[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: Cathy Crowe Newsletter - Summer 2009

Wed Jul 8 09:37:05 EDT 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cathy Crowe News <cathyacrowe at gmail.com>
Date: 2009/7/8
Subject: Cathy Crowe Newsletter - Summer 2009
To: mocharebyl at gmail.com

 *Cathy Crowe Newsletter #57   Summer, 2009*

[image: Beric German, Cathy Crowe and Ann Fitzpatrick]*Reflections and a Bit
of a Rant*

My time as an Atkinson Charitable Foundation Economic Justice Fellow (twice
extended!) has come to a close. I received the fellowship in 2004 for a
period of two to three years. In 2007 it was extended for an additional two
years. In 2009 it was extended for an additional six months   this latter
extension so I could spend an additional  burst  of energy fighting this
recession s impact on people who are homeless or vulnerable to homelessness.

I was privileged to be  tapped on the shoulder  by Atkinson. It has been an
incredible opportunity because it allowed me the freedom to do my work as a
nurse on the  upstream  and the  downstream  aspects of Canada s
man-made *homeless
disaster*. I insist on using the word disaster because other words like
crisis, emergency and catastrophe don t do justice to the problem.

I was honoured to be in the company of the other Atkinson  fellows ,
although Roy Romanow is the only real fellow. The Atkinson Fellowship  gals 
include Armine Yalnizyan and Uzma Shakir. We come to our work in our own
organic way which reflects our passion and commitment to human rights, the
betterment of social programs and social justice.

During my fellowship I became a grandmother   twice!  For me, that
re-immersion into the vitality and remarkable spirit of infants and children
was an important reminder of the practical childcare and education needs of
families. I have only great admiration and appreciation for the work of
Atkinson s Executive Director Charles Pascal who recently completed his
prescription for early learning needs for Ontario Premier McGuinty, * With
Our Best Future in Mind . *An early mentor of mine once told me that to deal
with homelessness in the long term she would prioritize the needs of
children. Children not only need a home that is safe and affordable but
parents and their children need care and attention paid to the systems that
surround their growth and learning needs. I encourage you to review Charles
Pascal s report at:

*http://tinyurl.com/mx5rkw<http://m1e.net/c?79192522-qoU0N9n4wxiCE%404407866-S9.JwxZNvuQYg>
*

Fellowships are often attached to academic, research or policy institutions.
I was fortunate to have the freedom to take my fellowship wherever I would
feel most at home, so thanks to the *Sherbourne Health Centre* for providing
me with an inspiring home for five and a half years. Their work on providing
non-discriminatory and accessible health care for people carries on.

The years of my fellowship have been colourful, busy and never a dull time.
I ve been through two blackberries, received two more honorary doctorates
(University of Ottawa and McMaster), suffered bedbugs in a posh Calgary
hotel, was arrested at Queen s Park for setting up a tent in protest,
completed the book *Dying for a Home*, had the opportunity to be Executive
Producer of two documentary films (*Home Safe Calgary* and *Home Safe
Toronto*) with my good friend Laura Sky, and I launched this monthly
electronic newsletter.

Over the last few years I covered a lot of ground, literally, visiting in
some cases more than once: Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa, Sudbury, Kingston,
Tyendinaga, York Region, Edmonton, Windsor, Cobourg, Winnipeg, Sarnia,
Thunder Bay, Kenora, Waterloo, London, St. Catherine s, Regina, Vancouver,
Calgary, Chatham, Sault Ste. Marie, Halifax and New York state. I only
accepted invitations to communities when it was clear they were dedicated to
work on the issue, could identify what help or support I could provide, and
would include the general public *including homeless people* in my visit and
tour. I came to greatly appreciate the local activists and community groups
who continue to struggle with worsening conditions in the midst of the
homeless disaster and now the recession. I made many new friends on these
trips, friends that provided much needed spirit and encouragement that would
be sadly lacking back in Toronto.

Although I witnessed some innovative programs, most were created within the
constraints of totally inadequate funding, or funding with strings attached.
Other programs such as Calgary s *Children s Cottage* and *Discovery
House*have created a brilliant standard of care that should be
universal. The
*Discovery House* children s play scene in the documentary film *Home Safe
Calgary *remains my favourite.

However, I have to admit to being mostly appalled at some of the conditions
I witnessed, conditions I did not *ever* expect to see:

   - A concrete  drunk  tank in an emergency shelter with no bed and a hole
   in the ground for toileting purposes;
   - Communities with no detox, no treatment centre, no women s shelter, no
   day drop-in centres, no shower facilities and no public washrooms;
   - A shelter with its own X-ray machine to screen people for tuberculosis,
   not run by the local health unit or as far as I could tell properly trained
   medical staff;
   - Community after community after community with no emergency family
   shelter and chronic use of old, seedy motel/hotel rooms for homeless
   families;
   - A major city that for years sheltered homeless families through
   reliance on a voluntary church program. Churches or other places of worship
   opening for only one night resulting in the forced  migration of families
   with children to a new gym or church basement floor space night after night,
   space they would be also forced to share with single homeless adults.

Back at home in Toronto I continue to be painfully reminded of the dire
circumstances that remain the norm across the country.

Melvin Tipping and Marty Lang, both featured in *Dying for a Home*, have
themselves died. Marty s close friend April, pictured in the book with him
on the day of the Tent City eviction, has also died. It remains shameful
that the Homeless Memorial in Toronto has run out of room for its growing
list of homeless deaths.

I do not believe we have learned much since the TB outbreaks, let alone
SARS. Andrew Nikiforuk pointed out the * Cyclical nature of plagues,
scourges and emerging viruses that erupt when social disasters like
overcrowding, hunger and homelessness devastate a country. *

*That s what I ve seen   devastation and that was pre-recession.*

We are alarmingly ill prepared for H1N1 or a catastrophic illness in the
homeless population.

In Ontario,  Ontario Works , one of our social assistance programs,
functions as a  homeless making machine , according to a respected community
worker. In the absence of a strong social safety net including welfare and
unemployment insurance, victims of the catastrophic collapse of the lumber,
mining and manufacturing sector are acutely vulnerable to homelessness.

Advocacy work has been severely compromised by the  carrot  of HPI and SCPI
federal homelessness funding. There is further compromise by the punitive
contractual requirements for municipal funding. Increased reliance on
corporate donations further removes advocacy from the recipe of action once
inherent to any organization s work on homelessness or poverty.

As Naomi Klein so aptly described in her book * Shock Doctrine *, crisis
fuels opportunistic endeavours. Why else would Canadian cities embrace an
American model of responding to homelessness?  The  Housing First 
philosophy and its formula of  Ten Year Plans , shelter closures, homeless
counts, by-laws against homelessness, anti-panhandling laws and  Streets to
Homes  programs have infiltrated most major Canadian cities and there is
little critique or examination of their origin, their purpose and their real
impact on homeless people.

Sadly, despite my efforts and the efforts of a great many others,
homelessness in Canada remains a very real disaster and as this recession
unfolds, the disaster is only going to grow with no real end in sight. As I
have said many times before, Canada desperately needs a National Housing
Program and we need it now!

*Cathy*

Thanks to Anthony Rapoport for design, layout and web support, Bob Crocker
for editing. Photo credit: Ed Bil

*To reply or comment please write me at cathyacrowe at gmail.com*

View Cathy's previous newsletters at:
http://tdrc.net/index.php?page=newsletter<http://m1e.net/c?79192522-mBy.7oeBf499E%404407867-kGk0iTsls.sPs>
.

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You can also reach me c/o:
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
6 Trinity Square
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5G 1B1
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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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