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[video]http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2011/01/22/ottawa-homeless-budget-122.html[/video]
Ottawa will spend $14 million per year over the next four years to find stable housing for its homeless people.
Mayor Jim Watson met Friday with the Alliance to End Homelessness and trumpeted the new funding, which was included in the municipal budget this week.
"Doing something about our homeless problem is something that moves me, something that drew me into public service in the first place," Watson said.
Alliance chair Marion Wright said it's a big challenge.
Most homeless people spend an average of 60 days a year in one of Ottawa's shelters, she said. The new funding must go toward supplementing rents, retrofitting current supportive housing and building new housing for homeless people, so there's less demand on emergency shelter space.
The alliance wants the city to build 1,000 affordable housing units a year for the next decade.
Wright said she's confident the new funding will be enough to meet the 1,000-unit goal for 2011. About 700 units were created in 2010, with a heavy reliance on federal stimulus money.
Watson said he wants to show other governments that Ottawa is committed to reducing homelessness.
"It's often hard to be taken seriously by the other levels of government if we don't pony up some money ourselves," Watson said.
He said the next step is to lobby the provincial and federal governments to match the money. Watson said he also hopes to see the federal government come up with a national housing strategy.
Ottawa will spend $14 million per year over the next four years to find stable housing for its homeless people.
Mayor Jim Watson met Friday with the Alliance to End Homelessness and trumpeted the new funding, which was included in the municipal budget this week.
"Doing something about our homeless problem is something that moves me, something that drew me into public service in the first place," Watson said.
Alliance chair Marion Wright said it's a big challenge.
Most homeless people spend an average of 60 days a year in one of Ottawa's shelters, she said. The new funding must go toward supplementing rents, retrofitting current supportive housing and building new housing for homeless people, so there's less demand on emergency shelter space.
The alliance wants the city to build 1,000 affordable housing units a year for the next decade.
Wright said she's confident the new funding will be enough to meet the 1,000-unit goal for 2011. About 700 units were created in 2010, with a heavy reliance on federal stimulus money.
Watson said he wants to show other governments that Ottawa is committed to reducing homelessness.
"It's often hard to be taken seriously by the other levels of government if we don't pony up some money ourselves," Watson said.
He said the next step is to lobby the provincial and federal governments to match the money. Watson said he also hopes to see the federal government come up with a national housing strategy.
