Election Pledges – Accountability!

September 27, 2018
Bulletin 2018 10, Bulletin Bits
accountable, advocacy, community, election, Housing Pledge, housing., mental health, opioids, prosperity platform, prosperity pledge, substance use, Toronto Election Affordable Housing Pledge
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It is hard to keep track of the many candidates and ideas happening in Toronto’s election. The Toronto Star has a promise tracker.

Check out the Prosperity Platform and the Affordable Housing Pledge

Pledges and Elections

Keep track of the many candidates and thinngs happening in Toronto’s election. The Toronto Star has a promise tracker: //www.thestar.com/news/toronto-election.html

Prosperity Platform:

You can sign on as an individual voter so that your candidate knows that you voted for housing, transit, child care etc.. All before September 30th: //action.prosperityplatform.ca/

WHAT IS IT?

A campaign to get candidates in the October 22, 2018 Toronto election to commit to implement Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (TO Prosperity)

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Toronto has the highest level of poverty and inequality among Canadian cities. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and families can’t access good jobs, adequate incomes, or affordable housing, transit and child care. More and more people are finding it harder to make ends meet.

WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE?

If candidates commit to – and follow through on – implementing TO Prosperity over the next Council term, hundreds of thousands of children, youth and adults will have better access to good jobs, decent housing, and more affordable transit, child care, and recreation programs.

We’re asking all Mayor and Council Candidates to sign the following pledge:

Given that:

Toronto has the highest rates of child and adult poverty among large cities in Canada
Poverty costs Toronto $5 billion a year in health and social service costs, and lost taxes
Indigenous People, people of colour, people with disabilities, women, LGBTQ+ and newcomers experience particularly high levels of poverty
Thousands of residents wait years for housing, child care and recreation programs
Torontonians face economic difficulties and have trouble making ends meet.

I PLEDGE, if elected to Toronto Council, to work with community, business and faith leaders to reduce poverty and inequality in Toronto, and to support the full funding and full implementation of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (TO Prosperity) and other Council-approved equity initiatives over the 2019-2022 term, including the following approved actions:

7,200 new supportive housing units, at least 8,000 new deeply affordable rental housing units, and 1,000 new shelter spaces
Reduced TTC fares for an additional 157,000 lower-income adults
11,500 new child care spaces, including 5,000 subsidized spaces
40,000 new recreation program spacesPlease mail, fax or scan/email your completed pledge, by September 30, 2018, to:Israt Ahmed, 2 Carlton Street, Suite 1001, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1J3, Fax: (416) 351-0107,commitmenttocommunity2018@gmail.comGiven that:
- Toronto has the highest rates of child and adult poverty among large cities in Canada
- Poverty costs Toronto $5 billion a year in health and social service costs, and lost taxes
- Indigenous People, people of colour, people with disabilities, women, LGBTQ+ and newcomers experience particularly high levels of poverty
- Thousands of residents wait years for housing, child care and recreation programs
- Torontonians face economic difficulties and have trouble making ends meet.
I PLEDGE, if elected to Toronto Council, to work with community, business and faith leaders to reduce poverty and inequality in Toronto, and to support the full funding and full implementation of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (TO Prosperity) and other Council-approved equity initiatives over the 2019-2022 term, including the following approved actions:
- 7,200 new supportive housing units, at least 8,000 new deeply affordable rental housing units, and 1,000 new shelter spaces
- Reduced TTC fares for an additional 157,000 lower-income adults
- 11,500 new child care spaces, including 5,000 subsidized spaces
- 40,000 new recreation program spaces
- full funding and full implementation of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (TO Prosperity)
www.ProsperityPlatform.ca

2018 Toronto Election: The affordable housing pledge

For more information email TOHousingPledge@gmail.com. Follow us on twitter @housing_to

Find Who has pledged: //tohousingpledge.ca/who-has-pledged/

1.No more homeless deaths
Since the last municipal election, 201 homeless people have died. We’re on the path to protecting people from the elements by creating 1000 new shelter beds, and upgrading respite centres and Out of the Cold programs. Now we also need to ramp up the tools we have – housing allowances and appropriate supports, first and last month’s rent, legal and family support — to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.

I pledge: to fulfill City Council’s commitments to upgrade our emergency shelter system to ensure it has the capacity to meet immediate needs, and to develop and fund a systematic approach to preventing homelessness.

2. Financial stability for Toronto Community Housing
TCHC houses 58,500 of Toronto’s lowest-income families and seniors. We can’t afford to lose a single home. Toronto promised to introduce a permanent funding formula in 2019 to put TCHC on a stable financial footing and end the cycle of crises, bailouts and lost homes.

I pledge: to establish a predictable, sustainable operating and capital funding formula for all 58,500 homes now owned by Toronto Community Housing.

3. Make “affordable housing” truly affordable
Right now, we define “affordable housing” as anything at or below Toronto’s average market rent. But affordable for whom? In Toronto, a $1,426/month two-bedroom apartment is deemed “affordable” by the City, yet it is out of reach for any household making less than $50,000 per year.

I pledge: to support a definition of “affordable housing” based on household income – not market rents – to reflect what Torontonians can actually afford.

4. Ensure new residential development includes everyone
The typical cost of a new Toronto condo last June was $774,554 – up 23.5% since June, 2017. So where are the 80% of households who make less than $150,000 per year—that’s 80% of Toronto’s total population–supposed to live? It’s time to make sure that wherever there is new development, permanently affordable housing is always part of the mix.

I pledge: to support inclusionary zoning policies that ensure permanentlyaffordable rental housing – including deeply affordable homes – is part of every new development.

5. Mobilize Toronto’s resources to build more affordable housing
We can’t just wait for the private sector. Toronto needs to go “all in” – mobilizing its own land, money, borrowing capacity, planning and regulatory tools – to increase the affordable housing supply.

I pledge:

to make the creation of permanently affordable housing part of the core mandate of CreateTO
to fast-track planning and permit approvals and use Toronto’s zoning powers to expand Toronto’s affordable and supportive housing stock
to bring an “affordable housing lens” to all city initiatives, so that whenever Toronto plans a transit station, or a daycare, or a library, it asks, “How can we use this opportunity to create some affordable housing?”

Mayoral and Councillor candidates: to confirm your commitment to the affordable housing pledge, please email TOHousingPledge@gmail.com no later than October 10, 2018.

Download the pledge: 2018_Toronto_Election_pledge

Follow us on twitter @housing_to