OTTAWA - The following statement was released by Claude Dauphin, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), following the release of the At Home/Chez Soi project final findings today by the Mental Health Commission of Canada:
"FCM would like to thank the Mental Health Commission of Canada for their hard work and leadership over the past five years on the At Home/Chez Soi project.
Today's release highlights important findings from the world's largest trial of Housing First. The Commission has provided ground breaking research demonstrating that access to affordable housing along with essential supports has a significant economic and social impact on our communities.
The lessons learned, data and tools developed through the At Home/Chez Soi project are invaluable. However, addressing the affordable housing and homelessness challenge in Canada requires more and all orders of government still have work to do.
More and affordable housing is needed in communities across the country where growing wait lists for housing are exacerbated by tight rental markets and ongoing expiry of $1.7 billion in annual federal operating agreements. Only with initiatives that address these broader issues will programs like Housing First achieve their full potential and get Canadians off the street and into permanent housing.
FCM launched the Fixing Canada's Housing Crunch campaign last fall, to bring national attention to the crisis of housing affordability across the housing spectrum. The campaign called for the federal government to commit to develop a long-term plan that puts core federal housing investments on solid ground."