City draft budget doesn't do enough for climate, housing emergencies, advocates say
There's agreement that COVID-19 has added pressure to an already precarious housing situation.
Natasha Bulowski, Ottawa Citizen
Despite the city declaring both climate and housing and homelessness as emergencies, the 2021 draft budget fell short of providing the kind of investment needed to tackle these big, complicated issues, advocates and some councillors say.
On Wednesday, the city proposed $15 million to create new affordable and supportive housing units, the same amount as in 2019 and 2020, even though 80 different organizations signed a letter to the city last month saying at least $20 million would be needed to tackle the emergency.
On the environmental front, the budget proposed $1.5 million to plant 125,000 trees and $3 million to enhance and retrofit facilities to reduce emissions and energy use, among other small investments.
“The first time the $15 million happened, it was truly transformative,” said Khulud Baig, spokesperson for the Ottawa Coalition for a People’s Budget, an advocacy group with a focus on social issues. “But with this year being the housing and homelessness emergency, I think we need to see that leadership from the city to increase those investments.”