| Toronto, ON – WoodGreen Community Services applauds the federal government for its significant investment to support Canadians living on low incomes by providing $60 million over five years to expand community-delivered financial help services, which have been historically underfunded.
When financial crises hit, many low- and moderate-income Canadians have no place they can turn to for help. With this investment in Prosper Canada, WoodGreen as a financial empowerment service provider will be able to support more vulnerable Toronto residents through our financial help services, including workshops, one-on-one counselling, free tax clinics, debt management and other resources designed to improve financial literacy and money management skills to help clients reach their financial goals. We are also encouraged to see an investment of $500 million over five years for the creation of a new Youth Mental Health Fund. The fund proposes to help community health organizations provide more care for youth, and better equip these organizations to refer youth to other mental health services within their networks and partnerships. We look forward to further details on how this investment can support community-based mental health and addiction providers and enhance our on-the-ground services. WoodGreen and the non-profit housing sector as a whole have long called for the federal government to provide access to surplus land for the development of affordable housing. Today’s announcements are a good step forward in developing affordable housing on under-utilized land. We are encouraged to see the following in the budget:
WoodGreen calls on the government to provide equal opportunity for non-profit housing providers to have access to surplus lands. Non-profits need similar priority to other stakeholders such as municipalities, in accessing surplus lands targeted for affordable housing development. All said, yesterday’s budget commitments are a significant step forward to supporting low-income Canadians, including those in Toronto. We look forward to continuing to work with the government to provide deeply affordable housing and wrap-around social services to vulnerable populations to help break the cycle of poverty. WoodGreen — with close to 1,500 deeply affordable housing units — is one of Toronto’s largest non-municipal affordable housing providers, offering safe and affordable homes to seniors, newcomers, youth, individuals with disabilities and people with a long history of homelessness. Our organization has an ambitious plan to own and/or manage 3,000 units within the next ten years. ABOUT WOODGREEN COMMUNITY SERVICES (woodgreen.org): WoodGreen is one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto, serving 37,000 people each year. We offer over 75 programs and services tackling the social determinants that affect the health and well-being of individuals in our community. -30- |
| For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Jen Mayville, Senior Communications Manager; [email protected]; (437) 226-8091 (cell). |