[CAH] Sept 12th Day of Action Press for Halifax

[Darcy Harvey]

Hi Everyone,

Here is a story featured in this morning's Halifax Herald from our Sept. 12th Press Conference. Great job Wayne and other on the panel!

Darcy


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Ottawa urged to continue program to help homeless
Man helped by program joins call for initiative to survive chopping block
By KELLY SHIERS Staff Reporter 

Wayne MacNaughton says he owes the dramatic changes in his life to a federally funded, community-based program aimed at helping the homeless.

A woman who worked at the Metro Turning Point shelter pushed the self-described drifter to apply for an apartment with the Metro Non-Profit Housing Association. Her salary at the shelter was paid for through the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative program. The apartment building where Mr. MacNaughton finally found a home was built with money from the same program.

On Tuesday, Mr. MacNaughton joined others at a Halifax news conference - similar events were held across the country - calling on the federal government to reconsider its decision to let the program die on March 31, 2007.

"Time is running out," Mr. MacNaughton said.

"This program needs to be improved, not abandoned. . . . It needs to be enhanced. It needs to be continued because without it, we risk losing a lot of the ongoing services we have in this community. More importantly, we're not going to be able to do the things we still need to do."

In 1999, Ottawa announced a program for projects that would best suit the needs of various communities. Local groups worked with municipal and provincial representatives on a committee to find the best uses for the money, said Mr. MacNaughton, chairman of the committee in Halifax.

Since then, about $16 million from the $845-million national fund has been used by local groups for a variety of projects and programs.

The fund provided the money to buy a house for Marguerite Centre, located just outside Halifax, the province's only long-term residential care facility for women recovering from addiction and abuse. It was also used to set up Direction 180, a Halifax methadone clinic that has helped 400 people since it began operating in February 2001.

"If it hadn't been for (that money), we wouldn't have opened," said Direction 180 executive director Cindy MacIsaac.

Belinda Thorne said money from the program allows Metro Turning Point to open its doors on weekends. Without it, people would have to leave the shelter at 7:30 a.m. and couldn't return until 6:30 p.m., regardless of weather.

"That's a long time to be walking the streets," she said. "Without this, we might have people freeze in the winter months."

Other groups used money to do studies, fund jobs and put other programs in place to help the homeless.

"A lot of people in this community have been helped to reintegrate into society . . . something they could not do if they weren't properly housed or supports available. I think a lot of these things would not have taken place had it not been for the (federal) funding," Mr. MacNaughton said.

Halifax MP Alexa McDonough described the work done by those at the news conference as "absolutely phenomenal" and called the communities partnership initiative "one of the most cost-effective programs.

"What is needed is a long-term commitment to stable funding by the federal government and one that understands the issues of affordable housing and homelessness are not just about dollars and cents, not just about bricks and mortar - heavens knows we haven't had a commitment enough to either - but also to the patient, skilful, effective work that is done for people to address the many aspects of homelessness that seem to be falling through the gap," she said.

( kshiers at herald.ca)

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