There are five other people so far registered to be on the mayoral ballot for the Oct. 27 election. The nomination deadline is Friday.
cmills@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/CarysMills
查看原文...
