SAY th

y 4 a is a housing crisis is
Eaually “Spat something new.
‘thing seenre COUSH: is that little
tthe crisis °° -D@ happening to
Here ig
Mlemso¥, the crisis is described
orace Brown of Toron-

fen

8 te are more than 8,000

it  Toronte won in 1966 in the

: a alone, and these climb
1,000- total during the

mo
® roblem, of 1967, there has

When it
4 aa ' Teported that there is
ty, even ea Vacancy rate in
te 1s argued to be
lem, ~“*88erated, there is still a
"en, in
ent is Most affiuent city of
tie for a there are evictions
M ideal €rgency shelter under
F Conditions, the problem
and yelling for atten-

as

fn hone
than ren’ Starts are down,
i, dickerin eval Projects are stall-
ny Who dex and by apprehensive
Hh ""eWal, heanely need this ur-
, When £n it is a crime to have
Politicians and officials
ae drag feet over ur-
Solely py When builders are
the Beneral Y the profit motive,
Jacke ‘ a Public has an “I’m all
- “tude, then we have a

Ramil

dat, On, Ha

mh e for wa Hunter, who was
at ina] pee of control last
ay shad t ect to the Spectator

an his city: to say about the
jc olumns

hoyaemen
Ons pane. ay

st
Teport . opposition

t Construction and

t op Oat the fre have been sug-
. of the Wen ms crisis is a
peers’ opposition.
at it me There are some
Ciency Come about be-
Y and blundering.

4 Case of
r
ity ohn
to be C tio
th h nm has become
aut ex om and pushed aside
page is s and buck passing.
d the Sault of. political
Th ro POnsibje €vels of govern-
Tis reer SH idea t

Ponsibje a

f 5 t is dyin
Politiche cwlarly vanber
ount. “"S have to take

ee
on city Council may not
lang * but the absence
Nt While no master plan
buildin People are living
hed o 8S and fire traps
ff. Recent council
orj a et foot-
e ris Plans

m direction a

THE GROWING CONCERN
about the

supply to houses aplenty are absent.
To paraphrase the well known jingle
‘a little dab will do them’ would be
an appropritae theme song for city hall
antics.”

Dave Archer, president of the Onta-
rio Federation of Labor, also has some
things to say on this important ques-
tion. In an article, in Information, jour-
nal of the United Steelworkers of Ame-
rica, he writes:

“The private sector of our economy
cannot provide housing for the low-in-
come families. They’re not even going
to: try as long as-they can sell more
expensive homes at a higher profit. . .

“The provisions of low-rental hous-
ing must remain a community respon-
sibility. Otherwise housing needs for
the average man will simply not be
mets...

“Municipalities must be responsible
for-housing their citizens and they must
have the financial and administrative
ability to accept this responsibility.
This is where the grass roots democra-
cy can flourish. This is the level on
which citizens can make their presence
felt.

Housing Corpo-ation were to reduce its
interest ratés on its loans and make
them directly to the municipality, if
the province were to give the same
financial incentives regarding capital
costs and operating subsidies to muni-
cipalities or their agencies as they do
the Ontario Housing Corporation, if
the 11 percent federal tax on building
materials and the compounded five per-
cent provincial sales tax were eliminat-
ed on public housing projects, I would
be willing to wager that municipalities
would accept their responsibilities.”
Another suggestion to assist in the
financing of housing at the municipal

“Jevel is contained in a letter to the

Hamilton Spectator from Don Stewart,
a candidate for alderman in the last
election. Stewart says: ;
“My contention is, and has been for
some time, that our present method of
raising municipal taxes is outdated and
requires a complete overhaul. Money
for education, welfare, police and fire
protection should no longer be part of
reality taxes. The provincial and fed-
eral governments should have the re-
sponsibility of raising this money.
Where this money comes from, of

Sree presents an interesting prob-

“My proposition is that large indus-
tries and commercial -establishments
which are realizing larger profits every
year should be taxed heavier than they
are—a capital gains tax would be one
way. These individuals who are- mak-
ing their millions out of the various
communities are morally responsible to
help make life more bearable to the
people who work and produce this
wealth.

“I feel that until an approach to
housing and other social problems sim-
ilar. to this one is arrived at, these
problems will not be solved.”

New thinking is needed on the prob-
lem if we-are to see a way out of the
crisis.

An editorial in Canadian Labor,
organ of the Canadian Labor Congress,
puts it this way:

“Canada is failing in the task of ade-
quately housing its people . . . under
existing housing policies home owner-
ship has become unattainable for most
low and middle-income Canadians. If
the housing crisis is to be met, Canada
must abandon two~ long-cherished
ideals; that every Canadian should
own a home on an individual lot, and
that private enterprise can adequately
provide such housing. Rising land costs
and mortgage interest rates as well as
the mobility of the Canadian popula-
tion, have made these ideals obso-
lete ....

“The average home owner moves
every seven years, and one in four re-
cipients of family allowances moves
every year.

“Housing policies based on private
institutions and individual ownership
are no longer realistic. The time has
come to treat housing.as a public util-
ity, curb land speculation, stress pub-
lic and co-operative ownership, and

- build multiple-unit dwellings that will

house Canadians in comfort, health,
dignity and privacy at prices they can
afford.”

Bruces Magnuson, Ontario leader of
the Communist Party and candidate in
Toronto-Dovercourt, also adds _ his
voice: :

“Why not acknowledge that housing
is a public utility? Mix income levels.
End land speculation, soaring rents.
and interest rates. Take private profits
out of public housing. Reduce crip-
pling municipal taxes by assuming cost
of education at the provincial level, as
the Communist Party called for in a
statement issued last February. While
calling for public funds to be used on a
vast scale for public housing, the Com-
munist Party puts the blame for de-
teriorating housing conditions on the
fact that our “Canadian society is or-
ganized in a system based on the drive
for maximum profit -rather than the
fulfillment of human needs’.”

All this bears out the growing con--
cern over the crisis, and it will be out
of this debate and discussion that.-ac+
tion by the people concerned will force
government at all levels to take those
steps that are necessary for fulfilling
to aim of a decent home for every Can-

adian.

» Wy
U

Battle for r

“If the Canadian Mortgages and

BOOKS

ights theme of novel

The form is a documentary-

and passionate. T°: =1clude
those who already - i :.re con-
fronted with a ren.oval from the
land that they, had completely
adopted as their own.

The book evokes anger at the
McCarthys, the McCarrans. It
evokes pride in those who fight
for the democratic rights of all
Americans, no matter what their
land of birth.

Some of the fictionalization,

sive movements.
The McCarran Act of the late

novel. Real people, real cases,

though, does not ring true and,

My 8Usha SP8PIro-Ber- iar wi
ar - : : s
tj West; Mithograph ing HB RES hee 1940’s was the instrument under real experiences, taken by the i places, obtrudes into the sto-
4 NRG “on insets tation, threats of revoking citi: which a sizeable number of author and set ina semi-fiction- les which without need of gar-
ean Citizen © utiliza zenship Americans were deported, de- alized form. - nish are worthy of telling and
h "k in eee as a For Ayanioane too, particu- prived of citizenship _ rights, This is perhaps the strength of reading. eee
/ bhe® m oh nds of larly but not only in the period hounded, arrested, persecuted. and the weakness of the book. A book worth reading for its
¥ Can “Nomena * North of McCarthyism, this was a pat- This is the theme of this book For the stories that are told of subject matter alone even with
‘di NS, bo; tern of state policy with the by an American writer from San_ eight of the victims of the attack the somewhat amateurish fiction
j “"N Outside aim of dampening down progres- Francisco. on the foreign-born are poignant overlay. (P.C.)

_—.. : June 9, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7