Supporting 2 families or individuals in Milton - 3 very soon

We are making traction in Milton towards our goal of 7 individuals or families in Milton by 2016. We now have a second client in the program and in the coming weeks a third. Congratulations team for all your dedication, team work, passion and resilience. Milton Transitional Housing is making a difference to those at risk of homelessness in our community.

Applications for Administrative Support

I am proud to share that Milton Transitional Housing received around 70 applications for the part time role of Administrative Support. What this tells us may be two fold, either that the cost of living and unemployment is driving more people to apply for positions or that we have ignited a passion within the community of Milton to see what we have not seen and to join forces and take action. I hope it is the latter.

Garth Brown talk

On a previous post I highlighted that Garth Brown, landlord and affordable housing advocate was coming to Southside church in Milton. Twenty five residents of Milton came to listen to his experience at the Milton Transitional Housing event, including some new faces. His enlightening presentation highlighted some current Metroland: Living in Poverty series and the estimated 5,490 households in Milton who are classified as low income. Garth draw attention to the fact that individuals are turned away from the Lighthouse in Oakville or Halton Womens Place because of lack of limited capacity. He complimented MTH on the three housing units that they have secured and their five year vision. Garth was able to share some innovative affordable housing solutions with the audience, highlighting that there are both formal and informal alternative options available to us to support those at risk of homelessness. These include having those on low income rent converted basements. It appears this may be affected by a proposed change to zoning by-laws by the Town of Milton. We will investigate further to understand the implication of this. Thank you Garth for sharing your time and passion with us.

Habitat for Humanity in Halton

With the current Metroland Poverty series it was especially poignant to listen to Mavis O'Neil give an inspiring talk at Faith United this morning as an ambassador for Habitat for Humanity in Halton. While I have known of Habitat for Humanity for many years I gained a new deeper insight this morning, in particular how it has positively impacted the local Halton region. Well done Mavis. Here is some info from the Habitat for Humanity Halton website

Habitat Halton was founded in 1999 by a group of individuals from Port Nelson United Church. Our first chairman was Peter Fisher, a long time resident of Burlington. Initially, we served only Burlington, however in July 2002; we became Habitat for Humanity Halton. We were granted charitable status in March 2000. To date, we have built and sold seventeen homes to hard-working, local families with mortgages structured so they can afford them. Five homes are in Burlington, three condos in Burlington, two are in Acton, four are in Georgetown, two homes in Oakville, and one in Milton. In the spring of 2011, the HomeWORKS program was launched. HomeWORKS is a series of free financial sessions. These session/workshops help people build on the skills needed to handle everyday $$$ challenges. This program offers tools to build and manage a budget along with money saving tips.

I understand that they aim to build another 24-28 homes in Halton in the coming years. I asked Mavis how Habitat for Humanity integrates with the goals of Milton Transitional Housing and Halton Poverty Roundtable. She strongly believes that each group has a slightly different and complementary objectives and that the collaboration and work of the multiple groups can only contribute to the increasing awareness of the challenge for those at risk of homelessness and poverty in Halton. Similar to MTH it began with a small group of passionate individuals who recognised that they needed to take action.