Picket Liberal 'Poverty Reduction' Consultation
519 Church Street, 11.30 AM, Thursday, September 12th

Story & photos from the Picket from John Bonnar, Rabble.ca -
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2013/09/video-ocap-pickets-liber...

The Wynne Government is making those on social assistance in Ontario poorer and preparing a major attack on disabled people on ODSP. At the same time, it has the audacity to hold yet another round of public consultations on 'poverty reduction'.

This is not a Government with any progressive intentions with regard to poverty but, rather, it is implementing a regime of austerity in this Province. OCAP and allies within the Raise the Rates Campaign will be picketing this event to expose the sham discussions taking place therein and to demand living income, the restoration of the vital Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) and no undermining of the rights and income of disabled people by merging ODSP with Ontario Works.

JOIN THE RAISE THE RATES PROVINCIAL WEEK OF ACTION OCTOBER 14 - 20: If your organization wants to hold an event or if you are interested in finding out how you can get involved, see more information here: http://ocap.ca/node/1095

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) (416) 925-6939 ocap@tao.ca

CUPE Ontario Raise the Rates Campaign: www.cupe.on.ca/raisetherates

On Facebook, join the Raise the Rates page:https://www.facebook.com/RaiseTheRates

Twitter: @OCAPtoronto #RaisetheRates

Saturday, September 14 11am - 1pm

Meet at: the corner of Dundas/Sherbourne, will end at Allan Gardens Park

In the lead-up to the September 22nd ‘Taking it Back’ housing march and action, we are offering this walking tour by OCAP member, long time organizer in the neighborhood, and people’s historian, Gaetan Heroux. Get to know the history, and help build on the history of resistance September 22nd!

Description of Poor Peoples’ History of East Downtown Toronto Walking Tour:

For close to two centuries East Downtown Toronto has welcomed the unemployed, homeless and working poor. Infrastructures to support the unemployed, some of which date back to the establishment of Toronto first poor house to the 1830’s, are now being threatened and dismantled by the city to make room for Toronto’s more affluent residents. Where will the unemployed, homeless, and poor residents go? The tour will explore how Toronto’s “skid row” came to be established in East Downtown Toronto. What has been the relationship of Toronto poor with Toronto wealthy residents over the last one-seventy-years? What happened to the slums of Cabbagetown and how are they related to Regent Park, Canada’s largest social housing complex? There is also long history organizing and militant resistance in East Downtown Toronto by the unemployed and the homeless dating back to the 1890’s. How are these struggles connected to later unemployed battles of the 1930’s and 1990’s? These questions and much more will be explored in the tour.

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Taking it Back: Housing Shelter, Safe Space Now!

Sunday, September 22nd

3pm

Allan Gardens Park

Meal, gathering, march and action

Measures won from the City proving too inadequate to deal with worsening
homelessness crisis. Emergency Action is needed!

Figures on City of Toronto shelter occupancy on August 22 reveal an
out-of-control crisis poised to become an outright disaster. The city
reports these shelter occupancy levels:

Men’s Shelters - 94%
Women’s Shelters - 97%
Youth Shelters - 95%
Co-ed Shelters - 100%

This past April, after months of pressure and community mobilization from activists under the banner ‘No More Homeless Deaths’, council passed a motion that set 90% as the maximum capacity for city shelters. The city was supposed to take action to bring down capacity rates immediately. Their own statistics show that the city is failing to meet its own mandated targets. Failing to meet targets is about more than numbers – it means that this crisis will truly be measured in the death of homeless people on the streets.

ANNOUNCING an important Week of Action coming up this October. See below on HOW TO JOIN!

*Restore Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit
*Stop the attacks on Disability benefits
*Raise the Rates 55%!

Plans are being made in a range of communities to hold local actions during the week of October 14 to challenge plans to merge Ontario Works and ODSP and demand real action on poverty from the Wynne Government. We will be demanding restoration of the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit, supporting the right of First Nations Communities to control delivery of social assistance programs and calling for the raising of the minimum wage in Ontario to $14 an hour and social assistance rates by at least 55%. In place of the endless talk of this Government about 'poverty reduction' we will be taking action.

As more communities, anti poverty organizations, unions and other allies make plans for this week, we will issue a list of all the times and places where actions will be held during the week.

JOIN THE WEEK OF ACTION! If your organization wants to hold an event or if you are interested in finding out how you can get involved, contact us right away at:

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) (416) 925-6939 ocap@tao.ca

CUPE Ontario Raise the Rates Campaign: www.cupe.on.ca/raisetherates

On Facebook, join the Raise the Rates page:https://www.facebook.com/RaiseTheRates

Twitter: @OCAPtoronto #RaisetheRates

DOWNLOAD FLYER HERE!

August, 2013
Disabled people who have to rely on ODSP know what an inadequate and discriminatory system it is. You have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get onto it and the level of income it provides comes nowhere close to meeting your basic needs. However, the Ontario Works (OW) system is even less adequate and even more insecure.

Last year, the Liberal Government commissioned a report proposing a merger of OW and ODSP into one program. While the government claims this will make the system easier to administer and easier to access, it is really about cutting benefits. We do not know exactly how a new program will work, it is likely that people with disabilities will get tax credits instead of benefits payments.

The proposal has also called for increased measures to reassess whether people would be accepted as having disabilities and it urged the Government to set up “employers councils” as well as new form of a participation agreement called “Pathway to Employment Plan.” Using friendly sounding language about “focusing on ability,” the government claims this is about making work more accessible. However, in reality we will see disabled people forced to compete for the lowest paying jobs. “Focusing on ability” also erases the discrimination that disabled people place and individualizes our[*/their] lack of inclusion. Many disabled people are unemployed because of discrimination and lack of accommodations not ‘ability.’

Extreme Heat Alerts and Homeless Shelters: Are you having to stay in a hot and overcrowded shelter this summer?

We are now in the season when Toronto experiences some very hot and humid weather. For those with access to air conditioning this is an irritation, but for homeless people on the streets or staying in overcrowded shelters, it is a much more serious situation. Recent levels of overcrowding have made the situation even more unhealthy and dangerous. Under intense community pressure throughout the winter and spring of this year, the City has agreed to keep shelter occupancy at a lower 90% but, until a new facility is opened up (which they say might be in the fall), they have been simply putting down additional 'flex beds' and cramming more people into shelters that are already beyond full. When the temperature climbs and humidity levels rise, these conditions become intolerable in facilities that have no air conditioning.

As heat alerts and extreme alerts are called, it is vital that action be taken to open more space and reduce the level of overcrowding during this summer period. If you are experiencing crowded conditions in an overheated shelter and want to challenge what is going on, then contact OCAP and we'll discuss what action can be taken.

*Download this flyer and please help distribute!

· If you have had trouble finding a bed, have been turned away from a shelter, have had experience with the ‘flex beds’, or have had to put up with unsafe, stressful or overcrowded conditions - we want to hear from you!

· If you have been staying outside but have experienced harassment from police or city officials – let us know!

· If you are a staff at a shelter or agency in the city and have had trouble finding someone a bed or have experienced the overcrowded conditions – we want to hear from you too!

We need your help to force the City to provide enough shelter space to ensure people have their right to safety and dignity respected.

Give us a call at (416) 925-6939 or e mail us at ocap@tao.ca.

The Raise the Rates Campaign represents a broad and growing consensus amongst community groups, unions and anti-poverty activists about social assistance in this province. Together we reject attempts to divide poor people on assistance between those on Ontario Works and those on Ontario Disability Support Program.  We are united in this fight and building alliances with all those living in poverty, people working low-wage precarious jobs, and unionized workers.
WE DEMAND:

1) Reverse the Cuts, Raise the Rates!
In 1995 the Tory government cut welfare rates by 21.6 % and froze disability. Since the Liberals came to power in 2003, they have not only failed to reverse the Harris cuts, but have actually perpetuated a further decline in rates. As a result of that initial 21.6% cut coupled with inflation for the last 16 years, welfare rates are approximately 55% below where they should be. If benefit levels were restored to the same level of spending power as we had in 1994, a single person on Ontario Works would receive an immediate $936/month instead of the miserable $606 now being issued. No one can survive on these poverty rates; $606 cannot afford someone a place to live let alone food and basic needs.
The Liberal government has frozen the minimum wage for last three years. Workers trying to survive on minimum wage are already making poverty wages that continue to lose their spending power as a result of inflation. Currently there are approximately 1 in 6 workers or working at or close to minimum wage in Ontario, and the gap between minimum wage and welfare is greater now than it ever has been.
WE DEMAND an immediate increase in OW and ODSP rates to bring them back to pre- Harris levels. 55% NOW– raise the rates to where people can live with health and dignity!
WE DEMAND the minimum wage freeze be lifted immediately and that minimum wage be increased to $14 for everyone in Ontario.

2) Restore Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit and the Special Diet Allowance!
The Liberals have cut two vital benefits that poor people need to survive. The Special Diet put healthy food on the table and the CSUMB kept a roof over people’s heads. We demand that these benefits be restored immediately.
In the 2012 Provincial budget, the Liberal government targeted the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) for elimination by January 2013 and downloaded the responsibility of a housing fund to municipalities. This vital benefit allows people to get housed (first and last months rent, moving costs etc), pay for the basic essentials to set up a home (furniture, pots and pans), or recover from an emergency or crisis (the need to move for ones personal safety, or to pay for lost items due to a fire or bed bugs outbreak).
The Special Diet Allowance has been another vital benefit that has put money in the pockets of communities forced to live in poverty on social assistance rates that are entirely inadequate. The Liberals have been slowly chipping away at the Special Diet Allowance for the past 7 years making it harder and harder for people to qualify. The most recent proposal would see this benefit gone once and for all to ‘offset the cost’ of raising the base level of Ontario Works for singles by $100. The estimated cost of this cut in money would be: $240 million.
The loss of the full Special Diet Allowance and the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit alongside declining social assistance rates will drive communities deeper into poverty, poor health and will increase homelessness.
WE DEMAND the full restoration of the Special Diet to a benefit of up to $250 for food and complete reversal of all intrusive measures AND the full restoration of the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit as a provincially run program.

The Movement is growing: Join the Raise the Rates Campaign!
To get involved and to endorse the Raise the Rates Campaign, please visit: www.ocap.ca/rtr
CUPE Ontario Raise the Rates Campaign: www.cupe.on.ca/raisetherates
On Facebook, join the Raise the Rates page: https://www.facebook.com/RaiseTheRates

Or contact us at: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
157 Carlton St, Unit 206, Toronto, ON M5A 2K3
Phone: 416-925-6939
Email: ocap@tao.ca
Twitter: @OCAPtoronto #RaisetheRates
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As little as $10 a month can help us maintain our work across this city and it just got easier to give.

For close to 20 years the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has been at the forefront of community based resistance to regressive social policy from all levels of government. We have helped inspire numerous groups across this country and continent, been studied in universities and college programs and most importantly we have time after time organized poor communities to stand up and take what’s theirs. To fight for their dignity and for justice.

Today we are engaged day to day in the fight against City Hall, Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill. Making sure that repairs are done in community housing, fighting for each and every entitlement on welfare and disability and working to win fundamental changes that will mean better housing, more to eat and better social programs.

All of this continues to be carried out on a shoestring budget. Year after year we scrape by on the generosity of our members and supporters, primarily by those who answer our emergency appeals for cash when we are on the brink of laying off staff or closing our office. Our monthly expenses are by no means outrageous. We pay our staff what we can, cover basic bills and operate a small office. Every month we are thousands of dollars short of covering our expenses.

Our goal is to change all of that by the end of this year. We are looking for all supporters of our work to pitch in and help support the struggle by becoming a part of our monthly sustainers program. Please only donate what you can. Five dollars helps. Ten dollars helps. And if you can afford to give more please do.

To become a monthly sustainer, send a void cheque with amount and which date of the month you'd prefer it to be processed to:

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
157 Carlton, # 206,
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2K3

For more information call us at 416-925-6939 or email ocap@tao.ca.