Thank you for the opportunity to speak this afternoon.
My name is Marion Wright, and I'm the chair of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa. With me is the vice-chair of the Alliance to End Homeless, Dan Sabourin.
Our message is clear: we want to ask you to take action to keep Canadians housed. The Alliance to End Homelessness recommends that federal action be taken to support a new national housing strategy that will enshrine housing as a human right for everyone.
The consequences of Canada's lack of a national strategy is borne out by Ottawa's increasing homelessness rate, even while Statistics Canada shows a 10.4% increase in the combined housing investments by all levels of government. Only a strong and direct federal role can ensure equal access to affordable housing for Canadians in all provinces.
The Alliance to End Homelessness believes that revamping and better funding of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, will allow the federal government to invest in more affordable housing. As a cost-effective method of funding this investment, we propose that the federal government use the surpluses that will be created over the next 25 years, as the federal portion of the existing social housing operating agreements expire. Increasing CMHC's capacity would address the urgent need for appropriate affordable housing. In Ottawa in 2008, 79% of homeless people stayed in the shelters for 51 days. The Alliance to End Homelessness also proposes that a new national housing strategy include increased and ongoing funding of the federal homelessness and housing programs.
For the past 10 years, homeless funds in Canada have been frozen at $135 million annually. These funds are still being allocated only in two- or three-year periods, a frustrating challenge for communities. They focus mainly on the needs of chronically homeless people, thereby limiting the scope of local assistance.
The Alliance to End Homelessness also believes that an effective national housing strategy will require improvements in the access to, and the benefit rates of, national income support programs—EI, CPP, old age security, and the guaranteed income supplement. This is necessary to assist people on low incomes. Our members recognize that homelessness is an extreme indication of poverty and that affordable housing is fundamental to the success of other poverty measures in income and support.
Stimulus measures are an important opportunity for Ottawa's homelessness agencies and its non-profit housing sector to take on significant projects. But given our experience this past spring and summer, more effective stimulus guidelines are required.
We ask that the committee be mindful that the 7,045 homeless people in Ottawa's shelters in 2008 are not the same people that made up the 6,500 homeless population in 2007. Homeless individuals and families continually find housing, either on their own or with the assistance of effective housing support. It's important to remember that staying in a shelter is the end point of a difficult, devastating crisis for the individual and the family. It is seldom possible to return quickly to a stable situation and find permanent, appropriate housing. We are thankful for the investments that have occurred at all three levels of government, but it is unsettling to see the trends continue to rise. Homelessness in Ottawa is up an additional 7.2% over the increases of last year.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to the discussion.