[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: Cathy Crowe Newsletter - April 2009
Terrie
mocharebyl at gmail.com
Fri Apr 10 15:53:42 EDT 2009
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cathy Crowe News <crowenews at sherbourne.on.ca>
Date: 2009/4/10
Subject: Cathy Crowe Newsletter - April 2009
To: mocharebyl at gmail.com
*Cathy Crowe Newsletter #55 - April, 2009*
[image: The Story Behind the Shoe]
*1. Toronto s Street Count Take 2 <#120903518632f313_1>*
*2. A Recession Forum with panellists including Naomi Klein (author of The
Shock Doctrine), Ken Lewenza (Canadian Auto Workers) and Uzma Shakir (Colour
of Poverty Campaign) <#120903518632f313_2>*
*3. Dustbin Treasures a poem by John Rook <#120903518632f313_3>*
*4. The Story Behind the Shoe <#120903518632f313_4>*
*1. Toronto s Street Count Take 2 *
On April 15, 2009 the City of Toronto will undertake its second street count
of people who are homeless. City staff are emphasizing the count is more
than a count, it is a needs assessment. In 2006 the first street count
cost $90,000. What did their needs assessment find? One result received
much fanfare, the majority of homeless people wanted housing!!!
This year the cost of Toronto s needs assessment has gone up to $100,000.
Similar to the 2006 count, the City will deploy approximately 750
volunteers, 300 team leaders and 50 human decoys (pretending to be
homeless), plus city staffers. Team leaders and decoys will receive a $100
payment for their effort. Homeless people, those who are found and have
their needs assessed, will receive a $5 fast food voucher.
The City s Facebook site describes the purpose of the count:
* Toronto's goal is to end street homelessness and to do that we need to
make sure that the services the City funds are those that homeless people
need to find and keep housing. *
The site invites people to volunteer, the only requirement being that they
are over the age of 18.
Why another street count or needs assessment? I have yet to hear a good
answer. At the time of Toronto s 2006 count there existed over 29
comprehensive reports that provided thorough data on both the numbers of
homeless people and their needs.
Much has been written by researchers, advocates and experts in the field
criticizing the City s plan to repeat the 2006 count and needs
assessment . Issues raised have included:
- the flawed point in time methodology that is used
- the attempt to count what is impossible to count due to the forced
migrant and hidden nature of homelessness
- the use of volunteers who receive one hour training and then are
expected to approach strangers with a clipboard and ask personal questions
- massive geographic omissions in its implementation
- the purposeful targeting of what is negatively referred to as the
street homeless
Less has been written about what happened since the 2006 count and needs
assessment :
- At least *two volunteer overnight shelters were* *shut down* due to a
lack of financial resources and support from the City
- Outreach agencies that receive City funding were contractually *prohibited
from providing survival supplies *, i.e. hot food, sleeping bags or
blankets to people forced to sleep outside due to shelter overcrowding
- *60 Richmond Street East shelter was* *shut, *albeit the site is being
turned into affordable housing, but it still meant a loss of 70 overnight
shelter spaces
- *110 Edward Street shelter was* *shut*, also for conversion to
affordable housing, but closure meant another loss of 120 overnight shelter
beds
- *Salvation Army Riverdale Men s shelter was* *shut*, management
citing huge capital costs, resulting in the loss of still another 60 men s
shelter beds
- **However, the City s *Streets to Homes program* *expands *and they
hire an additional 48 street workers at the expense of funding experienced
and long-standing community agencies who have established trust with
homeless people
- **The *City s Streets to Homes program* *adds an emphasis *on targeting
panhandlers
- *Many of the homeless individuals counted as successes in the City s
Streets to Homes program stats were unable to sustain* the housing they
were placed in. The reasons cited included hunger and poverty after the rent
is paid, geographical challenges like being housed in a community too far
from food and health services, and also unsafe and inadequate housing. The
City has refused to consider an independent audit of their stats which claim
housing success.
- *Police continue to* *ticket* homeless people who panhandle, especially
in the downtown core. Individuals have reported receiving hundreds of
dollars worth of tickets for panhandling and encumbering the sidewalk
- *The City continues to* *resist* opening a 24 hour reception centre
which could also function as a warming or cooling centre (depending on the
season) that would include beds for sleeping and proper meals
*So counters/decoys/team leaders beware! *
The City s focus on ending street homelessness is inextricably linked to
what is known as the made in the USA* Housing First *policy, which
includes major infringements on homeless people s human rights: by-laws that
determine where homeless people cannot sleep and cannot be fed, enhanced
enforcement of these laws, evictions of homeless encampments, homeless
counts that focus only on visible street homelessness and panhandling,
Streets to Homes type programs, and drastic cutbacks in funding to life
sustaining programs.
For anyone that wonders isn t *Housing First *a good thing? It would be in
a city, province, and a country with a national housing program, but this
term has been co-opted for a darker purpose.
* It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is
spent in studying them * quote by Bill Vaughan.
To listen to a debate on the Count/Needs Assessment on The Current go to:
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200904/20090408.html<http://m1e.net/c?79192522-dWjk6RrNqHZYg%404147166-nYntg/KrDz.sY>
**
*2. A Recession Forum with panellists including Naomi Klein (author of The
Shock Doctrine), Ken Lewenza (Canadian Auto Workers) and Uzma Shakir (Colour
of Poverty Campaign)***
The Recession Relief Fund Coalition has already heard dire reports of the
impact of this recession on vulnerable communities including youth, seniors,
immigrants and people living in poverty. Donations are down 20% to
non-profits, the shelter sector is overflowing on to mats, a 20% increase in
demand for food and supplies at missions and food banks since December,
families with children entering adult drop-ins needing food and longer
line-ups for all services. The Coalition is in the process of developing a
template for tracking the indicators of the recession s impact. In the
meantime, the group is holding a public forum with an expert panel including
author Naomi Klein, CAW president Ken Lewenza and health and social service
experts who will speak on the global and the local impact of this recession,
the role of government and how we as communities affected can mobilize.
Save this date: Toronto Tuesday, April 28 3-5pm at the UofT Multi-Faith
Centre, 569 Spadina Ave. For more information or to sign the Recession
Relief Fund Declaration:
http://www.recessionrelief.ning.com/<http://m1e.net/c?79192522-99oHyvhJ6iuY6%404147167-CaHz4DcFi0NgA>
*3. Dustbin Treasures a poem by John Rook*
*John Rook is** currently CEO of The Salvation Army's Community Services
(Calgary) and is Chairperson of the National Council of Welfare. **I m so
happy to have met John back in 2004 in the early days of my Atkinson
fellowship. I tease him and call him my guy in Calgary. When I met him in
Edmonton he insisted I had to come to Calgary eyes twinkling. Little did I
know what I would see there! John was instrumental in drawing my attention
to numerous Calgary homeless issues, which is in part how we came to launch
the Home Safe documentary film series with Home Safe Calgary. This is John s
poem: *
Dustbin Treasures
Where have they been,
Divorced and now reclaimed.
Have they danced?
Have they paired?
Were they once well-heeled?
They stick out their tongues
Exposing their souls(sp).
Once fresh and new
They ran and danced
Oblivious to their own decay.
Tiptoeing through meadows
Now crawling through minefields
Of needles and pain.
No safe rest...
Removal means Re-move-all
Loss
Regained by another. Wanting
Relief
>From the pain of life.
Death brings relief
But the dustbin is once again stirred
By one who hopes
For a moment of life
Never to be found.* ***
*Written as I watched a homeless guy looking for a pair of shoes in a
dustbin. *
*John Rook** *
October 15, 1992
Manchester, England
*4. The Story Behind the Shoe*
*For nursing students only: *take a look at the image with this newsletter
send me an email and tell me what you think the primary diagnosis is?
What are 4 other things you should consider as you examine this man s leg?
The first correct answer I ll mail you a signed copy of my book *Dying for
a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out. Send to:
**ccrowe at sherbourne.on.ca**with photo in your subject line.
*
*Cathy*
Thanks to Anthony Rapoport for design, layout and web support, Bob Crocker
for editing. Photo credit: Cathy Crowe
*To reply or comment please write me at ccrowe at sherbourne.on.ca*
View Cathy's previous newsletters at:
http://tdrc.net/index.php?page=newsletter<http://m1e.net/c?79192522-KNFeDDCLc06Oc%404147169-y3SyBgeFoFNRk>
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--
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
"If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant." June Callwood
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and
renders the present inaccessible. Maya Angelou
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