Protests sprung up in Toronto on Wednesday ahead of the Canadian Government’s much anticipated National Housing Strategy announcement.

Activists congregated in downtown Toronto, demanding more social housing.

About 200 people gathered at Allan Gardens in the afternoon, then marched to Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s constituency office, unfurling a banner reading “Stop the hypocrisy, build social housing now.” Protestors bellowed chants and blocked traffic along the way.

Concurrent with the demonstration in Toronto were sister protests in other Canadian cities including Vancouver and Montreal.

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Activists from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty said the emphasis should be on social housing over affordable units.

By definition, affordable housing in Toronto and Canada “is at, or just below market rent,” said organizer Yogi Acharya. “Low-income people can’t afford at market rent. It’s a hoax.”

A rent supplement program, packed into the national strategy, won’t help, either, he continued, because public housing stocks are scant.

“It merely puts money in the pockets of private landlords, not in the pockets of poor people,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced details of the plan in Toronto Wednesday afternoon at Lawrence Heights, a large-scale redevelopment project spearheaded by Toronto Community Housing. With assistance from municipalities and community groups, Trudeau’s plan outlined details on building new housing and repairing existing units, aiming to reduce homelessness by half.

In March, the federal government earmarked $11.2 billion in the budget for affordable housing plans to be paid out incrementally over 11 years. During the next five years, about $3 billion would be allocated.

Randy Mclin, a member of the coalition, who was at the demonstration at Allan Gardens ahead of Trudeau’s announcement, said Ottawa’s housing plan is “bunk” because the funds are necessary now but will take over a decade to reach those who need it.

“Most of the $11 billion won’t kick in until the third term,” he said. “That needs to be spent in the next two years on social housing across Canada,” adding there are over 80,000 people waiting for social housing in Toronto alone.

“Housing needs to be a universal right,” he said.

In the morning, about 40 Parkdale residents protested a condo development plan at King and Dufferin Sts., what many locals consider to be a recurring threat to the city’s most vulnerable population.

“(The project) has been pushed through in the face of immense public opposition from the community in terms of the impact it’s likely to have on affordability,” said Liam Barrington-Bush, adding that major developments tear communities like Parkdale apart. “This is a predominately low-income neighbourhood. This condo is going to bring 703 units of high-end housing, none of it affordable or subsidized.”

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In 1998, the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, now defunct, declared homelessness to be a national disaster, spurring the creation of National Housing Day.

Street nurse and activist Cathy Crowe said shelters are full in Toronto, which means the city’s vulnerable are often turned away to fend for themselves.

Crowe said a portable housing benefit is not a long term fix.

“If people are looking for housing, the only vacancies are the ones in the private market,” she said.

Another activist at Allan Gardens, Randi Sears, 27, said she was precariously housed for almost six years. Now she works at Women’s Habitat, a shelter for women and children fleeing violence.

“Right now, we’re at about 98 per cent capacity,” she said. “We’re constantly full.”

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