News update — Spring 2024
The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa (ADO) donated $75,000 to support Indigenous housing in the vast Dream Lebreton project on Ottawa's Lebreton Flats.
The Bishop of Ottawa, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Shane Parker, said the gift has been made to Multifaith Housing Initiative’s (MHI) component of the project, specifically to be applied to 30 units of Indigenous housing. He expressed the hope that the gift will encourage others to donate.
Working Group Mandate
The Homelessness and Affordable Housing Working Group is dedicated to implementing the Diocese’s commitment to addressing homelessness and the lack of adequate affordable housing within the Diocese.
The mandate has its origin in a resolution of the 2013 Joint Assembly of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church committing the churches to learning, advocacy, action and prayer.
Strategic Priority
In 2021, Bishop Shane Parker said homelessness and affordable housing can be key to helping parishes engage with their communities. He said that housing fits perfectly into the diocese’s strategic priorities, he said: communications; the shape of parish ministry and the use of buildings; engagement with the world and lifelong learning.
Anniversary Campaign
In 2015, the first initiative was launched: to celebrate the Diocese’s 125th anniversary by supporting the creation of 125 new housing units across the Diocese. The goal in April 2024 was surpassed, with completed projects like Hollyer House, the Carebridge project, and Cornerstone Housing for Women’s Eccles Street residence.
Project Status Report
As of April 2024, the following is the status and outlook for the five parish projects in stages of development:
Growing need in urban and rural areas
Over 12,500 Ottawa residents are on the subsidized housing waiting list. The Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness says the need has escalated since the City Council declared a housing emergency in January 2020. Up to 5,000 people require accommodation in rural areas of the diocese outside Ottawa.
Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, which includes Cornwall, has almost 700 waitlisted files. One file can represent many household members. More than 1,313 people are on wait lists in Prescott and Russell, 1,300 in Renfrew, and 745 in Lanark, where wait times can reach eight years.
TDSCO (le Table de developpement social des Collines de l’Outaouais) revealed a serious lack of affordable and social housing, especially for seniors and those living alone.
TDSCO determined: “As a result of stagnation of public affordable housing and municipal actors’ lack of means to deal with unaffordability the responsibility seems to have fallen on citizen groups who are the only ones developing social housing projects.” After the TDSCO research, the regional municipality MRC les Collines-de-l’Outaouais (Chelsea, Farm Point, Wakefield, south Pontiac) recruited an affordable housing director to develop an action plan with municipalities and interest groups.
Our Working Group
