Canada needs a national policy on homelessness, NUPGE says

'Homelessness is an embarrassment to governments at all levels right across this country.' - James Clancy

Ottawa (16 March 2007) - Canada has never been wealthier as a nation yet homelessness remains a problem that grows steadily worse.

"Homelessness is an embarrassment to governments at all levels right across this country," says James Clancy, president of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

"We need a strategy to tackle homelessness in a serious way and that leadership must start at the national level," Clancy says. "I call on the Harper government to commit itself to tackling homelessness now, before the next election. The vast majority of Canadians would strongly support such a commitment."

In an effort to increase awareness of the problem, NUPGE is making a poster available to everyone and encouraging members and other concerned Canadians across the country to download it and post it in any place that will add visibility to the problem, especially in workplaces.

The poster encourages all Canadians to contact MPs and legislature members to lobby for action by governments to address homelessness.

Among those leading the fight for a national housing strategy is Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East, who argues that the "downward spiral" of homelessness became dramatically worse with the abandonment of federal housing initiatives in the 1990s and it is growing worse today.

"We are seeing the consequences of that deliberate public policy brought on by 13 years of Liberal government and now continued on by a Conservative government," Davies argues. "We see the impact on our streets. I see that every day in my community and it breaks my heart when I see people who are valiantly struggling to keep going. Yet, here in Ottawa, these mammoth decisions are being made that basically cut millions of people out of the picture and say they do not count, they are not important."

Clancy is urging NUPGE members and Canadians across the country to do what they can within their own communities to raise awareness of homelessness and to support elected representatives like Davies who are trying to do something about it. NUPGE

More information:
• NUPGE poster: Homelessness - Why aren't we doing more?