There are now almost 1 million people on social assistance in Ontario — 451,000 people who rely on Ontario Works benefits, and more than 508,000 on disability benefits. People who lose their housing due to high rents have great difficulty looking for work or training. This crisis is impacting employment in our city.
In 1995, the Mike Harris government cancelled 300 projects with 17,000 units, slashed welfare rates and downloaded social housing to municipalities without providing funding. Our municipal government has failed to address the issue of rental housing being lost to Airbnb rentals.
Harris, whose Conservative government is cutting billions of dollars in public spending, was asked about homelessness during an open-line radio show Monday.
The homeless are " generally people who have made a decision - and for whatever reason we regret they make it," he said. "There are some people on the streets who have made that choice because we have quite a few dollars available for them."
Harris added that his views reflected those of "experts in the field.”
Jack Layton, a Toronto city councilman who heads a committee on homelessness, was so irked at the remarks that he headed to a women's center with recording equipment to ask women there what they thought.
"He's made a very cruel statement," Layton said in a television interview Thursday. "The message is, `Folks, if you're homeless, you have only yourself to blame.'
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