OCAP Information: How to get Everything you can from Ontario Works and Ontario Disability

While some of the information in this pamphlet may still be useful, it has not been update to reflect changes in law and policy.

Description:

• Getting as much as you can from OW/ODSP
• The OCF's Raise the Rates Campaign

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a pamphlet for welfare (Ontario Works) and disability (Ontario Disability Support Program) recipients by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. It includes information about how to get every extra dollar possible onto your cheque and what OCAP can do to defend you if OW or ODSP is messing you around.

WHAT DOES OCAP THINK OF OW AND ODSP?

First off, the welfare system does not exist to meet people's needs. The welfare system exists because poor people fought decades ago for the government to provide them with the means to live when the greater economy couldn't. This is the same reason we need welfare today and why OCAP fights for decent benefits and treatment for those on the rolls. This society doesn't provide for everybody, and the fact that there are 700,000+ people on OW and ODSP in Ontario makes that clear.

OW keeps recipients barely surviving, without providing nearly enough to pay rent or buy food. You're forced to apply for the worst jobs that exist, take insult and humiliation from your worker, and allow your most personal details to be put on the government's computers. To top it off, when you try to make some money on the side or find other sources of income, you're punished with deductions, getting cut-off, and having the cops investigate you for fraud. What does OCAP think of Ontario Works? We think it's exploitation at its worst.

To get on ODSP, you have to jump through even greater hoops. Virtually everyone who applies is denied assistance and has to try to win on appeal. The system does everything it can to prevent people with disabilities from receiving an income they can live on and forces disabled people to find lawyers and representatives to prove the most obvious facts about their bodies and health. What does OCAP think of the Ontario Disability Support Program? We think it stinks of able-ism and cruelty.

HOW DO WE FIGHT FOR INDIVIDUALS?

OCAP believes that the welfare system and those whose who run it have to be confronted with the demands of poor people who must access the system in order to survive. We organize to win every right and payment we can force from the system. We back-up and represent anyone who is denied, cut-off, or screwed around for benefits until we win.

The main part of this pamphlet talks about the many ways you can get screwed by OW and ODSP and OCAP has seen and fought them all. When someone contacts us about a grievance, we immediately write a letter to the supervisor at their office demanding justice in their situation. We ask for a resolution within 7 days. If this resolution doesn't come, we take a group of our members to the office in question and confront the supervisor directly with around 30 people. If this doesn't get the result we're looking for, we'll go back again. Sometimes supervisors are such assholes that we have to occupy a Ministry building or another similar target. We will use this form of collective action until they're so sick of dealing with us and can't sustain any more disruption that they give in.

GETTING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN FROM OW AND ODSP

To get what you can out of a system designed to hold back all but the barest minimum of assistance, you have to at least know what money is available. Your welfare worker often won't even tell you about the benefits you're legally entitled to. Many people never see the money they should get just because they don't know it's there. Below is information on what to ask for and how to get it.

Documents
Your worker will demand detailed documentation of your finances and personal life, such as bank statements, receipts, and rent statements. If you can't provide the documents they want, they may try to refuse you assistance. If this happens to you, contact OCAP. If your worker wants to see a document that costs money to get, welfare has to pay for it. Be sure to tell your worker that you can't afford the cost of the document they're asking for, and ask them to either pay for it or accept a different document in its place.

Basic Needs
Anyone on welfare is entitled to a basic monthly cheque, the amount of which depends on the size of your immediate family. You're entitled to this basic needs allowance whether you pay rent, own a home, live in a squat or lean-to, or live on the street. If you live in a hostel you may not get a basic needs cheque, but you're entitled to a smaller allowance, called a personal needs allowance (PNA), which you'll sometimes get through welfare and sometimes through the hostel administration.

Housing
You're entitled to a monthly rent allowance, which has a maximum that depends on the size of your family. If you don't pay rent, or your rent is less than the maximum, you can use the extra to pay for utilities, fuel, mortgage payments, or other home expenses. So, you should make sure you let your worker know about all your rent, utility, and other costs, to make sure that you get the full amount you're entitled to.
Your monthly rent allowance can also be used to pay for home repairs, if your rent and utilities are less than the maximum payment. You should explain why the repairs are necessary for your health or well-being, or if you need to make your home accessible because of a medical condition. You should also keep the receipts from the repairs to give to your worker.

Community Start-Up
This payment is one of the best to get because it's a lot of money. Your worker may try to tell you that start-up is only available if you're moving, but it's actually supposed to help with any change in your life. This can include costs such as: furnishing your home; moving to a different home; getting off the street; helping you with back payments on rent; avoiding eviction; having a new child; deposits for first- and last-month's rent or for hydro and fuel; furniture; breaking up with a partner who owns the furnishings in your home; etc.
The important thing is to explain to your worker that your life circumstances have changed. Start-up is only available once every 12 months, although you can sometimes get it after 10 months or so if you push for it. It has a maximum of $1500 if you have kids or other dependents or $799 if you're by yourself. You should make a complete list of the costs of everything you need. Your worker may not accept everything on your list, so it makes sense to list more than the maximum. They may sometimes also require that you get quotes for the amounts you list.
If you live in a squat, shack, lean-to, tent, or other irregular housing, the monthly rent allowance should pay for repairs and furnishings for it. As far as we know, no one has ever tried to apply for this benefit, but according to welfare regulations you are entitled to it. If you try to apply for this and don't get it, contact OCAP.

Overpayments
If you receive more money than welfare thinks you deserve, you may have money deducted from your monthly cheque to pay for the "overpayment." If you got the extra money because the welfare office made a mistake, you shouldn't have to pay it back - if they try to charge you for it, contact OCAP. If you got the money for some other reason (for example, you forgot to tell welfare when you got a job), you'll have to pay it back but the amount of the payments can vary. They'll try to stick you by taking 8% of your cheque until it's paid back, but OCAP can fight to get it to as low as 2%. At that rate, it can take welfare years to get their money back!
If your welfare is reduced or cut off or you're charged with an overpayment, you'll get a computer-generated notice that doesn't tell you why it happened. Force your worker to give you all the information for why they're charging. This will help you to fight it.

Emergency Assistance
If you're not yet on welfare, you're entitled to emergency assistance if your health is in danger. That means that you can get 2 weeks of assistance without having to complete an application or meet all the usual requirements. If welfare tries to make you get documentation or otherwise delays your application for emergency assistance, contact OCAP.
Welfare has an emergency after-hours phone line open 6:00 - 9:30 on weekdays and 1:00 - 7:00 on weekends and holidays. The number is 416-392-8600.
There are sometimes food vouchers available at welfare offices that can be used for meals at centers and shelters. These may not always be available, but it's worth checking.

Youth
If you're 16 or 17 years old, you can get welfare if you can't live at home: like if your parents can't support you, won't support you, or are abusive. Although your worker will normally expect you to be in school or training, you can get welfare without being in school if you have a medical condition that prevents it, you have a child and no child care is available, or you have to wait until September to start classes.
If your parents have abused you or are a threat to your safety, your worker isn't allowed to contact them in any way. Make sure to clearly tell your worker that your parents are a threat to you if you don't want them contacted. You may need a medical or councillor's note to verify this.

Parents
If you're a parent on welfare, OW and ODSP are already stealing your money. As a parent, you receive a Child Tax Benefit from the feds - but welfare takes an equal amount off your cheque, so you don't get a cent of it. That means that parents on welfare are denied the basic assistance given to other parents to help raise their kids. Another way the poor are squeezed in Ontario.
City Hall pretends that its Child Tax Benefit scam helps poor parents by using part of the money to create the "shelter fund". The shelter fund is a payment you can get to keep from being evicted from your home. It's only available if you're a parent and you've used up your community start-up or it isn't enough to keep you from being evicted. Of course, if you got to keep your Child Tax Benefit you might not be facing eviction in the first place. But the shelter fund is a way to get a small part of it back, anyway.
As a parent, some of your welfare rates and benefits are higher. You're also entitled to a few other benefits. They all have maximums but you can stretch the limit. These benefits help pay for dental and eye care, winter clothing, and school supplies and clothing for your children. Winter clothing and school supplies are only available once a year. You usually get the money for winter clothing in November, but you can get it at any time if your children's health is in danger. You're also entitled to money for extra food if you're pregnant or have recently had a baby.
We've seen many workers lie about how much welfare will actually provide for your kids and babies. If you think they're holding back, talk to someone at OCAP.

Working and Volunteering
The whole welfare system is set up to force people into finding whatever job they can, no matter how low-paying, boring, and degrading it may be. Your welfare worker will expect you to be grateful for any chance to make any sort of wage. Of course, given how many working people live below the poverty line, getting a job is hardly a magic solution for living a decent life. The welfare system doesn't want you to get a job for your own sake - it wants you to do the work that no one else is willing to do, to keep the business profits rolling in. Usually your worker will demand that you be actively looking for work while you're on welfare. You can avoid this if there's a reason you can't work, for example if you have young children or you're sick or you're volunteering.
Welfare will give you some benefits if you look for work or volunteer. The first month you're looking, you're entitled to an extra $250. You also get $100 a month after that if you're volunteering or working a set number of hours. This money is supposed to be used to buy a TTC MetroPass, but they give it to you in cash. If you're sick or disabled, you can do fewer hours to get the $100; the amount will be set based on how much welfare thinks you're able to work, but it's usually around 10 hours/week.
Welfare expects you to be grateful to be employed, no matter how awful your job is. So if you quit or get laid off or fired, your worker may tell you that you can't get assistance for the next 3 months. But that's not exactly true. The regulations say that you're allowed to quit your job without getting cut off welfare if you have a "reasonable reason." That means, for example, that you can quit if your workplace is unsafe or unhealthy, you're being harassed in any way, you have to take care of your children, or you were offered another job. You also shouldn't be cut off welfare if you were fired because you couldn't do the job, or if you were laid off. Welfare will often try to cut you off anyway, to punish you for not accepting whatever your boss dictates. If this happens to you, contact OCAP.

Employment Start-Up
If you're looking for work, welfare has to help you with job training and searching. In addition, you're entitled to money for costs associated with getting a job, starting training, starting a volunteer position, becoming self-employed, or starting other job-related activities. This is called "employment start-up." You should make a list of the things you need to start work, such as work clothes, safety equipment, tools, licensing fees, and transportation costs.
You're also entitled to assistance if you have a job or volunteer position that involves ongoing costs. You can get this money on a monthly basis, or as an advance.
Medical Costs
If a physical or mental health problem limits your ability to work, look after yourself, or live in your community, you can apply for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). If you're on ODSP you get all the same benefits as welfare, but your monthly assistance is higher. You also aren't forced to do job searches and job training.
If you have a disability but your income is too high to qualify for ODSP monthly assistance, you may still be entitled to assistance for drug and other medical costs.
The government's made getting on ODSP hard. You'll need a lot of reports from doctors and specialists, and the regulations are set up to exclude as many people as possible. If you're having trouble getting on ODSP, contact OCAP. If you're turned down for ODSP but you have health problems, you can still be exempted from doing job searches and work and volunteer placements for welfare. You'll need to get your doctor to fill out a form every 6 months.
Whether you're on welfare or on ODSP, you're entitled to money for medical expenses. This includes drugs, diabetic supplies, transportation to medical appointments, guide dog costs, special diets, batteries and repairs for wheelchairs, etc. If you have medical needs that welfare is refusing to cover, contact OCAP. If you need glasses, welfare has to cover the cost, but you'll need a prescription that's less than 6 months old. Ontario health care only covers eye exams every 2 years, so if you get a prescription, you should be sure to get glasses through welfare within 6 months – otherwise you won't be able to get them until your next prescription 2 years later.
Welfare covers the cost of personal support devices such as crutches and wheelchairs, but your worker may not tell you everything you need to know. You'll need a letter from a specialist - not a general practice doctor - and you'll need 2 different estimates of the cost of the device (for example, from 2 different drugstores). The waiting period can also be extremely long so tell your worker you can't get by without the device. OCAP has been able to speed up the process in getting medical devices, so talk to us if you need them.

Other Benefits
- If you're over 65, you're entitled to an extra $30/month.
- Welfare covers funeral and burial costs up to $2250.
- You're entitled to moving expenses if you need to move, for example if your current home is a danger to your health or safety or the rent is too high. You should explain to your worker that the move is necessary, and why you are unable to keep living in your current home.
- If you're not from the city where you live now, you're entitled to money to cover the cost of moving home to your city, province, or country of origin. You'll only receive this if your worker decides that it's in your best interests, so tell them how moving home is important for your life.
- If you're in jail, your welfare will be reduced or cut off, but you shouldn't have to re-apply for ODSP when you get out. ODSP recipients used to be cut off when they went to jail, and lost time and money waiting for new applications. If this happened to you, contact OCAP. We can get you back pay for the ODSP assistance you should have received after getting out of jail.
- You can get an extra $50/month by telling your worker that you have a special diet.

RAISE THE RATES CAMPAIGN

If you're on OW or ODSP today, you know that the rates are shit and that they're not enough to live on. Over the next year, OCAP and our allies across Ontario will be organizing in a major way to get the rates raised.

We're demanding:
1. A 40% raise in welfare rates.
2. A raise in disability rates to match cost-of-living increases.

The campaign is being organized office-by-office and community-by-community to include as many people as possible.

Public Meetings across the city and Province will spread the word that welfare and disability recipients are fighting back.

Welfare, disability, and other government offices will be occupied.

Actions will be conducted to collect massive paybacks for what we don't have: opening up subway stations for free use, entering supermarkets in large groups to take what we can no longer afford, making sure we have decent clothes for our families, and refusing to start each month writing rent cheques that leave us with nothing.

We're in this together, so let's act like it. Call OCAP to find out what is being organized in your area and how you can get involved.

ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY
Phone 416-925-6939
Website www.ocap.ca
E-mail ocap@tao.ca
Address 10 Britain St. (South of Queen St., West of Sherbourne)

People Unite to Raise the Rates

by Amardeep Kaur Gill

A total of nearly 70 people, from several different local activist groups across Peterborough, joined forces for the province-wide campaign to raise the social assistance rates - Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), on Friday October 1st.

The rally opened at the welfare office with a public ‘speak-out’, organized by the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP), where individuals on social assistance brought their voices out to the public on what it is like to survive on the current rates and to demonstrate that the 3% raise recently by the Provincial McGuinty Liberal Government is an ‘insultingly pathetic gesture’ and not enough to meet basic living needs.

For a single person on welfare, the 3% raise by the Liberal Government amounts to a mere $15.60 per month on top of the current Ontario welfare rate of $530. In Peterborough, where an average bachelor’s apartment is $453 per month, a single person on social assistance is left with only $82 to cover utilities, food, clothes, transportation and other basic costs.

“I would like to see Dalton McGuinty to live on $82 a month for all his needs”, stated Sarah Lamble (PCAP Organizer), showing that the people are sick of making choices between rent and food, clothes and transportation and that the people have had enough.

Following the June 11th speak-out at welfare office, the gatherers made their demands again clear that a 40% raise is needed to restore the 21.7% cuts to welfare in 1995 and to compensate for 10 years of inflation and cost of living increases. “Real change, not spare change”, insisted supporters of the Peterborough event.

Recipients of welfare and ODSP emphasized the inadequacy of the current rates to meet basic needs. One person stated the impossibility to eat nutritiously.

After sharing free lunch provided by Grassroots Café and speaking-out, PCAP marched over to the Peterborough Square to join up with Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice, Peterborough ODSP Action Group, and Peterborough Social Planning Council (PSPC) for another demonstration on raising the rates.

The Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice had put on a vivid visual display with a dramatic skit of the disparities and inequalities of the socio-economic system, bringing to light the unacceptable poverty line low-income people and people with disabilities are forced to live in.

Melissa Webster from the Peterborough ODSP Action Group made known her disappointment at the McGuinty government. “The liberals promised change, yet horribly low-income people continue to suffer,” she said.

Following Raging Grannies singing social justice songs and an incredible display of unity at the Square, demonstrators – led by PCAP – took over the streets and marched around downtown for more than half hour. “The people, united, will never be defeated”, chanted supporters of the Peterborough ‘Raise the Rates’ event, blocking traffic and demanding the 40% increase immediately.

Paul Bocking of the Peterborough Coalition Poverty Against Poverty led the way into the office of Liberal MPP, Jeff Leal, to insert the demands. The demands, however, had to be directed to Leal’s office secretary as Leal was not in town and away on business that day. “We are not going to get a change until we get to the streets and fight for it”, stated Bocking. “This is just part of a much bigger grassroots movement for social change. We are tired of being victims. People are angry.”

The Peterborough event was part of a province-wide campaign. Similar actions took place during the week across Ontario to demand change on the anniversary of the provincial liberal government coming into power. Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) grabbed $3,525 worth of food and toiletries from a high-end grocery store and distributed it to low-income people in Toronto. The bill will be presented to McGuinty on Tuesday. Similarity, Youth Collective had shut down the liberal MPP John Milloy’s Office in Kitchener/Waterloo to let him know that the liberal’s agenda of robbing the poor to pay for the lifestyles of the rich would not go on unopposed.

Several Members of PCAP will be having a meeting with local MPP – Jeff Leal on October 22nd to discuss their demands. “Until they give low-income people what they deserve, we are not going to stop fighting. We are here, and we are not going away!”, stated Lamble.

Rally & March to Raise the Rates: Welfare & ODSP

Friday October 1st, 2004
11:00am @ Welfare Office
(in the Charlotte Mews Courtyard)

FREE LUNCH and Public Speak Out March Downtown to the Local Provincial Liberal Office

On the anniversary of their election...
demand that the Liberals raise the rates!

WE WON’T GET A RAISE UNLESS WE DEMAND IT!

For one whole year, a Provincial Liberal Government elected on a platform of change has merely been complicit in perpetuating their predecessors anti-poor agenda. The Liberals have made miserable token gestures when serious action was called for. This Government will continue to consolidate the war on the poor until it is challenged by way of a serious social mobilization.

If you're on OW or ODSP today, you know that the rates are not enough to live on. The 3% raise recently given by the Liberal Government is an insultingly pathetic gesture. For a single person on welfare it amounts to a measly $15.60/ per month. This is not good enough. People are sick of making choices between rent and food, clothing and transportation. People have had enough. We deserve better. We need a 40% raise to restore the 21.7% cut to welfare and fully compensate for ten years of inflation / cost of living increases.

PCAP and our allies across Ontario are organizing in a major way to get the rates raised. We know the liberals have the money but we will have to fight to get it. PCAP is joining people across the province in mobilizing to get a raise in the assistance rates. We know that we won’t get a raise unless we come out in record numbers and put continued pressure on the Liberals to give us what we deserve. We will be heard!

Welfare Office Told to 'Raise the Rates'

by Sarah Lamble and John Elis

More than 50 people gathered outside the local welfare office on Friday, June 11, 2004 for a public 'speak out' to raise the social assistance rates in Ontario.

Organized by the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP), along with other anti-poverty groups, the event is part of a province-wide campaign calling for a 40 percent raise in the welfare rates and a cost-of-living increase for the Ontario Disability Support Program.

After sharing lunch together outside the front steps of the welfare office, individuals on social assistance spoke publicly about what it is like to try to survive on the current rates. Many described gruelling choices between food and rent, and outlined numerous daily hardships created by lack of income.

PCAP member Sharon Courts, spoke about the difficulties of trying to buy basic necessities on such a limited income. "Often you are forced choose between buying a roll of toilet paper and a bag of milk" she said.

Many people on social assistance declined to speak, due to fear and intimidation because of the possible backlash from the welfare system. Instead, some individuals wrote statements that they asked others to read on their behalf.

But PCAP members stated firmly that that there is no shame in being on social assistance. "Being on social assistance isn't a sign that you've failed the system, but that the system has failed you," said one PCAP organizer, receiving a strong applause from the crowd. "The real shame belongs to those who perpetuate a system that creates and maintains inequality and indignity and allows people to live in poverty - despite enormous wealth in this province and this country."

PCAP members described the current levels of social assistance as woefully inadequate. Noting the provincial government's recent decision to increase the rates by three percent, PCAP members called this increase 'spare change, not real change.' This paltry increase, the first in 11 years, will amount to a mere $15.60 per month for a single person receiving a maximum monthly allowance of $520.00 from Ontario Works. This increase doesn't even come close to meeting basic needs.

In Peterborough where the average rent for a bachelor apartment is $454 per month, a single person on social assistance is now left with less than $82 per month to cover food, utilities, transportation and clothing. As a result, thousands of people in Ontario have been legislated to live in dangerous levels of poverty.

Calling for a 40 percent increase is not really an increase at all, stated one PCAP member. "Forty percent merely compensates for the 21.7 percent welfare cuts in 1995 and accounts for costs-of-living increases. So really, a 40 percent raise will simply restore the rates to the equivalent of the pre-1995 levels."

The Peterborough event occurred as part of a province-wide campaign, by the Common Front--a coalition of grassroots anti-poverty organizations. Similar events took place this week at welfare offices in Toronto, Belleville, Sudbury, Guelph, Ottawa and Kingston. The Peterborough event was supported by the Older Women's Network, the Peterborough Living-Wage, Living-Income Coalition and the Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice.

PCAP Supports Tenant Action Group "Food Grab"

(Peterborough, ON) -- The recent 'food grab' action of the Tenant Action Group in Belleville, should be supported not criminalized, says the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP).

Last week, members of the Tenant Action Group (TAG) issued a press release warning of upcoming 'food grabs' in protest of welfare and disability rates in Ontario. TAG announced that members would enter grocery stores en masse and help themselves to food. These actions are part of a province-wide campaign by anti-poverty groups in the Common Front who are demanding a 40% increase in social assistance rates.

"If the Liberals persist in refusing to provide its citizens with the basic necessities of life then poor people will simply take it" stated TAG.

On Friday, April 23, 2004, 11 anti-poverty activists were arrested and charged with counseling to commit theft, after distributing pamphlets in a grocery store in Belleville.

"TAG members should not be criminalized for taking action to address the dire level of social assistance rates," stated PCAP organizer Sarah Lamble. "The real crime is that grocery stores shelves are stocked with food while poor people go hungry." PCAP urges all charges to be dropped against the activists.

"PCAP stands in full support of the Tenant Action Group," stated Lamble. "We know that people cannot survive on the current rates of assistance, so until the Liberal government ensures that people's basic needs are met, we will continue to take action."

PCAP is organizing a public speak out at the welfare office in Peterborough on June 11, 2004, as part of the Common Front's Raise-the-Rates campaign. "Individuals on social assistance will be sharing their stories about what it is like to try to survive on the current rates," stated Lamble. "We want the public to understand that a raise in the rates is needed, and the government to know that we will won.t back down until we get one."

PCAP Vows to Step up the Fight for Affordable Housing

On January 22, 2004 the City of Peterborough bulldozed a house at 1130 Water Street. This building - formerly used for subsidized housing in Peterborough - became a symbol of the struggle for affordable housing when members of the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) squatted the building last June.

The sick irony is that City Council spent $8900 to demolish the building - a full $2000 MORE than the costs to repair the building (and bring it up to code). All while over 1700 families in Peterborough are listed as waiting for affordable housing.

Although PCAP offered to make full repairs to the house, the city refused and brought in 20 police in riot gear to evict the homeless people who were living there.

PCAP sees the decision to demolish as an attack against affordable housing and an attack against low-income people organizing around homelessness. PCAP has vowed to step up its fight for affordable housing.

For the full story, read on.....

PCAP CONDEMNS CITY COUNCIL'S SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS: DEMOLISHING AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS NOT THE ANSWER

-- JANUARY 23, 2004 --

On January 22, 2004 the City of Peterborough bulldozed the house at 1130 Water Street - a building once used for affordable housing - but now reduced to rubble. This house, a symbol of the struggle for affordable housing in Peterborough, was demolished under the recommendations of a local non-profit housing organization -- the Peterborough Community Housing Development Corporation (PCHDC) -- and by orders of Peterborough City Council.

The demolition occurred in a city recognized as having the worst housing insecurity problem in the province - a city where more than 1700 families are on the affordable housing waiting list, shelters are overflowing, and an estimated 250 youth are without a place to call home.

After taking over the house in public squat last June, the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) offered to make full repairs to 1130 Water Street. Although this initiative would have cost the City virtually nothing, Council refused, choosing to destroy viable housing, rather than work cooperatively with one of the only low-income groups in Peterborough. This is not only an attack against affordable housing - it is an attack against low-income people organizing against homelessness.

PCAP members, however, were not surprised. The City and the PCHDC have long excluded low-income people from participating in decision-making on housing issues. In July, the PCHDC refused to allow PCAP to make a presentation to its board when they were deciding the fate of 1130 Water Street. As stated in an e-mail to PCAP: "The Board of PCHDC, by consensus, agreed not to continue a working relationship with PCAP. Furthermore, as a private non profit organization, PCHDC has no obligation to share our minutes with anyone other than Board members."

The demolition of 1130 Water Street follows a long pattern of bad decisions by the PCHDC and City. Following the severe flood that occurred in the spring of 2002, the PCHDC failed to properly treat the water damage in the building. Soon after, a mould problem developed in the house and eventually, the City was forced to relocate its low-income tenant who had developed severe health problems as a result of the PCHDC and City's mismanagement and neglect. Rather than correcting the problem, the City let the building sit empty for another 7 months until PCAP took it over last summer. Last month, in order to stop a civil suit by the former tenant, the PCHDC settled the matter out-of-court under the conditions of an imposed gag-order.

In June 2003, when anti-poverty activists squatted the house to use for affordable housing, PCAP began making repairs to the house. Peterborough City Council responded with 20 police in riot gear to evict the homeless people who were living at 1130 Water Street. The City offered no emergency housing assistance to those it evicted. And despite PCAP's continued offer to repair the house for free, City Council chose instead to spend $8900 to demolish the building - a full $2000 MORE than the costs to repair the building (and bring it up to code).

The City and the PCHDC have proven themselves to be landlords of the worst kind: they have 1) treated tenants poorly; 2) failed to repair and properly maintain their property; 3) evicted homeless people; 4) destroyed affordable housing. Peterborough residents demand better.

If Council thought that bulldozing 1130 Water Street would deter PCAP from further squatting - nothing could be more wrong. By refusing to work with us, City Council has made it clear that working within the city's bureaucracy will not produce results - PCAP must fight on our own terms. The City's decision to demolish 1130 Water Street has only spurred our determination to struggle stronger, to fight harder and to win the battle for affordable housing in Peterborough.

PCAP has witnessed the benefits of squatting in other cities. Only last month, in the City of Toronto, a squat action by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, resulted in the creation of long-term affordable housing on Gerrard Street. This victory proves that squatting works.

THE CITY MAY HAVE DEMOLISHED OUR SQUAT - BUT THEY CAN NEVER DESTROY OUR STRENGTH AND OUR STRUGGLE.

So long as the City, Province and Federal Government refuses to take responsibility for affordable housing, we are left with little other choice, we will have to take matters into our own hands.

PCAP is ready to step up the fight for affordable housing in Peterborough. We will not let Council's actions go unanswered.

WE WILL FIGHT TO WIN!