MPP Aislinn Clancy tours tiny home community as she renews call for action on homelessness

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MPP Aislinn Clancy renews call for action on homelessness

Proposed bill aims to address chronic homelessness

The Deputy Leader of the Ontario Green Party toured a tiny home community in Kitchener, Ont. as a bill to tackle chronic homelessness continues to make its way through the legislature.

Green Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy and Liberal Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Lee Fairclough introduced Bill 28, also known as the Homelessness Ends with Housing Act, earlier this year. The bill calls on the Ontario government to design, implement and maintain a homelessness elimination strategy that would end homelessness within 10 years. If it passes, the bill would create a new advisory committee including members of housing advocacy groups and people who have experienced homelessness. According to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the bill received first reading on May 27 and has been ordered for a second reading.

“At the moment, not for profits and municipalities are doing a lot of the heavy lifting to try and support people who are facing homelessness,” Clancy said while touring A Better Tent City in Kitchener, Ont. Currently, more than 50 people are living in 42 cabins on A Better Tent City’s property.

Clancy said it’s a solution that meets the needs of people in Waterloo Region.

“But we need the right kind of housing for every individual with what they need,” Clancy added.

Christina Wiseman has been a resident within the community for the last five years. Before that, she was living on the streets of downtown Kitchener.

“It allows me to be stable in a very unstable environment,” she said.

With rent prices continuing to rise, Wiseman said she’s extremely grateful for her current living situation.

“I’d rather be homeless than pay rent because you have no personal money,” she explained.

“If you have to pay rent and the rent increases every year, I can’t afford it myself. I’d rather be living in a cardboard box.”

Clancy also said the Act would boost funding for the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit, a rent supplement program that currently pays the difference between 30 per cent of a household’s income and the average market rent in the area.

“People can’t pay their rent. Whether it’s seniors, whether it’s families with young children, newcomers,” Clancy said. “All across the spectrum, so many people are struggling to find housing that they can afford with the supports they need.”