UNDERFUNDED SERVICES

The Alliance to End Homelessness applauds the Citizen for stating
that our community should not be distracted "from the larger problem
of addiction and homelessness."

The alliance has long appreciated the truly generous and thoughtful
people in Ottawa and their efforts to help homeless people. In our
third report card on ending homelessness we documented that 9,010
people were homeless in 2006 and also concluded that we need to
increase the resources that target "the reasons why people become
addicted or homeless in the first place."

The City of Ottawa needs to step up its pressure on the province to
increase mental health and addictions treatment and support services
in our city. Insufficient funding from the Ontario government is
having a direct and increasingly negative impact on services in our
community, from housing to public health to policing.

At the same time, politicians at all levels need to recognize -- and
act on -- the reality that homelessness will continue until our
governments move beyond small, incremental increases in the supply of
affordable and appropriate housing and equally small increases in
income levels for benefits such as Ontario Works, Ontario Disability
Support Program benefits and in the minimum wage.

Those in Ottawa who lend a hand or volunteer with homeless people and
organizations or donate food or some change to "poke a hole in the
wall between panhandlers and the rest of society" are right to expect
and even demand changes to public policies that maintain the status
quo and continue to create homelessness.

Mary-Martha Hale

Nepean

Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness

Director, Centre 454