The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) has released a report, Our Choice for a Better Ontario: A Plan to Cut Poverty in Half by 2020 (in PDF). The report includes thirty concrete recommendations including:

• establish a fair minimum wage that is permanently indexed to half of the average hourly wage;
• provide universal preventative health and dental benefit coverage to all low-income Ontarians;
• build 100,000 new units of affordable housing by 2020;
• build community food centres to build food security in remote reserve communities focusing on harvesting, preparation and consumption of local traditional foods;
• guarantee child care and access to any form of post-secondary education for all single parents in Ontario.

For more information read two stories in The Star, "'Time to be bold' in poverty fight" and "Ontario food banks seek 'guerrilla war' on hunger."

A disabled activist and member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has received an apology from a Toronto restaurant who discriminated against him. The manager at the Everest restaurant had told Aaron Shelbourne's assistant that they were not welcome back after they had finished a meal because wheelchairs could damage the newly renovated restaurant. Read a more, watch a video, and see some pictures of Aaron's campaign on the OCAP website.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission has released a report, Right at home: Report on the consultation on human rights and rental housing in Ontario (in PDF) that focuses on housing as a human right, and sets out a framework for collective action to identify, remove and prevent discrimination in rental housing. You can read more about the report on the Wellesley Institute blog, "Powerful historic report links housing rights to housing action" and read a number of backgrounders on the Ontario Human Rights Commission site.

The Wellesley Institute has sponsored an innovative research report by the FTM Safer Shelter Project Research Team about the unique needs of homeless trans men (female to male (FTM)/ Transgender/Transsexual) in the Toronto shelter system. It was a collaborative, community-based research project led by and for our trans communities, with the aim to radically improve access to shelters and housing for trans men (female-to-male) in and around Toronto. Download the Full Report - Invisible Men: FTMs and Homelessness in Toronto.

You or your organization can make submissions to the Ontario Government's poverty reduction strategy on the Growing Stronger Together website. See an earlier PovNet story for more information about poverty reduction strategy.

Colour of Poverty Campaign is trying to ensure the Ontario government's poverty reduction strategy begins to address the reality that people of colour are disproportionately living in poverty in comparison to other groups and face specific barriers because of issues like discrimination and racism. Read about their demands below and the attached Shared Framework for Action:

Dear Colour of Poverty Network Members and Supporters

May 2008

As you know, the Provincial Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction has begun its consultation process. The approach adopted by the Committee would appear to be to avoid addressing the particularly harsh experiences of historically and dispropor-tionately disadvantaged groups & communities - racialized persons, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, newcomers or lone-parent families - and to conduct closed door invitation only sessions - which will exclude most members of the concerned public.

It is important for members of racialized communities as well as other marginalized groups to find a way to be most meaningfully engaged in this critical discussion - and to try to make sure that the realities and issues impacting our communities are on the table.

In order to help mobilize and support members of our communities to best participate in this process, *Colour of Poverty* has created a *Shared Framework for Action.*

The *Shared Framework for Action* is a short priority list of the policies and measures as put forward by members of the various racialized groups and individuals who were able to take part in our over 30 local workshops and neighbourhood conversations - held in communities across the province over the past 6 months - which culminated in the *Colour of Poverty Provincial Forum* held on April 28-29, 2008.

This *Shared Framework for Action* focuses on the specific measures that participants felt would best address & redress the realities & the particular challenges characteristic of racialized poverty in Ontario. We are calling upon all community groups and individuals concerned about these issues to engage in one or more of the following *ACTIONS* -

1. Endorse the **Colour of Poverty Shared Framework for Action
2. Write to your local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) introducing them to, and getting their support for the Shared Framework for Action
3. Ask for a meeting with your MPP – as well as your local media contacts - to more fully introduce, share and discuss the Shared Framework for Action
4. Organize meetings within your local groups and communities to discuss the local and provincial application of the Shared Framework for Action
5. Attend the consultation meetings of the Cabinet Committee and help us to consistently and coherently put forward the Shared Framework for Action

HURRY! The Cabinet consultation process ends soon. We need to act now & act together !!

*For more about the Cabinet consultations - www.Ontario.ca/GrowingStronger

Various community groups are keeping a close eye on the ongoing consultation of the Ontario Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction. For a variety of informed viewpoints on Ontario's poverty reduction strategy and consultation, read the following:

• OCAP: Poverty reduction committee 'a distraction', an interview with an OCAP member
• Poverty Watch Ontario is a website that maintains a log of community events on poverty reduction and attempts to monitor cross-Ontario activity on the poverty reduction.
• OCAP - The Ontario Liberals and 'Poverty Reduction': Are they Trying or Lying?
• Toronto Star editorial - "Why we must talk about race when we talk about poverty"
• 25-in-5: Network for Poverty Reduction - Recent news, media and resources on poverty reduction.

According to the Wellesley Institute blog, the Toronto City Council's Executive Committee has adopted a panhandling strategy that ensures panhandlers have access to housing, supports and income. This buckles the trend of legislation that has tried to criminalize panhandling including Ontario's Safe Streets Act and BC's Safe Street Act.

In 2007, the city conducted a Panhandling Pilot Project (in PDF) to provide social services to people panhandling and to educate the public about urban poverty. The pilot project found that generally panhandling was unobtrusive, that many panhandlers experienced social isolation and loathed the fact that they had to panhandle. The project also found that an intensive social service response was more successful then criminalization. You can read a personal story about the Panhandling Pilot Project on the Toronto City website - "A story to tell : Retirement from Adelaide and York".

Read an article in the Toronto Star, "Poverty 'steals from your soul'" about a board member of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) travelling to Ottawa to describe to the senators what it is like to live in poverty in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood.

Thanks to lobbying by anti-poverty advocates and activists, the Ontario government has invested $5 million dollars into rent banks to help renters who are facing eviction stay in their homes ("Families in need get help with rent"). A Rent Bank gives a short term loan or grant to eligible renters who are facing eviction. The Ontario Rent Bank Network has more information about the program.

A payday loan is a short-term high-interest loan, typically marketed as easy cash to cover costs until the borrower’s next payday. Payday lenders have popped up all over Canada in the last decade. They often charge exorbitant interest rates for small loans and typically target poor neighbourhoods and working poor people.

• The Ontario government recently introduced legislation to curb abusive payday lending practices. Read about the Payday Loans Act, 2008, read an Ontario Government press release, "It’s about fairness: new payday lending law to regulate industry" an article in the Toronto Star, "Payday loan crackdown." As well, you can support ACORN's actions to regulate predatory payday lending.
• The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has a publication, "The Cost of Payday Loans" (in PDF or HTML) which explains payday loans, describes their costs, and compares these costs with other types of loans available to consumers.
• "A Matter of Interest" is a 2004 Toronto Star series on payday loans.
• The Centre for Responsible Lending has information disputing the claims of the payday lending industry.

In Toronto, three army reservists accused of killing a homeless man were allowed to plea guilty to reduced charges. The soldiers were originally charged with second degree murder in the beating death of a man in a Toronto park. One solider was apparently overheard saying that he hated homeless people. Read more in a CBC article, "Reservists plead guilty in fatal beating of man" and in the Toronto Star article, "Guilty pleas in homeless man's death".

While in Vancouver, according to the Tyee, at least 56 homeless people have died in the last two years. This is at least 19% higher than the general population. Read more, "BC's Homeless Death Toll: 56 or More in Two Years."

The Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa has released its Fourth Report Card on Ending Homelessness. The Alliance found in 2007: more children in families were in shelters, on average there were longer shelter stays, average rents in Ottawa increased, the Action Ottawa program built 73 low income housing units, there was a decrease of households on wait lists for supportive housing, and 9567 households at risk of losing their housing were helped. Download the Fourth Report Card on Ending Homelessness - Highlights English, in Français (in PDF), the Full Report Card in English or Français (in PDF).

• Ontario Budget 2008
• CBC - "Ontario budget funds modest tax cuts, retraining program"
• Wellesley Institute - "WI backgrounder: 15 times more money for roads than for homes?"
• CCPA - Ontario Budget 2008: The Last of the Easy Budgets (PDF file)
• ODSP Action Coalition - attached (doc file)

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ODSP Action Coalition press release March 25 2008.doc	42.5 KB

Ontario's provincial government has announced a new poverty reduction strategy including a dental plan for low income residents, enhancement to the Student Nutrition Program and $100 million to repair affordable housing units. Follow the links for more information:

• Ontario Governmnet Backgrounder - McGuinty Government Announces Three Priority Programs to Kickstart Poverty Reduction Strategy:
• Income Security Advocacy Centre Response - Premier's Poverty Reduction Announcement - "A Good Start, but a Long Way to Go"(in PDF)
• The Star's War on Poverty series
• Opportunities Waterloo Region - Poverty Reduction Strategies
• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - "Provincial strategy cannot defeat poverty without addressing mental health and addictions"
• Ontario Campaign 2000 - A Poverty Plan for Ontario – What Actions can you take in Spring 2008?(in PDF)

The City of Toronto is becoming increasingly divided by income, ethno-cultural characteristics, and socio-economic status, says a new report, The Three Cities within Toronto (in PDF), issued by the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at the University of Toronto. No longer a “city of neighbourhoods,” the study calls modern-day Toronto a “city of disparities.” In fact, Toronto is now so polarized it could be described as three geographically distinct cities made up of 20 percent affluent neighbourhoods, 36 percent poor neighbourhoods, and 43 percent middle-income earner neighbourhoods and that 43 percent is in decline.

The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) and the Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) have launched a Housing Not War campaign to demand that funding the federal government has directed towards war and militarism go instead towards housing and a "1% solution." TDRC says that if an additional 1% of the federal budget was allocated towards social housing, it would bring spending up to $4 billion per year. You can sign the Housing not War Declaration online.

The City of Toronto released a draft 10-year housing strategy called Housing Opportunities Toronto (HOT) on which outlines a plan is to create 209,000 new and renovated affordable homes over the next decade. The Wellesley Institute has a in-depth "Backgrounder on Toronto's 10 Year Housing Strategy" (in PDF). Read the original draft plan and press release on the City of Toronto's Housing Opportunities Toronto (HOT) site.

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg declared that he would reduce homelessness in New York City by two-thirds, but according to an article in the New York Times, "Homelessness: Tackled, Not Beaten, by a Mayor With Formidable Goals," that despite some new initiatives and a reduction of people using shelters, the number of homeless families has reached an all time high. This should be alarming to Canadians because cities in Canada are looking to the New York example to solve our own problems with homelessness. In Vancouver, the police are advocating the New York solution to solving Vancouver's "street disorder problem." Politicians in Toronto have also looked to New York, read more on the Wellesly Institute Blog and to see how New York homeless activists are fighting homelessness in their city see: Coalition for the Homeless and Picture the Homeless.

The Ontario Campaign 2000, a campaign to reduce child poverty has released a report called: A Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario (in PDF) that calls on all Ontario political parties to committ to poverty reduction. Canadian Social Research Links has a couple of links to articles on the strategy for Ontario.