{"id":23739,"date":"2019-05-09T16:55:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23739"},"modified":"2019-05-09T16:55:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:55:15","slug":"getting-things-done-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/getting-things-done-11\/","title":{"rendered":"GETTING THINGS DONE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mayor Tom Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional Council was recently\npresented with a report from the Office of Social Services on York Region\u2019s\nhomeless population, titled, \u201cUpdate on \u2018I Count, I\u2019m Not Just a Number.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a sobering report.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now in York Region there\nare almost 400 people who are homeless. \nThat\u2019s 400 people who have no permanent place to live. It\u2019s clear that\nhomelessness isn\u2019t just a \u201cbig city\u201d problem. It is right here in our\ncommunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I found the numbers to\nbe staggering, it was the reason why people were homeless that I found the most\nsignificant.  Family conflict accounted\nfor fully a quarter of the people who were homeless, 16% was due to job loss,\n14% was due to simply being unable to pay rent or a mortgage. 26% of the\nhomeless population were youth just 16 \u2013 24 years old and 45% were chronically\nhomeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These numbers show the stark\ntruth about homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are people who come from\nall walks of life but have suffered a significant life event \u2013 lost their job,\nsuffered a critical illness \u2013 and have either lost their home or can no longer\nafford to rent one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report makes clear though\nthat alongside those that are currently homeless there are many more in a\nfinancially precarious position. In a time of ever-increasing prices, lack of\naffordable housing options and people living paycheque to paycheque all it\ncould take is missing one payment, losing a job, or caring for a sick family\nmember or elderly parent to trigger a chain of events that could lead to\nhomelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Region has developed a\nstrategy that focuses on prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the lowest homelessness\nrate in the GTA, the Regional strategy has been successful.  However, as there are still hundreds of\npeople homeless in our communities, more needs to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region\u2019s strategy is to focus\non building awareness of the issue and work towards implementing several\npreventative measures that will help people before they become homeless and\nprovide support to those that are homeless so that they can break the cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key feature of the regional\nstrategy is to provide Council with the information and data necessary to make\ninformed choices about how to invest in homeless prevention and housing\nstability programs; give people the support they need and access the services\nthey require so that we can \u201cprevent, reduce and eventually end homelessness in\nYork Region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To quote the report, \u201cYork\nRegion is doing more than managing homelessness and has moved away from\nexpensive crisis intervention to making targeted investments in prevention,\ndiversion and housing stability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I support this important\nRegional initiative to assist those most in need of support. Aurora is a\ncommunity that prides itself on its vibrancy, its community spirit and in\nparticular its inclusivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recognize that every member\nof our community \u201ccounts\u201d.  We need to\nuse the tools we have available to us to work with our Regional partners to end\nhomelessness in our communities. Ending homelessness in York Region can be\nachieved if we work together to get it done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that is all for this\nweek. As always, if you would like to get into contact with me please feel free\nto contact me anytime by phone 905-727-3123 ext. 4746 or by email\ntmrakas@aurora.ca and if you would like to sign up for more newsletters and\ncouncil updates then please visit Mrakas.ca\/contact to join the growing list of\nAurorans that are staying informed.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mayor Tom Mrakas Regional Council was recently presented with a report from the Office of Social Services on York Region\u2019s homeless population, titled, \u201cUpdate on \u2018I Count, I\u2019m Not Just a Number.\u201d  It was a sobering report.  Right now in York Region there are almost 400 people who are homeless.  That\u2019s 400 people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6aT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 02:27:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}