NOW Magazine
Ottawa announces temporary rental assistance funding
The funding of up to $15 million will provide rental assistance to low-income households in existing affordable housing units By Julia Mastroianni
Samuel Engelking
New rental assistance funding of up to $15 million will be available for former federal social housing providers, according to an announcement made by Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Ahmed Hussen on Monday.
The funding, named Temporary Rental Assistance, will be available starting April 1, and will be offered until the end of March in 2022.
It will be offered as “exceptional one-time assistance” to co-operative and non-profit housing providers according to a press release from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
Toronto mask makers ready to adjust designs if rules change for COVID-19 variants
Experts say three-layer masks remain effective as long as it fits tightly and is worn properly By Julia Mastroianni
Samuel Engelking
As highly contagious variants of the COVID-19 virus begin to spread in Canada and elsewhere, some public health officials around the world are switching up face mask advice.
Variants first found in South Africa and the UK have been cropping up in Canada, including the B117 variant from the UK, which studies show is as at least 56 per cent more transmissible than the original strain of the virus.
Here’s why people are rallying to protect this Toronto heritage site from demolition
The provincial government has paused demolition of the Foundry site in West Don Lands after an outcry in Toronto By Julia Mastroianni
Matthew Cornett
Demolition crew arrived on site on January 14 and began tearing down the buildings on the following Monday.
Community members and Toronto councillors are fighting to protect four heritage buildings on the Foundry site in the West Don Lands after the province started demolition on January 18.
The Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company site at 153 to 185 Eastern Avenue is a provincially owned property that falls under a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) issued by the province.
The pandemic has made post-secondary students’ mental health even worse
As college and university students face a mental health crisis, faculty and institutions are looking at making structural changes By Julia Mastroianni
Wes Hicks/Unsplash
Among the many negative effects of COVID-19, deteriorating mental health of post-secondary students has been one of the most serious and widespread.
Mental health stressors are a major issue for post-secondary students in particular, though the pandemic has only exacerbated a growing crisis in Canada.
“Things were going downhill in mental health for students across North America before COVID,” says Paul Ritvo, a psychology professor at York University who has been studying the effects of mindfulness on student mental health. “What COVID has done is it has put health and health science in the top headlines, and we have become a more health-oriented society.”