Letter Writing to the Government

After all of the learning we've done this year on homelessness, we felt we needed to take action to help others. We wanted our voices to be heard so we wrote letters to the government to advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

See our post from Mustard Seed School about this (click here).

Listen to the news article we watched about the budget cuts announced last week to Affordable Housing maintenance (click here).

Here is the letter we wrote as a class about Affordable Housing. We each wrote our own letters in partners about an issue of our choice (affordable housing, pet-friendly shelters, public bathrooms, affordable clothes and food, or tiny homes).

We are mailing our letters to the municipal government (our Mayor Nenshi). Our class letter is going to the provincial government (Premier Kenney) because it was provincial budget cuts.

Dear Premier Kenney,

We are Ms Elder’s Grade 4/5 class in Ramsay School, Calgary. We are learning about homelessness this year. We know that homelessness is very complicated and there are many ways that people become homeless. We participated in a week-long program at Mustard Seed School, and we had presentations from the Drop-In Centre, Alexandra Centre Society, and the Calgary Immigration Society. We know that everyone has their own story. We want to help people experiencing homelessness in Calgary.

We are mad that you are cutting $53 000 000 to affordable housing. We know that giving people homes is actually cheaper than having them live on the street. When people are homeless, we spend more money on hospitals, police, prisons, and homeless shelters. People who are living in an unsafe environment might be scared to move out and become homeless so they may stay where they shouldn’t. After people leave our affordable housing units, there needs to be money to repair them so someone else can move in. We want to solve the problem of homelessness, and by taking money away, it will only make it worse.

We find that your choices with our province’s money, is just making the problem of homelessness worse. Finland solved their homeless problem by putting homeless people into homes, so why can’t we try too? They did the math and realized it costs less money than having people be homeless. For example, studies indicate in Alberta, we would SAVE $34 000 per person!

Please consider our ideas. Never give up. The future depends on you.

Remember, as the Lorax speaks for the trees, we speak for the people experiencing homelessness.

Sincerely,

Ms Elder’s Grade 4/5 Class