Canada is facing a wave of new homelessness, in the face of inflation and the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
This is impacting hundreds of thousands of Canadians, as they struggle to make ends meet as everything gets more and more expensive. They are workers, retirees, families, veterans, men, women, even children. It is impacting every part of our community and can be seen in our community.
While it’s critical that governments continue to invest in affordable housing, people need urgent relief in the form of rent support to help them bridge the increasing gap between incomes and the cost-of-living.
A proposed Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit would do just that. It would support up to 385,000 people at risk of homelessness and 50,000 people currently experiencing homelessness with targeted financial relief to help in this critical time. Most importantly, it would prevent a wave of human tragedy on the scale of our largest natural disasters.
I know this would support members of our community and it’s critical that the federal government implement it in the budget.
Tracey MacKinnon
