Vancouver Gregor Robertson and Housing Units

Vancouver Gregor Robertson: Edmonton has just 11,673 social housing units, expiring federal funding agreements and a federal government that seems like it doesn’t really want to be in housing, Iveson said, according to Toronto Star. That a recipe for disaster. We need help — this is a need approaching a crisis, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson told the Star in an interview en route to Toronto for Thursday meeting with Mayor John Tory, Vancouver Gregor Robertson, Halifax Mike Savage, Kitchener Berry Vrbanovic and London Matt Brown. To those who say low-income housing is a municipal or provincial concern, Iveson argues that many tenants in his city are First Nations, Métis, Inuit, immigrants or refugees. Housing is part of the solution to those rising costs, otherwise we’re reacting rather than preventing problems, Iveson added. What more, when people are homeless, or in insecure housing, they are much more likely to interact with the justice and health care systems, with big costs to society and all levels of government, he said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.