Conservative
policy fails homeless
Ottawa
- Liberal Opposition critics Bonnie Brown and Marcel Proulx are demanding
the minority Conservative government outline the steps it will take to
address homelessness if Canadian communities are to avoid a critical
situation.
“Homelessness
is a dramatic social issue that the Conservatives cannot ignore. The
problem won’t just go away,” said Ms. Brown.
Recent
recommendations from the United Nations Committee on economic, social and
cultural rights recommended the development of a national strategy to
reduce homelessness.
The
Liberal MPs urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to commit to extending the
funding to address homelessness and to ensure funding is available to help
those at risk of homelessness by extending the former Liberal
government’s Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI) beyond
2007.
“We
simply cannot afford to have the federal government avoid the issue of
homelessness. The Harper government should
put SCPI into its list of top priorities, “said Ms. Brown.
The
SCPI program helps 150,000 Canadians who experience homelessness each
year. It
has been an essential and effective community-based approach to addressing
the needs of homeless people and those at risk of homelessness across
Canada. It is also the only federal program that gives funding for
property, equipment and human resources in shelters, soup kitchens,
drop-ins, prevention services or street work.
Mr.
Proulx also took aim at the Conservative government’s failure to make
even the operation of existing programs to address homelessness a
priority. Despite the Conservative’s one-year extension of the SCPI
program, Mr. Proulx says several community agencies are experiencing major
difficulties because of unexplained delays in receiving the necessary
authorization from Conservative Human Resources Minister Diane Finley.
“SCPI
should distribute some $83 million throughout Canada, mainly to community
agencies before March 31st, 2007, but delays by the Conservative
government are forcing some agencies to suspend employees and cut services
crucial for homeless people,“ Mr. Proulx said.
Many
other agencies are threatened by similar situations, or could be forced to
close their doors even though their funding has been approved by all
federal, provincial and local authorities, he added.
“The
federal government must make a clear commitment for the funding to be in
place by April 1st, 2007, if communities are to avoid a crisis in
homelessness.”’
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