On Friday, Sept. 28th take 5 minutes to tell your MPP to reverse the cuts to housing benefits for people on OW and ODSP!
Every month, thousands of people in Ontario need the Community Start-up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) and the Home Repairs Benefit (HRB) to stay housed or establish a new home. These benefits work because:
- They are targeted to people on social assistance (OW and ODSP) who are among the most vulnerable in Ontario. People on assistance have very low incomes and cannot afford these expenses otherwise.
- They provide direct assistance. The benefits help people move into a new home, pay rent or utility arrears, get major repairs done to their home, or help them move to safer or more secure housing.
- If CSUMB is denied, there is a right to appeal. This ensures fairness, accountability and transparency so that people in need will not be unfairly turned away.
The provincial government’s budget measures have eliminated these critically important programs.
The HRB ended June 30, 2012. Starting January 2013, half of CSUMB money will go to municipal housing and homelessness programs, which serve an even larger pool of low-income people. The other half is simply cut from the budget.
Because of these cuts, homelessness in our communities will rise. Women leaving domestic violence, people leaving shelters or the hospital, people with disabilities, and many others will find it harder to establish a new or safer household. Demand for other already overburdened community services will rise.
We need to act now to save these benefits!
Your MPP needs to hear that people in the community value these benefits, and that the cuts must be reversed.
On Friday, Sept. 28th take 5 minutes to help save the HRB and CSUMB!
Find your MPP’s phone number here. If you don’t know who your MPP is, enter your address or postal code here.
Use our flyer as the basis for what to tell your MPP. You can also edit the flyer with your local MPPs number to encourage others to join in. The flyer is here: CSUMB – Call In Coffee Break Flyer – 2012
Forward this email to invite your friends or colleagues to join you in calling your local MPP to raise this issue.