The Bishop’s Panel on Housing Justice (BPHJ) is providing bulletin inserts to every parish with facts about homelessness and affordable housing and questions for candidates.

“Housing affordability and homelessness touch every community across the diocese,” Moira Alie, the BPHJ chair said. “Municipal leaders need to know this is an issue people care about.”

The campaign is taking place as Centre 454, operated by Belong Ottawa, a Community Ministry of the Diocese that serves many people who are homeless or precariously housed, faces a deadline to move from its longtime location at St. Albans Church on King Edward by Jan. 31, 2027.

Belong Ottawa has made an urgent request to the City of Ottawa to extend the deadline to ensure its essential services can continue without interruption, avoid the dislocation of a move in the dead of winter and allow for meaningful planning for its future. Details of Centre 454’s services to the most vulnerable are on Belong Ottawa’s website (belongottawa.ca). There is also a letter-writing campaign supporting its request for an extension of the deadline: Centre 454 Advocacy Campaign.

For the municipal elections, the panel recommends several steps for churchgoers who see the bulletin and volunteer to help. One option is to attend all-candidate meetings and ask questions, using the information provided. Another is to engage directly one-on-one with a candidate, proactively or when the candidate shows up on a doorstep.

For anyone who misses the bulletin but would like to participate, details are posted on the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa website. ottawa.anglican.ca/what-we-do/homelessness-and-affordable-housing

All municipalities in the diocese have good current information on candidates and election arrangements on their websites.  (See sample of links at the end of this article.)

The bulletin insert (which can be downloaded from the diocesan website) begins with the fact that homelessness in the Diocese has reached record highs. It offers basic facts (such as 3,000 people are homeless in Ottawa every night); suggestions for municipal action; and questions for candidates, including, “Will you make ending homelessness and building more affordable housing a priority if you are elected?”

The panel’s goal is to make sure homelessness and affordable housing are municipal election issues. Candidates who are faced with a multitude of issues need to hear from many voters to make something a priority.

“We want it to be an election issue,” said panel member Joyce Potter. “We want people running for council to be aware of the issues and to have to think about their positions.”

The panel sees the election initiative as part of its mandate to inform parishioners about the housing and homelessness situations. Feedback from participating volunteers is encouraged.

It’s easy to find out who is running for election in your municipality. In Ottawa, searching for Ottawa election candidates 2026 brings up full details.

Links for other municipalities:

Carleton Place

Cornwall

Mississippi Mills

Pembroke

Perth

Renfrew

Smiths Falls

The post Anglicans asked to help make affordable housing and homelessness municipal election issues appeared first on Perspective.

This is one of five recommendations the panel has made to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in a pre-budget submission. The committee invites submissions as part of its consultation process for the 2026 federal budget in the fall.

The panel used the submission to pinpoint the experience of parishes (Christ Church Bells Corners, St. Thomas the Apostle Alta Vista, St. James the Apostle Perth, St. John the Evangelist Smiths Falls) and the Diocese through Cornerstone Housing for Women and Belong Ottawa.

The pre-budget consultations are an opportunity to reach Members of Parliament of all political parties, both those on the finance committee and others.

The panel’s submission urged the government to adopt the National Housing Accord, a 10-point plan drawn up by housing experts from the private and non-profit sectors to restore rental housing affordability.

The Accord’s leading recommendation is to create a permanent roundtable, representative of all orders of government — federal, provincial, municipal —  to develop a coordinated plan with targets and accountability.

The permanent roundtable is seen as a means of addressing and overcoming delays and confusion that often arise, typically when two or even three orders of government are involved in the funding process.

The panel’s brief draws on the experience of parishes and the diocese, creating affordable housing in consultation with Cahdo, the Ottawa non-profit developer. Cahdco has worked with several diocesan projects, including the current Ellwood House Extension. In 2024, Ellwood hired Turner & Townsend as project managers.

The Ellwood directors, while acknowledging the importance of federal capital funding, reported that the funding process has been long and confusing, with many repeat requests for documentation and many legal documents that raise issues of risk.

This view is backed up by Cahdco whose finding is that the main contribution the federal government could make would be guaranteed consistency in the funding infrastructure over 10 years. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has changed the funding requirements for programs almost annually.

The post Diocese recommends ways for government to increase affordable housing in pre-budget brief appeared first on Perspective.