September 2016 Newsletter

Hello fellow All INs:

Summer vacation is over, and reality is setting in again. But if you think that we’ve been dozing off for the summer, this newsletter is for you.

Over the last few months, your All IN Steering Committee has been working hard. In particular, we have made written submissions to the Ministries of Housing and of Municipal Affairs (Ministers Chris Ballard and Minister Bill Mauro) on the inclusionary zoning bill. We have also welcomed a new member to the Steering Committee. More on these and other news below.

photo credit: Maureen Brown

Housing: It’s Not Enough to Just Say It

Our submissions to the Ministries of Housing and Municipal Affairs on Bill 204, the “Inclusionary zoning” bill, are quite comprehensive. While this legislative initiative is a start, it is in need of much improvement. All IN’s submissions particularly urged the Government of Ontario to incorporate the following into the bill and subsequent policies:

Ensure that affordable housing is integrated, so that we can end the ghettoization of the poor;
Make available a range of housing and prices in every neighbourhood, so that those entering the job market, seniors, people with different abilities, and people of diverse income levels can live in safe homes wherever they choose;
Provide integrated supportive housing for people with physical, psychological, and developmental disabilities;
Make affordable housing the responsibility of all levels of government, not just municipalities;
Ensure that affordable housing is part of the blue print of our development and growth, and not haphazard;
Provide provincial funding and support to make inclusionary zoning, its monitoring and its oversight, possible;
Make sure that there is sufficient funding for infrastructure, public services, and amenities.

All IN’s submissions can be found here. We also reached out to and sent our submissions to several MPs, MPPs, and Councillors, including MPs Marco Mendicino and Adam Vaughan, MPPs Catherine Fife, Peggy Sattler, Jagmeet Singh, and Michael Colle, and Councillors Christin Carmichael-Greb, Josh Matlow, Joe Mihevc, Mike Layton, Ana Bailao, Joe Cressy, Sarah Doucette, Shelley Carroll, Gord Perks, Janet Davis, and Michael Thompson.

We urge you to contact your MPP and tell them that you want the province to do more than design a bill that will do little to actually build housing for all. Let them know that the province must put its money where its mouth is, and help our children, our neighbours, newcomers, seniors, and people of all income levels have safe and suitable homes. Here is where you can find the contact information for your local MPP.

Update on policing reform:

Last April, we made submissions to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services on how policing can be improved in Ontario. The latest news from the Minister responsible (now David Orazietti) is that they are reviewing all submissions, and that updates will be posted on the Ministry’s website, here.

A new Steering Committee member is All IN:

Please welcome Cara Chellew to our Steering Committee! Cara recently received her Masters of Environmental Studies, Planning, from York University. Soon, you will be able to read some of her articles in The Ontario Planning Journal and in Spacing. Cara joined us in mid-Spring. Since then, she has made significant contributions to All IN: she researched and co-wrote our submissions on inclusionary zoning, maintained our Facebook page (Go ahead, and like it, here), and helped us with our web-site. We are thrilled that Cara has joined All IN and our Steering Committee.

YOU! Join All IN’s Steering Committee!

We invite more of you to join our Steering Committee. We are looking for people who are reliable, committed to All IN’s mission of building inclusive communities, and can give between 5-15 hours a month. If you have fundraising, grant research/ writing, book-keeping/ accounting experiences, or well-honed research skills, we’d especially love to have your help. Please send your resumé and cover letter to [email protected].

You like us, but don’t have time to help:

Don’t have extra time? Then help us advocate for inclusive communities by making a monthly or one-time donation by going here. Remember, currently, none of us get paid for this work, but we still need funds to run programs, pay for our web-site and banking fees, and to help grow the organization.

Here is what’s next:

For a second year in a row, All IN will participate in the YIMBY Festival. YIMBY is an event celebrating a culture of YES in Toronto. Many organizations, take part in this great day long festivity. All IN will be at YIMBY from start to finish (12 p.m.- 4 p.m.), so please, come by and say hello, or, better yet, help us for an hour or two at our table. You can reply to this email to help. More information about this year’s YIMBY, which is being held at Metro Hall, 55 John Street, can be found here.

This fall, we will look into how we can grow and sustain All IN financially, so that we can hire staff and do more programming, more outreach, and more advocacy. If you would like to help us, please write to [email protected] We will also start planning our next event, and will keep abreast of developments on policing and housing with both the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto. We look forward to widening the net of people who collaborate to build inclusive communities.