Pandemic & High-Cost Loans: Impact on Low- and Moderate-Income People

Posted March 31, 2022

This report outlines how predatory lenders descended on moderate income communities hurt by the pandemic. While the pandemic had a devastating impact on low- and moderate- income communities, the government and banks left people in this global health and financial crisis with no choice but to go to predatory lenders such as Easy Financial, Money Mart, Cash 4 You, Cash Money and more who were deemed “essential” during the heart of the pandemic. The report is based on an online survey ACORN conducted to explore how the pandemic affected the use of high interest predatory loans, both payday loans and installment loans. 

INDU report on Accessibility and Affordability of Telecom Services

Posted on July 8, 2021

This is the report by the House of Commons Committee on Industry Science and Technology on Affordability and Accessibility of Telecom Services. It covers the demands put forth by ACORN members including the provision of a Canada broadband benefit and expansion of the Connecting Families Program. Ray Noyes, ACORN leader from Ottawa presented the demands to the committee.

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Impact of financialization of housing on tenants: Findings from ACORN Survey 2022

Posted on May 10, 2022

This brief documents the findings of the survey ACORN Canada conducted to understand the impact of financialization of housing on low- and moderate-income tenants. This research was conducted for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (OFHA). The views expressed are those of ACORN and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OFHA or the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Rent Safe in Mississauga

Posted on 30 December 2021

Peel ACORN won Rent Safe in Mississauga - this is a huge victory for tens of thousands of tenants who have been struggling in substandard housing. Peel ACORN has been fighting for healthy homes for years and finally through numerous actions, petitions, deputations and much more, tenants secured this important victory! Read the report detailing how we organized and the next steps.

Les locataires de NB à risque : l'absence de protection contre les expulsions et l'insécurité du logement

Posted November 18, 2021

Dans ce rapport, nous disséquons les réponses à l'enquête concernant le manque deprotection contre les expulsions dans la province, un aspect qui a été clairementnégligé par l'examen de la situation du logement locatif de la province qui a été menéplus tôt cette année.

 

Federal government failing to protect right to housing for those who need it most

Posted on August 19, 2021

The Federal government is failing miserably to provide affordable housing. In fact, through the federal housing agency - CMHC, it is putting billions of dollars in developers' pockets to build more unaffordable housing. This infographic highlights the issues with the current CMHC funding and what do ACORN members want.

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CCPA: Making Ends Meet: Toronto’s 2015 Living Wage

It has been six years since Toronto’s living wage estimate was calculated at $16.60 in 2008.

Since then, the cost of living has gone up: the cost of child care has risen by 30 per cent; rent has increased by 13 per cent; the cost of public transit has grown by 36 per cent. This report updates Toronto’s living wage to reflect what it takes for two working parents with two children to make ends meet in 2015. It’s based on the needs of a family with two parents and two young children ages 7 and 3. Each of those parents needs to earn $18.52 per hour, and work 37.5 hours per week, in order to afford the basics in life in this very expensive city.

Broadbent Institute: The Wealth Gap

In a new nationwide survey among 3,000 Canadians conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Canada for the Broadbent Institute, Canadians were asked about their perceptions of inequality and the distribution of wealth in Canada. The findings demonstrate that Canadians vastly underestimate how skewed the distribution of wealth actually is and think there should be a much more equitable distribution.

Metcalf Foundation: Better Work: The path to good jobs is through employers

Written by Metcalf Innovation Fellow and labour market policy expert Tom Zizys, the paper examines our under-performing labour market and challenges the popular notion that the threat to good jobs is inevitable.

Better Work chronicles the economic and political changes that have brought us to our current situation. It reconstructs the advent of our global economy and reflects deeply on its effect on employment practices. Central to its thesis is a simple proposition: workers are not a cost to be constrained but, rather, an asset to be invested in.

Among industrialized countries, Canada has the highest proportion of residents with a post-secondary education. Yet we also have the highest rate of degree holders working in jobs earning half the median income or less. We know there are many external factors at play, and that a rise in precarious employment and the widening gap between knowledge sector and entry-level jobs is creating income disparity. But the question remains, are we responding to the emergence of technology, globalization, and increased competitiveness in the most efficient and equitable way? Are our workplace practices, labour market institutions, and the norms and values that shape our economic thinking supporting the best interests of both employers and employees?

Metcalf Foundation: Profiting from the Precarious: How recruitment practices exploit migrant workers

There are over 338,000 migrant workers in Canada. This number has more than doubled since 2006. As Canada increasingly relies on a work force of transnational migrant workers with temporary status, an industry of third-party for-profit recruiters has emerged to match workers with jobs in Canada.

This report exposes how temporary foreign workers are paying thousands of dollars in recruiting fees — equal to as much as two to three years’ wages in their home currency — to work in minimum wage jobs in Ontario.

A People's Budget

The People’s Budget campaign was initiated as a response to the continuing evidence of the failure of the austerity agenda. Austerity measures have had a devastating impact on the people of Ontario, particularly its most vulnerable citizens. When even organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum are calling for a reconsideration of the austerity agenda, it is time for Ontario to chart a new course.

Ontario’s 100-day ODSP/OW review: A word of warning from UK Conservative welfare reforms

ACORN members are concerned about what will emerge from the government’s 100-day review. We can look to other countries with Conservative leaders to imagine what the Province’s reforms could look like. In recent years, the UK has implemented a series of social assistance reforms which have contributed to a 169% increase in homelessness since 2010 . Similar reforms could be disastrous for low-income Ontarians.

ACORN Housing Allowance Report

In 2006 the United Nations held a convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 28 states: “States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing.”

“Adequate” does not include unhealthy and dangerous housing standards or negligent property owners.

Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms“ guarantees the life, liberty and personal security of all Canadians.”

ACORN MEMBERS DEMAND a housing allowance that guarantees ODSP and OW recipients’ healthy housing where they can freely choose a home that guarantees their personal security from violence and negligent property owners.

The Hidden Epidemic: A Report on Child and Family Poverty in Toronto

The first comprehensive report on child and family poverty in Toronto since 2008 will be released by Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Social Planning Toronto, Family Service Toronto, Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change, and the Alliance for a Poverty-Free Toronto .

New data in the report shows that Toronto is becoming an increasingly divided city. Where a child is born and raised in Toronto greatly influences their chances of success.

Metcalf Foundation: The “Welfareization” of Disability Incomes in Ontario

Canada’s disability income expenditures are rising at an unsustainable rate and the largest and fastest growing program is social assistance. Nowhere is this more evident than in Ontario where ODSP expenditures increased 44.8% between 2005 and 2010.

This report by Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapleton, provides critical insight into the intricate drivers behind the alarming rise of disability income expenditures.

Campaign 2000: 2013 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada

More than two decades have passed since the House of Commons’ unanimous resolution “to seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000” and four years after the entire House of Commons voted to “develop an immediate plan to end poverty for all in Canada.” Neither the promised poverty elimination nor plans have materialized.

ACORN VOTES: Federal Election 2021

Posted on August 9, 2021

The pandemic has exposed and entrenched the deep inequities in Canada. Job loss during the pandemic hit lowest wage workers the hardest and the need for government to provide and expand basic services and programs was needed and understood like no other time in this generation. It is now time for us to rebuild, putting people before profits. With the federal election around the corner, ACORN members in 24 of the lowest income neighbourhoods across the country met, discussed and developed ACORN’s National Platform.  The priorities of affordable housing, internet for all, modernizing EI and taxing the rich are what ACORN members need to see for a just and equitable recovery for Canada.

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