Housing and homelessness tops the City of Saskatoon's strategic planning
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Unfinished Business: Dickens Outlines His Vision for a Second Term
Tackling income inequality and building another 10,000 affordable housing units are two of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens' goals for a second term in office. The 51-year-old Dickens outlined his vision for a second term on Tuesday after formally qualifying to put his name on the ballot in November. He told dozens of supporters gathered on the steps outside City Hall that Atlanta has housed hundreds of homeless people, built more than 11,000 affordable housing units, and hired more than 14,000 young people over the course of the past three-plus years, but the city still has a long way to go toward closing the gap between its haves and have-nots. 'We've got big plans to keep moving Atlanta forward,' Dickens told those in attendance on Tuesday. 'We're going to make Atlanta the best place to raise a family through affordable housing, food access, public safety, youth programs, and more.' Tuesday marks the start of the four-day qualifying period for municipal office candidates to be on the ballot in November, according to the office of Atlanta Municipal Clerk Corrine Lindo. Anyone running for mayor or a spot on Atlanta City Council has until Friday to file required paperwork and pay all necessary fees. Read More: Is a Second Andre Dickens Term Inevitable? Mayoral candidates must be at least 18 years of age and pay $6,081.90 to run. They also are required to live in the city for at least a year prior to filing to run for office. Lindo's office on Tuesday declined to confirm who has officially qualified for the city's mayoral race. A staffer said the final list of mayoral candidates won't be available until Friday. Blandtown resident Marcus D. Lamar, 2021 mayoral candidate Walter Reeves, and community advocate Eddie Meredith have declared their intentions to run against Dickens in November, along with consultant Helmut Domagalski. Rumored candidates include Larmetria Trammell and Kalema Jackson, according to the Center for Civic Innovation. Meredith said on Tuesday that he, too, has qualified to be on the ballot. The 39-year-old former pastor and community leader, originally from Oakland, California, has lived in Atlanta since 1993. He told Capital B Atlanta in July that he's running for mayor because, in his view, Dickens hasn't done enough to help the city's working class. Read More: Dickens Champions 'Cop City,' Crime Drop, and Housing Gains 'There's nobody that's out there that is advocating for the people,' Meredith said. 'A lot of residents are extremely vulnerable.' Beunca Gainor disagrees with Meredith's view on Dickens. The 36-year-old Bankhead resident was one of the more than 50 Dickens supporters who attended his Tuesday morning press conference. She said the mayor's affordable housing strikeforce has helped make a difference in the lives of Black Atlanta residents like her. She, her fiancé, and their five children recently moved into an affordable two-bedroom apartment in the city. 'You can't beat $850 in the city in 2025,' Gainor told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday. 'If I needed to take a week of sick leave from my job, I won't be homeless, because I can actually afford my rent.' The post Unfinished Business: Dickens Outlines His Vision for a Second Term appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta. Solve the daily Crossword
Associated Press
27 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Oregon city at heart of Supreme Court homelessness ruling to ensure camping spaces under settlement
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court homelessness ruling has agreed to ensure camping spaces for at least 150 people as part of a settlement reached with a disability rights group that sued the city over its camping rules. Disability Rights Oregon, which sued Grants Pass in January, said Friday that it had reached a settlement agreement. The advocacy group accused the city of discriminating against people with disabilities and violating a state law requiring cities' camping regulations to be 'objectively reasonable.' 'This settlement represents a significant step forward in ensuring people with disabilities experiencing homelessness have places to rest, basic necessities like drinking water, and real opportunity to stabilize their lives,' Jake Cornett, executive director and CEO of Disability Rights Oregon, said in a statement. Grants Pass Mayor Clint Scherf said in an email Tuesday that the city appreciates having reached an agreement and will 'continue to work toward effective measures to benefit all members of our community.' A copy of the settlement agreement showed the city signed off on it earlier this month. Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah McGlaughlin issued a preliminary injunction in March blocking the city from enforcing its camping rules unless it increased capacity at city-approved sites for camping and ensured they are physically accessible to people with disabilities. City ordinances prohibit sleeping or leaving personal property in a park overnight in most cases. Those found in violation can be fined up to $50. The city said Friday on Facebook that law enforcement 'will begin noticing the parks, and occupants will have 72 hours to remove their belongings.' The city's website shows three 'designated resting locations' in the downtown area, near City Hall and the police station, where people can stay for four days before having to relocate. The time limit can be enforced unless disability accommodations are necessary, the city said on Facebook. At resting sites, individuals are limited to spaces that are 8 feet by 8 feet (2.4 meters by 2.4 meters), with buffers of 3 feet (0.9 meters) between spaces, as outlined in city code. Under the settlement, Grants Pass must ensure that at least 150 camping spaces are available in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act for the next 12 months. Drinking water and hand washing stations must be available on-site. The city must also provide $60,000 in grant funding to a nonprofit for homeless services. Grants Pass, a small city of about 40,000 along the Rogue River in the mountains of southern Oregon, has struggled for years to address the homelessness crisis and become emblematic of the national debate over how to deal with it. Its parks in particular became a flashpoint, with many of them becoming the site of encampments blighted by drug use and litter. Last June, in a case brought by the city, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that communities can ban sleeping outside and fine people for doing so, even when there are not enough shelter beds. After the high court ruling, Grants Pass banned camping on all city property except locations designated by the City Council, which established sites for the town's hundreds of homeless people in a bid to move them from the parks. Upon taking office in January, the new mayor and new council members moved to close the larger of the two sites, which housed roughly 120 tents, according to Disability Rights Oregon's complaint, which said the sites were frequently crowded with poor conditions and inaccessible to people with disabilities because of loose gravel. After the lawsuit was filed, the city reopened a second, smaller site. McGlaughin's order in March said the city had to increase capacity to what it had been before the larger site was closed. Homelessness increased 18% last year nationwide, driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and an increase in migrants in some areas.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
TERRAZZANO: Carney should listen to Canadians and cut bureaucracy
Canadians know the federal bureaucracy costs too much and delivers too little. The federal government has added 99,000 bureaucrats since 2016. And it's not just the number of bureaucrats that ballooned; the cost did too. The bureaucracy cost taxpayers $40.2 billion in 2016, according to the parliamentary budget officer (PBO). The bureaucracy cost taxpayers $71.2 billion last year. That means the cost of the federal bureaucracy has increased by 77% since 2016. The good news for taxpayers is that Canadians want the federal government to cut the size and cost of the bureaucracy. In a Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 54% of Canadians said they want the government to cut its bureaucracy. Just 4% of Canadians said the bureaucracy should increase, while 24% want to maintain the current size of the bureaucracy. The rest were unsure. Among Canadians with a firm opinion, two-thirds support cutting the size and cost of the bureaucracy. After Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announced a spending review, government union bosses were quick to fearmonger about potential savings. The Canadian Union of Public Employees promised to 'fight to defend against the devastating impacts that Mr. Carney's cuts will have.' The Public Service Alliance of Canada says government savings 'will hurt everyone in Canada who depends on vital public services.' But these scare tactics aren't convincing Canadians. Half of Canadians say federal services are worse now than they were in 2016, according to the Leger poll. That's despite the cost of the federal bureaucracy growing 77%. Only 11% of Canadians say federal services are better than they were in 2016, and most of those people acknowledge that services 'should be better.' This is a huge blow to the unions' spin. Government union bosses want people to think the sky will fall if bureaucrats get fired. But the government added 99,000 bureaucrats over the last 10 years and half of Canadians still say services are worse. After a decade of out-of-control bureaucratic hiring, cutting the cost of government through attrition doesn't go far enough. The Carney government must fire bureaucrats. The number of federal bureaucrats has increased 38% since 2016, while Canada's population grew by about 16%. There would be nearly 60,000 fewer federal employees had the bureaucracy grown in line with the population over the last decade. The average bureaucrat costs taxpayers $125,300 a year. That means taxpayers would save about $7 billion annually had the bureaucracy grown in line with the population. The government should also scale back the pay and perks of federal employees. That means ending taxpayer-funded bonuses. For starters, why are government employees getting bonuses? And why would an organization that is more than $1 trillion in debt think it has money for bonuses? Yet, the federal government has rubber-stamped more than $1.5 billion in bonuses since 2015, despite a report from the PBO that found that 'less than 50% of (performance) targets are consistently met.' Let's recap. The size and cost of the federal bureaucracy have spiralled out of control. Canadians want the government to cut the bureaucracy. And Canadians know that adding more government bureaucrats does not mean better services. Carney should listen to Canadians and cut the size and cost of government bureaucracy. Franco Terrazzano is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
