ACORN IN THE PRESS - issues and concerns

Housing Activists Press for Landlord LicensingBen Spencer September 3rd, 2008
Workers Highlight Labour IssuesTracy Tong September 2nd, 2008
Tenants Push for Landlord LicensesAntonella Artuso August 29th, 2008
Dawes Rd Building Flunks TestJenny Yuen July 25th, 2008
Rally for Safe StreetsTIM WIECLAWSKI Aug 1st, 2008
TORONTO STAR EDITORIAL: HOUSING PLAN MISSINGEditorial Board July 14th, 2008
Tories Fail Housing ReportKristen Thompson July 11th, 2008
Housing Earns Tories an FTim Wieclawski July 10th, 2008
Housing Protest Calls on PMTerri Saunders July 10th, 2008
Feds Rapped over Disgraceful HousingBen Spencer July 10th, 2008
National Report on HousingSara Folconer July 10th, 2008
Harper Flunks Housing(Pg4) July 10th, 2008
Fed's Abdicated LeadershipBen Spencer July 9th, 2008
No Rights at HomeBen Spencer July 9th, 2008
No Tenants Video of Run Down BuildingKevin Connor June 6th, 2008

City Working on Helping Tenants: Moscoe
Ben Spencer July 5th, 2008
NDP Calls For Regulation of Payday Loans
Arielle Godbout June 26th, 2008
ACORN vs. TransglobeSara Falconer June 13th, 2008
Tenants rally to protest living ConditionsAlfie Lau June 7th, 2008
Group takes aim at landlordMichael McQuillan May 30thst, 2008
Summer Jobs for Youth Sara Falconer May 28st, 2008
L'insalubrité des logements sociaux d'Ottawa dénoncéeCatherine Lamontagne, May 16st, 2008
Police Show of Force Needed in Cougar CtMay 6st, 2008
Second murder in 10 days has residents demanding actionChris Doucette, May 6st, 2008
Turn on the lights, flashlight party saysLisa Queen, April 3st, 2008
Poverty activists cheer payday loan legislationKatie Daubs, April 2st, 2008
Toronto Star: Payday Loan crackdownJoanne Smith, April 1st, 2008
Ottawa EMC: Community Organization Protests Housing...Sheena Bolton, March 27th, 2008
Ottawa EMC: Community Rallies for Stop Sign...Rosalyn Stevens, March 13th, 2008

From Poverty to Prosperity: ACORN Launches People's Platform

Calls on Next Government to Focus on Childcare, Housing and Banking Reform
September 12th - ACORN is pleased to announce the launch of our Federal People's Platform. In its pages ACORN has laid out a platform that has been developed through 4 years of grassroots community organizing.
The issues identified we’re set as priorities by ACORN’s low and moderate income membership, and represent what they believe it will take to move From Poverty to Prosperity.
The Platform includes calls for bold action in 6 key areas: Housing Security, Work and Wages, Childcare, Banking, Immigration and Strong Neighbourhoods.
Highlights include the return of the Federal Minimum Wage, a National Living Wage Ordinance, a plan to make banking work for working families, a National Housing Strategy and a new Childcare program.
ACORN Members are gearing up to take these issues to Candidates running in the current Federal Election.
Read the People's Platform >>>
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Protestors flood Ajax streets

AJAX -- Steady rain Saturday afternoon didn't keep Durham residents from protesting the plan to cut mental health beds from the Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering hospital.
"It rained steady but we had around 1,000 people," said Friends of the Ajax Pickering Hospital co-chairman Bill Parish, adding he's sure even more would have attended had the weather been better.
Residents from Ajax, Pickering and other Durham municipalities met at the Ajax Town hall and marched down to the Ajax Community Centre to show their frustration - the second time a large number of people protested the plan to move 20 mental health beds from RVAP to Centenary hospital in Scarborough. The transfer and the plan to cut up to 220 jobs in the Rouge Valley Health System over three years are expected to help recoup its $78-million in long-term debt and capital deficiencies. The RVHS also claims it will enhance mental health care. The plan was approved in March by the Central East Local Health Integration Network, which requested a 30-day consultation period; it has now ended.
"We hope that maybe it will change some minds when they see the outcry in the community," Mr. Parish said.
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan said the beds should stay in Ajax, and added Pickering council was against the marriage of the Ajax-Pickering hospital with Centenary in 1999.
"It was a shot-gun wedding," he said. "It hasn't worked. It has to be dissolved." He added people with mental health issues are real people, not statistics.
Ajax Mayor Steve Parish said the public consultation invoked by the CE LHIN was simply educating the public, not genuine consultation.
Patient representative Lynn-Marie Ramjass said "the issues that really need addressing are continuously ignored: the mentally ill," adding Ajax should get the nine beds that were announced for the unit in December.
Greg Hubka, vice president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said OPSEU doesn't agree care will be improved through the plan.
"We're committed to doing everything we can to bring awareness to the government to what our position is and the importance of keeping these services in Durham Region," he said.
OPSEU has filed an injunction with the Ontario Supreme Court with a hearing to take place May 16.
Master of ceremonies Wendy Holliday felt confident about the end result.
"We will win," she said. "I believe it. I have no doubts we're going to win this."

Related Stories

Ajax residents protest hospital cutbacks
Durham backs Ajax fight to keep hospital services
Don't make cuts to Ajax hospital: Elliot
Packed house challenges hospital changes
OPSEU threatening legal injunction over hospital cuts
No bailout for Ajax hospital facing cuts
Sixty jobs to be cut at Ajax hospital

Payday lending legislation introduced in Ontario

Province meets ACORN's demands for ban on rollover loans and licensing of lenders

Toronto and Ottawa- ACORN Canada has been leading the fight for the regulation of the predatory payday lending industry across Canada for nearly 4 years. We applaud the decision of the Government of Ontario for taking strong first steps for regulation and licensing of this rogue industry.

While the legislation fails to set a hard cap for interest rates, it does fulfill ACORN’s demands on other key points: A ban on rollover loans, and licensing of lenders by the province.

This is a good first step and ACORN is committed to securing a hard cap on interest rates that will bring this industry into the financial mainstream.

ACORN members like Roy Anderson who lives on a small pension, is a victim of the payday loan industry and says he wants “the government to intervene right away” because “these companies circumvent the law, charging extraordinary high interest rates and we want the government to regulate them at a reasonable amount.”

John Redins, another ACORN member agrees: “These companies don’t think they’re loan sharking and we need the provincial government to deal with this problem now.” John has used payday loans to help pay his rent and support his family, becoming yet another victim of this predatory industry.


For comment contact

Toronto: James Wardaw – 416.832.2982

Ottawa: Jill O’Rielly – 613.808.6523

ACORN responds to McGuinty's Anti-Poverty Initiatives

ACORN responds to McGuinty's Anti-Poverty Initiatives

We offer this response to the announcement made today by Premier Dalton McGuinty;

While we are encouraged by the announcement of new resources for social housing, dental care and student nutrition, it falls far short of the comprehensive poverty reduction strategy the Premier has promised, and that Ontarians deserve.

What was layed out by Premier McGuinty today are incremental pieces of a larger puzzle of how to reduce poverty in Ontario. As a membership owned organization, with a large constituency of low and moderate income families, including many members living in social housing, our members call on the provincial government to systemically address the growing rates of poverty in our province by implementing the following platform;

· Regulation of the payday lending industry with a 60% interest rate cap, licensing of lenders and a ban on roll over loans.
· Asset development program for tenants in social housing, allowing them to save their rent increases in an escrow account for use purchasing a home or skills retraining.
· Full rent controls to bring private rental housing costs back under control.
· Universal childcare based on Quebec’s $7/day program.
· Licensing of temp agencies to guarantee the protection of workers basic labour rights.
· Peg the minimum wage to inflation
· Raise social assistance and ODSP rates by 40% and peg to inflation.

McGuinty Brushes Up On Social Programs

Monday March 17, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff

Premier Dalton McGuinty followed students back from March Break, and ended up at Cliffside Public School.

His break was a little longer than most - Queen's Park hasn't been in session since December - but the premier lost little time in making new announcements.

On Monday, he said that Ontario would spend $267 million to improve affordable housing, and to help low-income residents get proper dental care.

"We're going to invest for the first time $45 million to help families who don't have access to dental care, which is essentially an extension of health care. We want to make sure that families are getting access to basic treatment and prevention opportunities, which they have lacked in the past," he promised.

And in a move that would directly benefit some Cliffside students, he pledged to expend the student nutrition program with a three-year $32 million investment.

And then it's back to the legislature. Before sessions even began, NDP leader Howard Hampton called McGuinty's plan "grossly inadequate," and his Conservative counterpart John Tory said the best way to cure poverty is with a strong economy.

Discussions of Ontario's economy will continue as the budget is tabled next week.

ACORN Financial Justice Centers open in Toronto and New Westminster

ACORN Financial Justice Centers open in Toronto and New Westminster

At the ACORN Financial Justice Center you can:
File your income taxes for free!
Claim the New Working Income Tax Credit - of up to $1000 in 2007
Get ALL the money you deserve - GST tax credit, CCTB, transit tax credit, and the childcare tax credit
Save money not going to commercial tax preparers who regularly charge up to $80 for a simple tax filing!
Learn about ACORN's financial justice campaigns
Get your money deposited straight into your account
To book an appointment in Toronto, Call 647.477.2648
To book an appointment in the GVRD, Call 604.522.8737
Remember to bring the following; photo id, SIN number, income slips (T4's), interest and investment slips (T3, T4PS, T5), Last years tax return if available, checkbook for direct deposit or refund.