JHM Journalism Foundation » The Johnnies » 2008 Winners » Solutions
2008 Winners - Solutions-oriented writing (2nd place)
A roof of one's own
Anti-poverty groups rally for improved social assistance rates, $10 minimum wage and affordable public housing
By Laura Godfrey
Excalibur (York University)
As I walk downtown along St. George Street, the sidewalk is littered with haggard-looking, middle-aged men with nowhere to go. One of them approaches me to ask for change as I warily attempt to feed my Visa to the vandalized parking metre. I tell him I don’t have any change on me because my wallet is in the car. He doesn’t look like he believes me, but it’s true. Still, he has probably heard it too many times before. Even so, I feel somewhat guilty and increasingly uncomfortable as I walk past a stream of people whom I know have so few options in their lives, as if they can sense the opportunities that are available to me every day.
Homelessness is a growing problem in Toronto, and one that will take more than a few individual gestures of generosity to improve. According to the 2007 Street Health Report, the number of individuals staying in a Toronto shelter on any given night has more than tripled since 1990, from about 1,900 then to about 6,500 in 2006. That is why, over the years, many organizations have been working to address the issues at the core of Toronto’s poverty crisis.
On Sept. 26, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) was among the groups that attended the Anti-Poverty Day of Action at Queen’s Park, where a rally of 700 people demanded that poverty issues be addressed and acted upon in the upcoming election. The more prominent appeals included a 40 percent raise in social assistance rates, a $10 minimum wage and more affordable public housing.
“[We’ve] had a dismantling of social programs, a driving down of wages, an abandonment of any commitment to social housing and an agenda of urban redevelopment that is destroying low-income housing stock and trying to disperse the homeless population to the fringes of the city,” said John Clarke, an organizer at OCAP. “There’s no doubt that there’s a war on the poor going on. There’s no doubt that the scale and intensity of poverty has increased as a result.”
At the intersection of Jarvis and Dundas Streets, an organization called Street Health provides support and health care to the homeless and socially marginalized. The Street Health staff know all too well how difficult it can be to access certain services without government identification or a fixed address.
“We have a few clients that don’t have a birth certificate Ð it’s impossible to track down,” said Laura Hanson, a registered nurse at Street Health.
“This one client in his 40s, he was adopted three times. He doesn’t actually know what his name was when he was born. He was not registered; he was in an orphanage basically the day he was born. So the nurses working with him had to fight really hard for him to get his pension because they couldn’t prove to the government how old he was. It’s really hard.”
According to Hanson, homeless people are also the most vulnerable to all kinds of physical and mental illness, and yet they have the most difficulty in receiving proper health care. While there are certain services offered by shelters and organizations to alleviate various problems, many conditions require the long-term care, professional treatment and expensive equipment that only a hospital can provide. Cases of pneumonia, diabetes and high-blood pressure are common among people who live on the streets, as well as severe foot injuries caused by constantly being outside without proper footwear. And as much as they would like to receive treatment, there is something that is stopping them Ð they are afraid.“Our clients are treated badly at most places. It’s touch-and-go,” said Hanson. “They’ve had enough bad experiences that they’re legitimately afraid of going back to the hospital because of harassment, security or the nurses. Either because of prejudice on the part of the staff, or because they’re just not familiar with how to deal with all the forms, or with sitting for an hour or two in line and going to talk to this person and that person.”
While anti-poverty organizations work to improve conditions for housing and health care, community-based groups have been forming across Toronto to provide comfort for the day-to-day lives of the homeless. Streetknit was founded in 2006 by Sadie Lewis, who was soon joined by anti-poverty advocate Ryan Kamstra. Together they help to organize and promote special events including knitting parties, office clubs and deejayed craft drives called “Spins and Needles,” after which all knitted goods are donated to outreach programs such as Windfall Clothing, St. Francis Table and the Parkdale Community Health Centre.
“Think of it mostly in terms of awareness-building, almost more than the actual winter goods,” said Kamstra.
“Because obviously, at the end of the day, getting people in homes is the goal Ð and we can’t knit homes.”
Statistics prove that homelessness is not an issue that is going to disappear, no matter how many times we ignore the parades of panhandlers. It is a community issue that requires us to put pressure on our politicians, and may also require us to make certain sacrifices for the sake of class equality. Speak up with your donations. Speak up with your vote. Speak up, because we are all members of the same community.
