Durham is being overwhelmed by the large number of newcomers in recent weeks, going by a statement issued yesterday by John Henry, Regional Chair and Chief Executive Officer.
“Over the last few weeks, the number of newcomers arriving in our community has increased. And, despite our best efforts, we cannot keep up with this demand. We have exhausted the capacity in our system and any funding we had available to support newcomers,” said Henry.
“We need provincial and federal assistance to help sustain the costs associated with this emergency response. Our local programs have exceeded capacity; with unprecedented financial and occupancy pressures,” he pointed out.
“The sad reality is that it leaves many newcomers homeless or at risk of becoming homeless,” he added.
Henry said although Durham Region continues to advocate for urgent funding and access to housing facilities, it cannot support refugees and asylum-seekers—arriving at unprecedented numbers in Durham Region—without the support of our upper levels of government.
“Durham Region strives to be a welcoming and inclusive region; working together with community partners to co-ordinate the settlement of newcomers, including refugees and asylum-seekers, in our communities. We—like other municipalities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area—have expanded our services to support the influx of arrivals of refugees and asylum-seekers, while they establish themselves in Canada,” Henry explained.
These expanded services have included the activation of emergency shelter systems as well as providing wraparound services to help newcomers settle in the region, he added.
Click for more information on settlement services and supports in Durham Region DurhamImmigration.ca/SettlementServices.
Trudeau is Thee AntiChrist, call me crazy that’s fine with me but he has to go!
Both Provincial and Federal levels of government are to blame for this. We are exploiting international students abroad in Canada. We advertise them prosperity and success if they study here and they can’t find housing because locals and citizens can’t find housing. I read recently that we are seeing an increase of bodies of International students being repatriated to their home countries because these kids are ending their lives in despair when they find out Canada was not as advertised.
Then we have Doug Ford pushing the Feds for more immigration and the Feds are increasing it. If you look at the lobbying registry, you find lobbyists from the CFIB and Business Council of Canada etc. demanding more immigrants. They say there are labour shortages and push for immigrants, but we have not seen many wage increases all while costs of housing skyrocket. Canadians are having less children, because you need two incomes just to barely tread water in Canada. And instead of making parents more prosperous here so more people will have children, we import new workers from other countries and this is making the housing crisis even worse.