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More on the homeless pickup incident ... [Feb. 2nd, 2007|10:37 pm]
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=210562bb-7cc7-4d97-a1b9-6acec78fc349

'It sure as hell happened to me'
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, February 02, 2007
EDMONTON - Phillip Dainard was barefoot, drunk and panhandling for beer money outside a Whyte Avenue bar in the fall of 2006 when he was arrested by three Edmonton police officers.
They called for a police van. Dainard is a homeless street veteran well known to police and business owners on the south side.
He has been picked up by the van many times before and figured he was on his way to the drunk tank or a homeless shelter downtown. Not this time.
"They drove me way out past 153rd Avenue -- out toward Namao," Dainard says over a lunch of macaroni and hamburger at a Whyte Avenue free-lunch program.
"They dropped me off right on the side of the road."
He says he walked barefoot for hours in the dark to reach a bus stop.
Dainard's story contradicts statements made on Tuesday by the senior Edmonton Police Service officer responsible for conducting a criminal investigation into how police rounded up nine homeless native people from Whyte Avenue in May 2005 and dumped them in a north-side neighbourhood.
Police also want to determine why there was no investigation by internal affairs of allegations that the homeless people were held against their will in a sweltering hot van for two hours. Two of the homeless people -- Diane Wood and Chris Robillard -- were interviewed by an internal affairs investigator on Tuesday.
At a news conference Tuesday, Insp. Brad Doucette of EPS internal affairs said, "We don't drive around picking up people for no reason and dropping them off in the middle of nowhere for no reason."
Dainard laughs bitterly when told of Doucette's statements.
"It sure as hell happened to me," he says.
remainder of article on web site

AND

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=34e028f5-170c-4499-b808-e0ae05e44ddf

Rights group demands investigation of police
Sweeps of homeless violate rights, aboriginal leaders say
Mike Sadava and Charles Rusnell, with files from Ryan Cormier, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, February 02, 2007

EDMONTON - An Edmonton human rights body is calling for an independent criminal investigation into allegations that Edmonton police officers scooped homeless aboriginal people off Whyte Avenue and unlawfully confined them in a sweltering van before dumping them in a northside neighbourhood.
The body also wants the Edmonton Police Commission to review a policy that police say allows them to pick up people they believe are drunk and transport them to other parts of the city for release without charges.
"Has homelessness become such a crime that human rights are no longer applicable," Lewis Cardinal of the Aboriginal Human Rights Commission asked Thursday at a news conference at City Hall.
"I wonder how many laws are being broken by this police policy," Cardinal asked in an interview. "The policy should not supercede the charter of rights." As reported in The Journal this week, the police recently began a criminal investigation into the dumping incident following a complaint from the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association, which also accuses police Chief Mike Boyd of neglect of duty for failing to ensure the allegations were investigated when he first learned about them a year ago.
Police spokesman Staff Sgt. Greg Alcorn said the chief could not order an internal investigation under the Police Act because a one-year time limitation for such an investigation had already passed. As a result, a criminal investigation was launched.
remainder of article on web site

AND

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=02a02b1c-d312-40dc-9b04-7e53731543b6&k=0

RCMP asked to probe roundup charges (4:34 p.m.)

Independent investigation into allegations homeless people dropped of in north Edmonton neighbourhood
edmontonjournal.com
Published: Friday, February 02, 2007

The RCMP will be asked to investigate allegations that Edmonton police officers picked up a group homeless native people, held them against their will and dumped them in a northside neighbourhood.
Police Chief Mike Boyd announced at a news conference today he will ask the the Edmonton Police Commission to call in the RCMP to take over the criminal investigation into the incident he ordered last month.
Boyd was responding, in part, to calls from an aboriginal human rights group for an independent investigation into the matter.
remainder of article on web site
linkpost comment

Homeless Pickup on Whyte Avenue [Feb. 1st, 2007|04:31 pm]
This made the news - but not the mainstream media - ages ago.
Kudos to Linda Dumont of Edmonton Street News for reporting this event shortly after it happened, back in May 2006.

Looks as though there's going to be some follow through to investigate what happened - finally. This smells not a little, or most certainly has the appearance of being less that ethical behaviour on the part of the EPS. Again.
But I am waiting to hear more on the investigation - how it will be conducted and who will be in charge, and the findings - before I make a decision about my position on the whole thing.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/01/30/police-allegations.html

Chief investigates complaint homeless forced into police van
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | 3:58 PM MT
CBC News
Edmonton's police chief has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that homeless people were held against their will by police officers.

Three police officers allegedly rounded up nine homeless people in May of 2005, held them in a van for two hours, then dropped them off in the north end of the city.

The original complaint came from a homeowner upset that homeless people had been dropped off in her neighbourhood.

"It's only since that time that more and more information has come forward through various sources that bring these allegations to the forefront at this time," said Staff Sgt. Greg Alcorn on Tuesday.

"Now that we are fully aware of them, Chief [Mike] Boyd has asked that an internal affairs investigation happen."

Gwilym Davis, spokesman for Edmonton's Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, applauded Boyd's decision. The association had filed a formal complaint against Boyd, accusing him of failing to ensure that the initial complaint was properly investigated.

(remainder of article on web site)

and

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/01/31/police-allegations.html

A couple among nine homeless people allegedly held for two hours in an Edmonton police van against their will say they were "rounded up like cattle" and treated like "caged animals."

Christopher Robillard and Diane Wood said on May 20, 2005, they were driven around in an overheated van before being dumped in a north-end neighbourhood.

Christopher Robillard said he has been arrested before, but never treated the way he was on May 20, 2005.
(CBC)
Earlier this week, Edmonton police Chief Mike Boyd launched a criminal investigation into allegations against three officers.

Robillard said he has been arrested many times before, but was never treated so badly.

"No matter what situation we live in, we are all human beings. To me, it wasn't fair to us, being there like caged animals. Rounded up like cattle and thrown in there."

Edmonton police won't release any details about the investigation, but Insp. Brad Doucette said Tuesday that the group was drunk and officers have the right to detain people who are intoxicated.

"Our policy as it relates to public inebriates gives us a number of different options on how to deal with them, and not every option results in them either going to jail, to a shelter or to a hospital," he said.

"They can go to a residence if they have a residence, they can go to a friend's residence. If they are capable of taking care of themselves, we don't have to arrest them, we don't have to lodge them in cells."

Robillard and Wood said they were not intoxicated at the time they were picked up.

"It was hot in there. It was summertime and it was really hot, even outside," Wood said.

"We were all crammed in and hot and sweating and they kept driving around, driving around," Robillard added.

Robillard said he believes they were picked up because they are homeless, not because they are aboriginal, since some of the people rounded up that day were not native.

On Tuesday, Gwilym Davis, spokesman for Edmonton's Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, applauded Boyd's decision to investigate. The association had filed a formal complaint against Boyd, accusing him of failing to ensure that the initial complaint was properly investigated.

"The people who were being picked up asked why, and asked to be given tickets or some form of charge if they were going to be kept, and also asked for badge numbers of the officers involved. They weren't charged, they weren't ticketed, and apparently weren't given the badge numbers."

After the group was dropped off, police officers in a cruiser came by and called for a different van to take the nine people to a downtown homeless shelter, Davis said.

The original complaint came from a homeowner upset that homeless people had been dropped off in her neighbourhood.

"It's only since that time that more and more information has come forward through various sources that bring these allegations to the forefront at this time," Staff Sgt. Greg Alcorn said on Tuesday.

"Now that we are fully aware of them, Chief Boyd has asked that an internal affairs investigation happen."


See also:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=340ddc15-7993-45a2-bcb5-a0d62604daf8
Police crammed homeless into 'sweat box'
Native leader shocked at allegations, claiming racism at root of incident
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, January 30, 2007
EDMONTON - The Edmonton Police Service has begun a criminal investigation into allegations that three officers picked up nine homeless aboriginal people off the street and held them against their will for two hours in a "sweat box" van before dumping them in a north-side neighbourhood.
Police Chief Mike Boyd ordered the criminal investigation following a formal complaint filed by the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association, which is accusing Boyd of failing to ensure the initial allegations -- made public more than 18 months ago -- were properly investigated.
In fact, the initial EPS investigation only dealt with a complaint from a homeowner who was unhappy about the native people being dumped in her Balwin neighbourhood, north of Yellowhead Trail.
(remainder of article on web site)

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=b03eab36-84b9-48d6-a31d-4bc2002b2484
Thought natives were drunk, police say
But even if they were, policy doesn't allow holding people in sweltering van for two hours against their will, lawyer says
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
EDMONTON - The senior Edmonton police officer in charge of investigating allegations that nine homeless native people were taken off the street, held against their will in a sweltering van for two hours and then dumped in a northside neighbourhood, denied Tuesday that police had buried the case.
But Insp. Brad Doucette could not fully explain why it took police more than 18 months to commence a criminal investigation into public allegations that the native people had been unlawfully confined.
(remainder of article on web site)
linkpost comment

More Coverage on this weekend's Memorial [Jan. 21st, 2007|02:01 pm]
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=6803cba2-67e2-4749-9c5e-d5fe723b8ef7

Tribute paid to 41 who died without a home

Politicians need to do more to solve underlying problems, say organizers of inner-city ceremony

Jeff Holubitsky, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Sunday, January 21, 2007

EDMONTON - No names were used as candles were lit for the 41 homeless people remembered by families and friends at an inner-city memorial ceremony Saturday.
Instead, mourner after mourner repeated the phrases: "Let us remember our brother who died" or "Let us remember our sister who died." Those words may have imparted a sense of anonymity to the event at the Boyle Street Community Services building, but for many, like Julian Smart, the experience was intensely personal.
His best friend, a man he called his running buddy, was stabbed to death over a bottle of beer last summer.
"He was a good man, he really was," Smart, himself homeless, said. "If a word had two meanings he would always make a pun out of it with no problem at all. ... I knew a few of the people being mourned. This is my neighbourhood." The second annual memorial round dance was organized by the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness to remember 41 victims of homelessness, whether they died through violence like Smart's friend, or in other ways such as health issues or exposure.
Names of the dead were not used for confidentiality reasons or at the request of survivors.
For the mourners, the candle ceremony followed by a native round dance and feast helped deal with grief.
Some of the inner-city workers who attended, however, hoped for more.
"We need to go beyond celebrating their lives," Father Jim Holland, a Catholic priest at the inner-city Sacred Heart Parish, said.
"The people who need to be here are the politicians and city planners. ... To solve the problem of homelessness, they have to come to talk to the experts, and the experts are here today." Jim Gurnett of the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers told the gathering that each day more than 2,600 children, women and men in Edmonton don't know where they will sleep that night and that up to 6,000 other families are barely able to afford their rent.
"Twenty years ago governments were building on an average at least 20,000 units of low-income housing in this country every year," he said. "That has shrunk now to about 2,000 units." Lorette Gerrick, co-director of the George Spady Centre, said she was disappointed by the absence of decision-makers at the memorial she helped organize.
"Of course, we would like to have seen more interest," she said. "We have to do something next year to make sure those people are here." Charles Marianchuk, 47, lived in a makeshift shack with his wife Laurel until about a month ago. They both lit candles.
A welder by trade, he said a string of misfortunes including a house fire put him on the street. The pair now share a basement suite with Marianchuck's 19-year-old son.
"Any working man is only a month or two or a series of bad luck away from being homeless," he said. "It's not hard to get a job, but it is hard to keep a job when you don't have a place to live. It is very difficult." jholubitsky@thejournal.canwest.com

The Memorial was well attended - lots of community folks, which I think was really important; there's not an opportunity for people to come together to mourn these losses very often, and there's strength and healing in seeing so many other people there, sharing the load.
I am hoping one day (sooner rather than later) that this event will be unnecessary, because no one will have died homeless. Too much to ask? Perhaps. But it's something to shoot for, and surely the people who have died already are worth the effort toward this goal.
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No More Garbage ... [Jan. 19th, 2007|10:11 am]
http://nomoregarbage.wordpress.com/

this is a brilliant initiative ... really has the potential to change the way people think about what they spend their money on, and how much waste each individual is responsible for producing.

thinking about this also ... we PAY for all the packaging that is thrown out or recycled. and recycling, while commendable, does use large amounts of energy - from the trucks that collect all the mountaons of stuff we produce, to the plants that sort and reuse the materials that have been recycled.

the point here is not to stop recycling!! of course not - the key here is to really examine what you purchase so that even when you're dealing with items that are recyclable, the packaging is minimal (and made from recycled materials!), so the impact is as small as possible - or better yet, reusing the packaging in some way.

perfect example - we just bought a couple of office chairs to replace the old ones in the study. all good - and the old ones will be going to a friend for reuse (ok- so no garbage there so far). but the packaging for the new chairs ... EGAD. the constituaent parts were all bagged in plastic and bubble wrap, there was addition cardboard packaging in side, and the chairs were then packed in carboard boxes! I can't help but feel there must be a better way to package and transport things like this - ir at least a way to reduce the packaging. It's all basically recyclable, which is great, but wow. Whata lotta stuff generated from that purchase!

my other thought on this is that if the money that's currently spent on excessive packaging could somehow be channeled into things that do people and the planet good instead of harm ... the world would be a very different place. it would be an astounding exercise, I think, to try to calculate the cost to the tax payer of all that waste ... and the energy used to either recycle or otherwise "dispose" of it (cuz there is no such thing as "away" when you throw something in the garbage)... if that amount of money (or at least a good chunk of it) was no longer necessary because we as consumers were no longer allowing this excess of waste and packaging into our homes ... if that money were freed up to be spent on housing and poverty-related issues, on addictions and mental health supports and interventions, on health care, on alternative energy production ... what a different place this world would be.
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Top Copy on CBC Online ... Homeless Deaths [Jan. 18th, 2007|12:38 pm]
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/01/18/edmonton-homeless.html

More Edmonton homeless dying: group
Last Updated: Thursday, January 18, 2007 | 10:02 AM MT
CBC News
Deaths among Edmonton's homeless population have increased by nearly a third, prompting anti-poverty advocates to call on governments to improve housing and other services for people who can't afford a place to live.

The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness released a count Wednesday showing that 41 homeless people died in 2006, up from 32 in 2005. A count in 2004 found 2,192 homeless people in Edmonton.

"Really, it's an outrage," said coalition spokeswoman Lorette Garrick.

"Chronic illness ultimately is what happens to people, sometimes exposure, chronic mental health problems," she said, noting that violence on the street also "plays a big role in the ultimate early deaths of these people."

Garrick said the homeless population is on the rise in Edmonton, putting more people at risk. They not only need affordable housing, but also require services such as proper health care, she said.

The coalition is hoping to put pressure every level of government to spend more on housing by holding a memorial Saturday at 4 p.m. for those who have died.

The statistics don't come as a surprise to Mike Smith, who spends much of the day at the Boyle Street Drop-In and lives on the streets at night. When it's really cold, he stays with his sister.

"I've seen a lot of people die on the street, actually. A lot of my friends have died of overdose and of living outside, being so sick that they can't do anything," Smith said.


The Second Annual Memorial for Homeless Persons will be held at 4pm January 20th at Boyle Street Community Services, 10116- 105 Ave, Edmonton. All are welcome. This event will be followed by a Memorial Round Dance.
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More on the Calgary Announcement ... [Jan. 10th, 2007|08:59 pm]
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=e51f7800-be91-413a-a6af-8e8207c4611e&k=7384&p=1

CEOs promise homeless solution
Committee to present ideas in 18 months


Kim Guttormson, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Convinced the exponential growth in the city's homeless population is no longer acceptable, a group of high-powered Calgarians -- including the CEOs of TransAlta, Suncor, Imperial Oil and the Calgary Flames -- have banded together to permanently solve the problem, promising ideas within 18 months.
"The status quo is not working," said TransAlta CEO Steve Snyder, who is chairing the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness. "The situation is at a critical juncture.
"This is a significant shift from managing homelessness to a community-wide effort to end it."
The move comes after a count pegged the number of homeless at more than 3,400, a cold snap drove thousands to shelters and there was controversy over opening a temporary emergency facility.
"It's a lovely sentiment," John Harris, a homeless man who's been living at the Calgary Drop-In Centre for the past four years, said of the committee of heavy hitters.
But the articulate 61-year-old was unsure whether the problem can truly be eradicated, pointing to the length of time homeless agencies in the city have been serving the population.
"It's not just one thing causing people to be homeless," said Harris, who is a musician with a gambling problem, listing addiction and mental health issues as sources. "It's not just lazy."
Mayor Dave Bronconnier said homelessness is a complex problem that will require solutions ranging from support for those with mental illness and addictions to affordable and transitional housing, as well as skills training.
"It's important to ask people who are big thinkers to look at the challenges facing our community," Bronconnier said.
Surrounded by some members of the committee -- representatives of business, government and social agencies -- Snyder said the plan will be modelled on 10-year programs put in place in American cities.
It has been used in cities such as Chicago, Denver, New York and Singapore, but would be modified to address Calgary's specific challenges. Ald. Druh Farrell said some cities have been able to decrease the number of shelter beds.
Snyder and others acknowledge eliminating homelessness is an ambitious goal, but believe aiming high is the only way to attack the problem.
"It's a goal, no question," Allan Norris, president of Carma Developers, said. "But if you don't set a challenge, you'll never accomplish anything."
Snyder agreed it's a daunting task.
"But I believe we'll actually achieve it and we should know in 18 months whether that faith is supported or not," he added.
While all three levels of government are represented on the committee, Norris said its strength will be its ability to create ideas first and worry about who's responsible later.
"Hopefully, we'll come up with something and not worry about the different levels of government," he said. "We'll come up with a set of recommendations ignoring the bureaucracy and government issues."
The city has often chastised the other levels of government for not contributing to the homeless and affordable housing challenges it faces, specifically with respect to funding.

"It's time to end the blame game and start looking at long-term solutions," Bronconnier said.
Premier Ed Stelmach has established an affordable housing task force and a member of the Calgary committee will be part of that.
Snyder said the committee's work will begin with detailed research, trying to nail down exactly what problems Calgary faces before it tries to address them.
Dermot Baldwin, executive director of the Drop-In Centre, said the committee's timelines are reasonable and preferable to the "short-term ones that have come up and gone."
Often a critic of the city's approach to helping the homeless, Baldwin said a committee made up of Calgary leaders will have the clout to remove red tape.
"You put all of those people together in one room and you'll come up with decisions and the immense power to take out obstacles we struggle with every day," he said. "It's encouraging, I think."
kguttormson@theherald.canwest.com
Calgary Committee to End Homelessness
- Steve Snyder, CEO TransAlta, chairman
- Rick George, CEO Suncor Energy
- Fred Green, CEO Canadian Pacific
- Tim Hearn, CEO Imperial Oil
- Ken King, CEO Calgary Flames
- Sam Kolias, president Boardwalk
- Allan Norris, president Carma
- Mayor Dave Bronconnier
- Ald. Druh Farrell
- Ald. Madeleine King
- Erica Hargesheimer, general manager community and protective services
- Steve Allan, president Calgary Stampede
- Sharon Carry, CEO Bow Valley College
- Stephen Clark, chairman Canadian Mental Health Association
- Ross McNichol, chairman Calgary Foundation
- Bishop Fred Henry, Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary
- Jim Hume, CEO Kahanoff Foundation
- Kabir Jivraj, chairman United Way of Calgary and Area
- Brain O'Leary, chairman Calgary Homeless Foundation
- Barbara Ross, chairwoman Inn From the Cold
- Nashir Samanani, H.H. Aga Khan Council for the Prairies
- Wayne Stewart, CEO Calgary Homeless Foundation
- The provincial and federal governments will also appoint someone to the committee
© The Calgary Herald 2007

OK - this is better and more thorough coverage of the story, and does seem to indicate at least a recognition of the complexity of the issue. But ... I still ahve real reservations, especially in the adoption of models being used in the US ... yes, there have been reductions in shelter spaces, but my understanding is that the people occupying those spaces have not necessarily be helped into permanent, safe, affordable housing options with all the necessary supports to ensure thier success. Citing 'facts' like this doesn't tell the whole story. The other thing that's disturbing me about this is the rather dismissive approach these forlks have toward the nightmare of jurisdiction and bureaucracy they are going to face in actually implementing the recommendations they do come up with. I fear they will all be in for a big disappointment, and a great deal of frustration when they actually try to get the different levels of government to divvy up who's going to pay for what. This isn't the same as a corporation, where a CEO can say "make this happen" and it happens ... this is government, and government at any level doesn' like to be told what to do and how and when. I wish them luck ... and if they actually do manage to make some real changes that are positive and permanent and actually do really help those who need the help as fully and completely as they need to be helped ... then I would willingly, joyfully, ecstatically say "I AM SORRY - I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG." You have no idea how completely wrong about this I want to be!!! I sound like a cynic ... but really I'm not. I am just the opposite, which is why announcements like this make me sad, because I feel left with a desire for it to work, and enough of an understanding of the situation that I fear it will never come to be.
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Meanwhile, In Calgary ... [Jan. 10th, 2007|08:58 pm]
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/01/09/homeless-calgary.html

Execs, charities plan to end Calgary homelessness
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 2:44 PM MT
CBC News
A new committee that includes the heads of energy companies, Calgary's bishop and leaders of non-profit groups will try to end homelessness in the city in a decade.

The Committee to End Homelessness was launched at TransAlta's headquarters in Calgary on Tuesday. Its members promised to draw up an action plan by next year for ending the city's growing problem with homelessness.

"The challenge for a lot of people now in Calgary, of course, is they have a job here, but they can't find a place to live," said Steve Snyder, chief executive officer of TransAlta, and chair of the new committee. "We need a find a more effective way to help these people who are struggling to find a place to stay at night."

The 24-person committee includes the chief executive officers of Suncor Energy, Canadian Pacific, Imperial Oil, and the Calgary Flames, as well as the chair of Calgary's United Way, Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, and the president of the Calgary Homeless Foundation.

It also has representatives from the City of Calgary, the province, and the federal government.

Snyder said the committee will model their plan on recent U.S. successes to decrease homelessness in that country through the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Dermot Baldwin, the head of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, isn't on the committee, but called the announcement encouraging.

"It's good to have a goal and it's good to set a timeline. I think it's a reasonable one, as opposed to something that's maybe two years or three."

A May count found 3,400 homeless people in Calgary, up 32 per cent from 2004.

Baldwin said the increase in homelessness in Canada can be traced back to government decisions in the 1990s to cut funding for affordable housing, addictions treatment and mental health care.

this is a positive step forward, to be sure, but two things disturb me intensely about this initiative ...

First: where is the front-line agency representation in this? The agencies - the soup kitchens, drop in centre, shelters, detox units, women's emergency services, youth emergency shelters, etc ...these are the people who see the realities of homelessness on a daily basis, and who try to address the very complex needs of those living on the streets. Additionally, they are also seeing many people coming to the cities that are winding up homeless, and are working full time ... they cant' find housing, and these folks can wind up with the same complex of mental and physical health issues that longer-term homeless contend with. It doesn't take long. I'm sorry, but I just don't see how the CEO's of these corporations can begin to understand what they;re trying to tackle. Housing is NOT simply putting people into houses; you have to provide (sometimes extensive and long term) supports to these people so that they stay housed. Now, the article does say 'non-profit groups' so I am hoping that there really is some real input coming from the front lines ... but it doesn't appear so. *If I'm wrong, I WELCOME someone correcting me!!*

Second: The bulk of this initiative is coming from the corporate (private) sector. This is a shifting of responsibility from all levels of government - and as Dermot Baldwin notes, the crisis in homelessness in this country really stems from the withdrawal of funds for affordable housing, treatment, and mental health supports. How is it that the governments (all levels, but particularly Provincial and Federal) can shirk their responsibilities to the most vulnerable of our citizens for well over a decade without repercussions? Well, that's not true - there are repercussions, just not at the ballot boxes ... the consequences are seen daily on the streets, and in the increasing numbers of homeless - 2600 in Eddmonton (up 20% in 2 years) and 3400 in Calgary (up 32% in 2 years). I guess my point is this: the private sector is concerned with profit and appearances - they are in business, and want to make money - this is why corporations exist. They have become involved in this issue because it affects the look and feel of the corporate climate in which they do business - it's not pleasant to have the streets of downtown Calgary getting fuller of homeless people month by month, it's not good for business, and tarnishes the image of the Boom in this province. SO the concern her will be to get people off the street and out of the way, NOT to ensure that they have the supports they need to stay off the street and healthy. Those supports come from government-funded agencies, who will likely get even less government funding in the future, since the private sector "fixed" the "problem" of homelessness.

The long and the short of it is, I'm dubious about how successful this will be without a substantial, permanent reinvestment by in mental health services, addictions services, and supported affordable housing
linkpost comment

Affordable housing deal in Edmonton [Jan. 10th, 2007|08:19 pm]
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/01/09/housing-edmonton.html

Edmonton strikes affordable housing deal with developer
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 2:05 PM MT
CBC News
Edmonton has struck a deal with a local developer that will see five per cent of the units in a 750-unit condo development turned into affordable housing.

"I don't want to see a nurse coming to the city of Edmonton, or a carpenter coming to the city of Edmonton [and saying], 'I can't afford a house,'" said Mayor Stephen Mandel.

A deal approved Tuesday by a city hall committee will see Edmonton purchase five per cent of the units in the yet-to-be-built development in northwest Edmonton at 15 per cent below list price.

The details still need to be worked out, but likely federal and provincial grants will help further subsidize the cost of renting out or selling the units.

The city is working on similar deals with at least three other developers, said Jay Freeman, Edmonton's director of housing services.

One potential tenant of the new building is Gary Lazowski, who has lived for more than 20 years in an aging row house in the Wellington area of northwest Edmonton.

Like many left in the run-down complex, he faces eviction because the owner wants to redevelop.

"I've got a really tight budget and my money that I pay for rent is basically what I run on," he said.

The deal is part of what's called the Cornerstones Plan, fulfilling a promise Mandel made during the election campaign two years ago to create more affordable housing for Edmonton's working poor.

Edmonton has committed $25 million of its own money over five years to provide affordable housing.

A count of Edmonton's homeless population released by the city in November shows 2,600 people don't have a place to live, a 20 per cent increase from two years ago.

what does it say about the so-called "alberta advantage" when a person has lived in the SAME place for more than 20 years, and now faces eviction because a developer can make more money by redeveloping the site? This is a start in the right direction to be sure, but the larger issue here really is the all-mighty buck, and the foregoing of principles for profits. There's also the simple fact that though this fellow is housed (for now), he is one step away from becoming another number in the growing number of homeless people ... a 20 % increase over 2 years is nothing to be proud of.
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Another thought on the French Legislation ... [Jan. 8th, 2007|08:23 pm]
Interesting how it is that in France, it will become essentially illegal for someone to have to go without housing - a basic necessity of life- whereas in cities in the US and Canada, legislation is being passed that makes it illegal to be homeless, and subject to rousting by the police if you're found sleeping in public parks or doorways, etc when you have no place else to go.

Two sides of the same coin ... but very different perspectives on the basic dignity of the human being and the responsibility of the state (and by extension, the entire population) to care for its most vulnerable citizens.
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And from across the pond: grassroots action creates political change [Jan. 8th, 2007|04:04 pm]
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070108.HOMELESS08/TPStory/?query=paris+homeless

Parisian tent city raises stakes for homeless
Social protest spurs French government to enshrine in law a right to housing

ANITA ELASH
Special to The Globe and Mail
PARIS -- First-year sociology student Guenola Sacher emerged from her red dome tent along Paris's Canal St. Martin with a chill in her bones, a slight ache in her back and the vague sense that she had somehow helped solve the problems of the homeless in France.

Ms. Sacher, 18, is one of about 100 well-housed middle-class French people who have been camping alongside 300 homeless to try to press the state into providing housing for the country's growing number of sans domicile fixe.

The group had been there for three weeks when the government gave in last week, as Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced a new law that would legally enforce the right to housing, giving it the same status in France as the right to health care and education. Only Scotland has a similar law, the Homelessness Act, which was passed in 1987 and takes full effect in 2012.

Mr. de Villepin said the government had been working on the proposal for at least six months. But with the presidential election just four months away, and poverty turning out to be one of the main issues in the campaign, Mr. de Villepin conceded that a series of publicity stunts by activists had acted as "an accelerator" and helped the government decide to move ahead.

The aid organization Médicins du Monde was responsible for the first of those stunts. They handed out tents to the homeless last winter, and groups of street people set up camp on some of the city's most fashionable thoroughfares this past summer, prompting complaints from Parisians. Last week, another group grabbed headlines when several homeless families took over an empty bank building in the centre of Paris.

But the straw that broke the camel's back seems to have been the camp on the Canal St. Martin, set up in mid-December by a grassroots organization calling itself Don Quixote's Children. The group's founder, Augustin Legrand, 31, who works part-time as an actor, set out in October with his two best friends to spend two months sleeping on the street while making a film about homelessness. By mid-December, they decided to try to force a political solution. They set up 300 tents along the canal and invited the homeless and the well-housed to sleep there.

By Christmas, the tent city stretched for at least one kilometre on either side of the canal, there was an outdoor soup kitchen and politicians from all the major parties were dropping by to visit.

"I was quite sure it was going to work," Mr. Legrand said as he gave a tour of the tent settlement. "I knew people were going to be shocked."

Ms. Sacher, the student, said she came to the camp out of curiosity and decided to bring extra quilts and stay for several nights because of "the warm welcome" she received from the homeless.

"I am aware that you don't learn what it is to be homeless by sleeping here for 10 or 20 nights," she said. "But I am very happy if people are starting to move, and to talk about the right to housing."

Mr. de Villepin said the law would be passed by the end of February and start to take effect at the end of 2008. It will require the state to provide housing for the homeless and the most disadvantaged, such as single mothers and people forced to live in homes that are considered unsafe. If it doesn't, it could be sued and face legal penalties.

So far, it is not clear who would pay for the housing or where the state would get the shelter it may be forced to provide. There is already a long waiting list for social housing, and the law does not provide for new construction.

The state statistics agency estimates there are 86,500 homeless people in France. Three million others who are inadequately housed, such as those who can't find apartments and live in overcrowded hotels, huts or on campgrounds, may also qualify.

Members of Don Quixote's Children say they plan to stay by the canal until the law has been passed and people start to move into real homes.
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Mourning ... [Jan. 8th, 2007|03:38 pm]
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/01/08/3235365-sun.html
Mon, January 8, 2007
Casualties of the street
Memorial service cherishes the memories of those who died on skid row

By CARY CASTAGNA, EDMONTON SUN

Janet Isenor, left, and Joyce Lawrence embrace at yesterday’s Hope Mission memorial service for inner-city residents who passed away in 2006. Isenor was good friends with many of the inner-city residents who did not make it through the year. (Tim Smith, Special to the Sun)
They lived their lives in relative anonymity on Edmonton's gritty downtown streets.
But yesterday, nine inner-city residents who died in 2006 from violence or addictions were front and centre during a memorial service at the Hope Mission.
"People need to be remembered for who they are," said Cheryl Kaye Tardif, whose brother Jason Kaye was found slain nearly a year ago in an alley near 96 Street and 107 Avenue.
"Just because they may live on the street or have addictions or other issues, they're still people and they deserve to be remembered as such."
Kaye, discovered beaten to death early Jan. 23 - one week after his 28th birthday - lived in a tiny core-area rooming house, had no job and frequented the city's social agencies, his 43-year-old sister said.
"He was living a very rough lifestyle," Tardif told the Sun, adding that her brother had fallen on hard times due to alcoholism and depression.
Edmonton police are still looking for Kaye's killer.
Tardif, a mystery author, approached the Hope Mission a few months ago with the idea of recognizing the city's deceased down-and-out.
It was an idea that Hope Mission Pastor Alan Pysar eventually set in motion.
Along with Kaye, yesterday's memorial service also recognized Max Reid, a 23-year-old who died Christmas Day of an apparent drug overdose, and ex-Edmontonian Dean Costa, one of three victims in a triple homicide Saturday in Cambridge Bay.
Many of the remaining Edmontonians eulogized yesterday died at the Hope Mission, Pysar said.
Most of them have no known next-of-kin.
Some had relatives who didn't want to have anything to do with them - in life or in death.
Pysar told about 100 mourners gathered yesterday that the uncle of one of the victims refused to come to the memorial because his nephew was "worthless."
Pysar explained that the memorial - which is expected to become an annual event - shows none of them were worthless.
"It's a time to collectively grieve and find closure."

And from the Journal, on the same event:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=785dee81-0963-448f-acc8-2015ba2e6f6d

'No one should have to go hungry or die alone'
Beating victim's sister speaks at memorial service to honour inner-city residents who died in 2006
Keith Gerein, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, January 08, 2007
EDMONTON -- Cheryl Kaye Tardif learned nearly a year ago that her brother Jason had been beaten to death in an alley near his inner-city rooming house.
For awhile, police had trouble locating any family to notify them, she said.
That was until Jason's friends remembered he had once told them about a sister who had written a book about whales.
"They told the officers about that, and that's how they found me," Tardif said.
"The book is called Whale Song and it's the only book of mine Jason ever read. In my mind, Whale Song is now Jason's book."
Tardif shared her memories Sunday afternoon as one of the speakers at a special memorial service held to honour nine inner-city residents who died in 2006.
A new version of Whale Song, to be published this year, will include a dedication to her brother, she told the crowd of 80 people gathered at the Hope Mission.
She said she plans to donate a portion of her royalties to three inner-city agencies -- the mission, the Bissell Centre and the Mustard Seed Street Church -- all of which helped Jason in the years before his death.
"I hope the money is used to better the downtown area for all people, especially the less fortunate," Tardif said. "It's my vision that our streets be made safer. I'm doing this for my brother, myself and all the Jasons out there, because no one should have to go hungry or die alone in a cold, dark alley."
Jason Kaye's bloodied body was discovered early Jan. 23, 2006, near 107th Avenue and 96th Street. He had just turned 28.
Tardif said the year since has been a difficult one for her family, particularly her father, who has been frustrated because the crime remains unsolved.
"It's always harder on parents," she said. "For me it was a little easier to accept that somebody may never be found. My purpose now is not to dwell on that end of it, but to focus on what good can come from it."
She said her brother's fate and that of the other people honoured Sunday should be a wake-up call that more needs to be done to improve the safety, support services and living conditions of people in the inner city.
To help with the cause, she plans to write a new book or make a documentary on homelessness. It will be titled "Porchmonkeys" -- a name Jason gave to his group of friends because they used to sit on the porch of his rooming house and drink beer.
Tardif's presentation was one of the highlights of the hour-long service, which also featured live music and a slide show of those who died.
The mission's senior pastor, Alan Pysar, said organizers are planning to make the service an annual event on the first Sunday of January.
"So many people pass on each year, but we get so busy we never take the time to properly reflect and grieve," he said.
In addition to relatives and friends of the deceased, Pysar said the crowd included a number of recovering addicts who are staying at the mission as they try to break out of a lifestyle that contributes to the deaths of many inner-city people each year.
Besides Jason Kaye, two others honoured Sunday died as the result of violent attacks in 2006 -- Cleophus Delorme McGilvery and Russell Ross.
Kelly Blackman, Roger Gaskin, Paul Mountain, Brad Prout, Maxime Reid, and Crista Cotton were also remembered at the service.
kgerein@thejournal.canwest.com

These are just a few of the people who lost their lives over the last year or so due to homelessness. There are many more - men and women - who deserve to be remembered as something other than a 'social problem' or a statistic or a nuisance. (More on that tomorrow). What people forget when these tragedies hit the headlines is that even if their families don't want anything to do with them, these men and women have lived in a community; they have friends, partners, and acquaintances that miss them and cared about them, and the men and women who work in the shelters and clinics and soup kitchens know them and care about them and treat them with dignity and respect that should be afforded to every human being, when most won't. These front-line workers have no time to mourn, no time to stop and try to make sense of it; there are too many other people that need help, and too few resources and people to help them. There are many people who consider those on the streets to be 'writeoffs' and not worth the effort, let alone the money, that it takes to try and assist them in some way. It's not just a simple issue of choice - addiction and mental illness (two of the main reasons many people are on the streets) are not problems that can be solved easily or quickly, if at all. Getting these folks off the street and safe, and enabling them to stay that way is a complex problem that requires a holistic, integrated approach to the health issues these people face. In the mean time, people will continue to live - and die - on the streets of this city.
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a couple of things from TO ... [Dec. 18th, 2006|05:41 pm]
This one from an elist I'm on ... willtry to get the URL ...

Poll seeks views to combat poverty
Homeless join call for wider strategy

Toronto Star - Dec. 18, 2006.

More than 4,200 Canadians — including about 250 people living in homeless shelters — have weighed in on the question of poverty and the need for a national strategy to solve it.

Another 330 organizations from across the country have also filled out the 15-minute online survey from the National Council of Welfare.
The federally mandated agency that advises Ottawa on social policy launched the survey on its website in October as part of global efforts to fight poverty. It will be available at <http://www.ncwcnbes.net>http://www.ncwcnbes.net until Wednesday when council staff begin analyzing results with a view to advising federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley on the issue.

The call for a national strategy comes in the wake of two council reports last summer that show poverty in Canada hasn't budged in a generation and that the poorest in the country are getting poorer.

"The response so far has been astounding and indicates a high level of interest in poverty in this country," said Nova Scotia council member Gail MacDougall. "I think people are realizing this is something that shouldn't happen in a rich country like Canada."

This is the first time the council has conducted a survey as part of its research, she added. And it was pleased to get responses from 10 homeless shelters across the country.

Despite a raft of federal and provincial initiatives to overhaul employment insurance, welfare and child benefits, one in six Canadians is still poor, according to the council.
What's needed, the council says, is a comprehensive strategy with clear goals and funding to meet them, similar to the approach used in Ireland during the mid-1990s where poverty has plummeted to less than 5 per cent from 15 per cent.

The strategy would be aimed at helping the 5 million Canadians who struggle to survive on low-wage jobs, welfare disability benefits or limited pensions.
Quebec adopted a law in 2002 with money and measures to fight poverty, and Newfoundland recently introduced a strategy aimed at lowering its poverty rate.

AND

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/155050

EDITORIAL
Ill omen for homeless

December 18, 2006
Toronto Star
Like the canaries formerly used in coal mines to detect toxic gases that were colourless, odourless and tasteless, workers at a Toronto social agency helping needy youths may be the first casualties of the federal government's refusal to date to extend funding for a key homeless initiative beyond next March.

Nearly a dozen staffers with Youth Link, which helps homeless youth aged 16 to 24 find housing and learn skills such as how to use a computer, received layoff notices last week because the agency has not been told if it will get federal funds after its current agreement expires March 31.

Youth Link is just one of 46 agencies and programs in Toronto that are anxiously awaiting word from Diane Finley, the federal minister of human resources and social development, on whether Ottawa will continue to fund the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI), the first targeted program to focus on the chronic homeless problem in Canada's large cities.

Under the 6-year-old federal initiative, Toronto received $17.3 million annually from Ottawa to help fund agencies that provide critical services for the homeless.

But the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused since it was elected last January to say if it will fund SCPI in the next fiscal year, which starts April 1.

Without such funds, many of the programs will be forced to close, including Youth Link, which received $600,000 a year from SCPI.

Finley has repeatedly said she needs to consult more on how to deal with the homeless problem.

Consultation is laudable, but time for action is running out for workers at Youth Link. And it's running out for the more than 5,000 homeless people who live in Toronto.
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A summary of the situation in Alberta ... [Dec. 4th, 2006|10:14 am]
An editorial from the Western Catholic Reporter ... it's a good basic summary of the situation in Alberta currently. the big question on my mind (and no doubt the minds of many others) is what will our new Premier do to address the issue of housing and homelessness, in relation to a run-away economy and growing income disparity?

http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/editorials/2006/editorial111306.shtml
Week of November 13, 2006
Make housing affordable for all Albertans

While Alberta's economy is booming at record rates, most residents have seen little direct benefit of the boom. Many types of skilled tradespeople, of course, can virtually name their own price or, if you're a developer or a person who owns land up for development, you may well see extra money. Many people who had no work - or only sporadic work - have found a decent steady income because of the boom.

But for many Albertans, economic growth has mostly meant higher property taxes, more vehicles on the roads and higher housing costs.

It is the last phenomenon that is of greatest concern. Housing is a necessity of life and Alberta's housing stock is not growing fast enough to meet the burgeoning needs. Homelessness is on the increase.

As well, people on low incomes are being squeezed as some landlords raise rents to what the market will bear. Families looking to buy a first home have seen housing prices skyrocket to what is well beyond what they can afford. In Edmonton, the average single family home sold for $326,292 in October, up more than $100,000 from record high prices at the same time last year. In Calgary the average price in October was higher still - $371,011.

People's housing needs range from emergency shelter to many types of supported housing to low-income rental units. There is an immediate need for 6,000 low-income affordable housing units in Edmonton. Mayor Stephen Mandel has made the provision of such housing a priority but the main funding needs to come from provincial and federal governments.

Government must play a leading role, both in emphasizing priorities and especially in funding those priorities.
In no small part, the current situation is due to years of neglect. Alberta's economy has been growing rapidly for 10 years, but the provincial government has paid scant attention to the social dislocation that has accompanied the rapid growth. It has failed to fund low-income housing and those people are now being squeezed by the combination of escalating prices and the housing shortage.

It should be no surprise then that homelessness is on the rise. Here, the government has stepped in to provide shelter to many of the large number of people sleeping on the streets. This is a very visible and disconcerting problem to the wider population.

Many others are the hidden homeless. They are "couch surfing" - sleeping in the living rooms of their friends and relatives until they can find permanent housing of their own. Their very hiddenness may diminish the size of the problem in the eyes of the public.

Homelessness is the final end of other systems that are not meeting the needs of the people - particularly community supports for the mentally ill and the lack of affordable housing. It can also be the result of poor choices people have made in their lives. But there are few places people can go to rectify those choices, to get help in turning their lives around.

The boom has been a good thing for some people. But the Alberta government needs to get enough revenue from the exploitation of resources owned by the people of this province to ensure the needs of all people are met - both now and in the future. It must be asked whether Alberta's royalty rates are high enough.

For Alberta to be a good society -as opposed to a merely wealthy one - it needs to ensure that the needs of the most disadvantaged people are being met and that opportunities are being opened for them. We will be judged on how we treat the least of our brothers and sisters. This is not entirely the responsibility of government. But government must play a leading role, both in emphasizing priorities and especially in funding those priorities.

One major priority for our government must be to ensure that affordable housing is available for all Albertans. At present, that need is not being met.

- Glen Argan
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A response to Manago's "end to homelessness" [Dec. 4th, 2006|09:54 am]
This is a well thought out response to Manago's approach to ending homelessness - and it situates the issue of homelessness firmly in it's historical and social context - where it needs to be. Good food for thought, when one is considering the statements of social policy coming (or not!) from the provincial and federal governments in Canada. I personally don't think we can afford to adopt such a narrow model to "end" homelessness ... yet this is precisely what Toronto has done, and I fear that other cities in Canada will follow suit.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1164063009702&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

Nov. 21, 2006

JIM WARD

In his classic book The Poverty of Historicism, Karl Popper argues that anyone who claims that history has some kind of predictive value is an idiot. History as predictor is about as reliable as reading the tea leaves in the bottom of your cup, something that's pretty difficult to do since the invention of tea bags.
Nonetheless, a total ignorance of history can also lead to idiocy, as with much of the recent debate about ending homelessness.
Not only does this debate go on in total ignorance of the fact that people have been writing about the issue of urban homelessness in North America at least since the end of the American Civil War, it also operates within the context of geographic ignorance.
Philip Mangano, George Bush's czar of homelessness, witters on about ending homelessness as though it has only been around for the past 20 years.
He should read Nils Anderson's 1923 book The Sociology of the Homeless Man or Zorbaugh's 1925 book The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Study of Chicago's Near North Side, to provide some historical context.
He should also recognize that homelessness is simply one of the more obvious manifestations of poverty and, as with poverty generally, you can't deal with it effectively on a city-by-city basis.
In these days when the most important economic unit is the nation state, it's at that level that the problem needs to be fixed.
It is no coincidence that those nation states with the most even spread of wealth, those with the lowest Gini Index, i.e. the Scandinavian countries, are the ones with the lowest rates of poverty and, ergo, homelessness. (The Gini Index measures income inequality).
Given that, in the modern nation state, people are free to move, to seek out economic opportunities, etc., it makes little sense to see homelessness as an issue that can be dealt with locally.
A simple test for this thesis is to find out where most current homeless people in a particular city come from. Invariably, they are from the more economically depressed areas of the particular nation state.
In Canada, that means from the Maritime provinces to Calgary and Toronto; in New York City, that means it's from depressed areas of the rust belt and the south.
The term panhandler is an example of this historical and geographical truth. It comes to us from 19th-century New York City.
After a late 19th-century economic depression hit the Texas panhandle particularly hard, those people asking, "Buddy can you spare a dime?" on the streets of Manhattan became known as the "panhandlers," hence the term.
There are three false assumptions undergirding the current approach to homelessness.
The first is that it is somehow separate from poverty. The second is that it is a relatively recent phenomenon. The third is that it is something that can be dealt with effectively on the local scale. emphasis added, SL
It is, of course, possible to get rid of homelessness, in exactly the same way that we can get rid of poverty. And the solutions are precisely the same, i.e. the development of systems at the level of the nation state that will increase the levels of equality of opportunity throughout that nation state.
With the rise of the modern welfare state in the post-World War II West, there were incredible reductions in inequality of opportunity, largely brought about by programs such as progressive taxes, age and invalid pensions, unemployment insurance and low-cost or free education through the college level.
The levels of poverty and homelessness that we now know in North America are only a fraction of what they were in the early part of the 20th century. However, as many social critics have pointed out, there has been considerable backsliding, particularly in the United States, but also in Canada.
College education is no longer inexpensive or free, unemployment insurance is not as readily available and tends to be more hedged in by restrictive rules, and the tax system is not as clearly redistributive as was in those three decades following World War II.
Attempting to end homelessness through city-specific approaches is doomed to failure.
The myopic approach that attempts to count the number of homeless people in a particular urban area at a particular time and to then use that number as some kind of "benchmark" by which success in ending homelessness is measured is patently ridiculous.
It may make sense if every city was surrounded (medieval-like) by a 20-foot high wall, and access was only through a limited number of checkpoints, where newcomers were admitted or turned back depending on their likelihood of becoming homeless.
It makes no sense at all in a nation-state where people have complete freedom of movement.
Mangano should find himself another job, or maybe he should become an advocate for social policy change in the United States, then he could come back to Canadian cities, this time making speeches on how to effect progressive social policy change.
He should understand that ending social problems is not simply about good intentions, it's about making informed social change.

Jim Ward is a Toronto consultant who has written a number of articles and two books on the subject of homelessness. He was a contributor to the 1998 Toronto Mayor's Action Task Force on Homelessness.
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So, which war do we wage?? [Dec. 4th, 2006|09:40 am]
An excellent article by Cathy Crowe ...
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=153
No direction home

After WWII, Canada acknowledged housing is an important human right.

Dateline: Tuesday, November 28, 2006

by Cathy Crowe

In honour of Remembrance Day, I want to address the connection between our military history and housing policy in Canada, and also our military spending and lack of housing spending today.

The phenomenon of thousands of troops coming home from World War II led to a "new direction home" for tens of thousands of Canadians, by instilling in Canadians the idea that they had a right to housing. Overseas or on their return, they fought for themselves and their families — for a home. Inadvertently, they also fought for the future of so many.

During World War II, the Wartime Housing Corporation had built 46,000 units of housing, mostly for war-workers and they also helped repair and modernize thousands of existing units. But, when the war ended, more than a million Canadians in the armed forces were ready to return to peacetime life, creating a housing demand that was unprecedented.

In 1945, the federal government declared Toronto an emergency shelter area, forbidding people from moving there unless they were starting a job deemed essential. In 1947, Toronto Mayor Saunders put an ad in newspapers saying, "Acute Housing Shortage in Toronto — do not come". In 1946, 600 homeless veterans protested and took control of the vacant Hotel Vancouver as a protest. They held the building for more than two weeks and due to enormous public sympathy, it was turned into a hostel for up to 1,200 vets until 1948. In 1946, when Ottawa Mayor Stanley Lewis refused to promise housing for Vets, the Vets' leader, Franklyn Edward Hanratty, ordered an occupation of the barracks. Eleven vets, their wives and 18 children took over the Kildare Barracks, unloading a truck with beds, stoves and washing machines to set up house. More families followed. Later that year, buildings on the site were leased by the City of Ottawa from the federal government for rental housing. Finally, Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation was born (now called Canada Mortgage and Housing).

When our soldiers returned from WWII, they demanded a place to call home. Housing became a right that was worth fighting for, a basic right for all Canadians. From the end of WWII until 1993, our national housing program built 650,000 units of affordable housing, housing two million Canadians to this day. That is our legacy.

Are we creating a direction home for people today?

In 1994 the federal government eliminated all new social housing construction. If we had continued to build 25,000 units a year, we could have built more than 175,000 social housing units from 1994 to 2000. Extend that construction rate up to the year 2006, and that would be 325,000 units. We could be offering at least a million more Canadians good housing.


We must face this formula: increased military and defence spending = reduced social program spending.


So we need to examine where we are allocating federal dollars today. It is not on housing or homelessness. Defense spending has increased. Even as the public mourns soldiers dying in Afghanistan, homeless deaths are also increasing. On November 15, Toronto Disaster Relief Committee added the 500th name to the Toronto Homeless Memorial board at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto.

We should mourn death by homelessness just as we mourn deaths in war.

This summer the federal government announced an additional $16.3 billion for defence shopping — helicopters, aircraft, trucks and ships. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor told CTV's Question Period that the Conservative Government considers these purchases to be a first step.

The cost of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee's "1 percent solution", the long awaited and urgently needed national housing programme, is only one-tenth that amount — $1.6 billion per year. There is now every indication that the recent $1.4 billion announced for affordable housing, to be spent over a three-year period, will dry up and will not be renewed. Period. Where is the direction in this social policy?

Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and the first Atkinson Economic Justice Award recipient, gave a speech entitled "The Ask" at the March 2006 National Conference on CED and the Social Economy. She reported on the two other major areas of federal spending besides health. The first is new investments in research and development. The second, spending on national defence and security — which almost doubled between 1996 and 2006. Defence spending grew from $8.4 billion in 1996-97 to $14 billion in 2004-5. Last year's federal budget gives Defence a $20 billion budget by 2010-11.

Quite simply we have to face this formula:

Increased military and defence spending = reduced social program spending.
It is true that outdated military equipment will need to be replaced, but the fact remains that less than 10 percent of the new money recently announced for the military's shopping spree could have implemented the "1 percent solution" and recreated our national housing program. It really wouldn't take that much for the federal government to bring about an end to the homeless problem and housing crisis in Canada.

Consider the economic argument for housing. It costs the following per homeless person per month:

Hospital bed $10,900

Jail cell $4,333

Homeless shelter $1,932

Rent supplement:
(in private sector) $701
(in social housing) $199
Yet James Flaherty, the current finance minister, seems headed in the opposite direction. He appears poised to kill all federal homelessness funding, complete the privatization of CMHC, and end all federal housing funding following the roll-out of the C-48 housing dollars in two years time. This government is doing less than nothing to provide the homeless who live on our streets and the vets returning from Afghanistan with their own direction home.

Cathy Crowe, Street Nurse, is co-founder of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and is currently a citizen member of the Toronto Board of Health. She is a recent recipient of the Atkinson Economic Justice Fellowship.


Related addresses:

URL 1: tdrc.net/CathyCrowe.htm
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Crisis in the Cold Snap [Nov. 26th, 2006|10:24 pm]
I have so many articles to post here - I'm terribly behind. But for now, this one will have to suffice:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/11/26/western-cold.html

Albertans hustle to help homeless as cold snap continues

At least 3 deaths among homeless appear linked to cold snap
Last Updated: Sunday, November 26, 2006 | 12:54 PM MT
CBC News

The deep freeze gripping Alberta kept relief workers busy Sunday, as they raced to get the homeless to emergency shelters, hand out winter coats and treat hypothermia.

The thermometer read -25 C in Calgary on Sunday, while temperatures dropped to -30 C in Edmonton. Forecasters said the blast of Arctic air, which began a few days earlier, would continue until at least Tuesday.

Cold temperatures are blamed or suspected in the recent deaths of three people in the province.

An autopsy has been ordered in the death of a homeless man whose body was found on a Calgary street on Saturday.

Two days earlier, in Spruce Grove west of Edmonton, two people who were living in a broken-down school bus were found frozen solid. Police suspect they died of carbon monoxide poisoning from running a propane heater inside the vehicle. Autopsies will be done in a few days.

Stampede grandstand becomes temporary shelter

The grandstand building on Calgary's Stampede grounds has been open since Friday night to provide a temporary emergency warming shelter for up to 300 homeless people because all of the regular shelters were full.

Buses have been transporting people from the Mustard Seed Street Ministry shelter to the Stampede grounds.

In Edmonton, the Hope Mission's warming shelter was packed on the weekend with people looking for a place to sleep, safe from freezing temperatures.

Edmonton crews hand out 215 coats

Emergency relief workers have spent the past three nights touring Edmonton's inner city looking for the homeless.

Richard David, a warehouse manager with the city's Emergency Relief Services Society, said workers found one man suffering from severe hypothermia on Saturday night. They brought him into the agency van and called paramedics for help.

Relief workers in the city handed out 215 winter jackets, as well as blankets, to those in need over the weekend and will continue the nightly tours until the cold snap ends.
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Out in the Cold up North ... [Nov. 10th, 2006|09:49 am]
Life on Iqaluit’s mean streets

http://www.nunatsiaq.com:80/news/nunavut/61110_02.html


“The consequences of homelessness in Nunavut are truly dreadful”

JOHN THOMPSON
Thirteen-year-old girls trading sex for shelter, and single mothers sleeping with their babies beside automated banking machines — these are a few grim anecdotes of homelessness in Iqaluit, pulled from a recent federal report.
Titled “Homelessness in the Territorial North,” the report, prepared for the federal department of human resources and development and released last week, explains to southern bureaucrats what’s widely known in Nunavut: there are homeless people here, but because of long, bitter winters, they drift from one overcrowded dwelling to the next, rather than sleep on the streets.
The report calls the territory’s housing shortage “hidden homelessness,” and links it with many social problems, such as domestic abuse of children and women.
“By all accounts, the extent, trajectory, and spin-off consequences of homelessness in Nunavut are truly dreadful,” the report reads. “These facts ought to be better understood in the South, from where money for the solutions flows.”
“Nunavut is alone, among the territories, in that the main solution to its homelessness problem is so clear.”
That solution, says the report, is more housing. The report points out that the $300 million spent by the Conservative government to improve housing across the North is only enough to keep pace with growth, and not nearly enough to solve the problem of overcrowded housing.
It also points out the federal government is unlikely to publicize this.
“Most likely, they will only be stabilized and mitigated; it is hard to imagine any federal government that would be eager to broadcast this message and risk further expenditure when there are many national priorities.”
One Nunavut resident who answered a survey for the report said there’s nothing hidden about homelessness for those who live in the territory.
“It’s not a good feeling when it’s a whiteout and you have some smashed or stoned guy crashing on your couch or the floor. You can call this hidden homelessness if you want, but it seems pretty absolute to me,” wrote one respondent, who answered a survey for the study.
The report estimates that Iqaluit, with a population of about 6,500, needs an additional 1,000 bedrooms.
And with Iqaluit’s population boom expected to continue, the report projects the capital will need between 1,181 and 2,243 new units by 2022.
In Iqaluit, all this means that the Oqota homeless shelter has its 20 beds filled most nights.
And with temperatures dropping as the long winter sets in, the shelter this week overturned its “zero-tolerance” ban on alcohol and drug abuse.
Drunk or stoned residents in need of shelter will no longer be turned away, provided they aren’t disruptive. Instead, they will trade their bed for a floor mat for several weeks — offering an incentive to stay sober.
“If they’re manageable, we’ll take them in,” said Carol-Anne Scott, director of the shelter.
“It’s the time of year. I’m getting concerned now,” she said. “It’s getting cold, and let’s face it, we all need a warm place.”
Scott said she’s glad of any attention the report draws to homelessness in the territory, but wishes she had been one of the 22 organizations contacted during the author’s surveys.
“Not one of these people called to talk to me,” she said.
Scott is hesitant to guess how many homeless residents live in Iqaluit, but said she heard one recent estimate that about 300 women have no home of their own in the capital. If that’s the case, she said there are probably just as many men.
“That means there’s at least double that,” she said.
All this makes recent allegations made in the House of Commons worrying: that the federal government could be preparing to cut money spent on homelessness programs.
Two weeks ago, the NDP’s Irene Mathyssen accused the Conservative government of planning to drastically cut homelessness funding to the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, from $133 million a year to only to $2 million a year.
Iqaluit has received $1.6 million over the past six years from this federal program. That money has gone towards funding the Oqota homeless shelter, the Tukisigiarvik drop-in centre, the elder’s home and the soup kitchen.
Diane Finley, minister of human resources, replied that the government has no such plans to cut homelessness funds.
Still, Ed Picco, Nunavut’s minister responsible for homelessness, plans to meet Finley this week, he said, to ensure this federal funding is protected, and continues in the future.
As it stands, the homelessness funding is set to expire April 2007, unless the government decides to renew the program.
Iqaluit’s city council also weighed in on the matter during a meeting this Tuesday, when they passed a resolution calling for the federal government to renew funding to the national homelessness initiative.
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Press Release on HOMELESS COUNT [Nov. 8th, 2006|07:48 pm]
Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness

November 8, 2006: For immediate release


No more reports—action is needed now

With the latest count of homeless people in Edmonton showing a 313 percent increase since the first count seven years ago, representatives of groups working with those struggling with housing problems are demanding action.

“The facts are clear: Over the past decade, the amount of money allocated by the provincial and federal governments to overcome homelessness and increase the amount of affordable housing in our communities has proven to be inadequate. Housing and shelter is a basic need, yet in our affluent community the number of homeless people has grown three-fold. This is shameful,” says Cam McDonald, president of Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness.

A typical day now finds 2618 people in Edmonton without a real home, and only a third of them with even a bed in an emergency shelter to count on. Turnaway rates at shelters have grown dramatically since 2004 as well.

“Governments have sufficient funds to address the issue. It is doubtful the federal and provincial governments will go into deficit if they increase funding to overcome homelessness. It is great that most people in Edmonton are doing well, but we cannot ignore the plight of those who are losing out in the good times,” declares McDonald. “The housing crisis was created by governments that ended funding of most social housing in the mid-90s and there must be a substantial reinvestment now. Premier Klein even admits the problem has grown worse in the past decade, and it is not simply a result of large migration into the city as people look for jobs. Our community needs substantial capital investment in our social housing programs.”

McDonald says the cost of not ensuring people have safe appropriate and affordable housing is far greater than acting. “Children having to move often have much more trouble being successful in their schooling. Adults and families who are searching for affordable housing are in crisis. If they happen to find accommodation, they are likely to experience rent increases in this tight market. They may be forced to move, and again find themselves in crisis.

“The desperate need for affordable housing is clear when we see that many of those who are having to use emergency shelters have low-paying jobs. When vacancy rates are nearly zero and average rent of a one-bedroom apartments in approaching $800 a month, there is little chance people with low or fixed incomes will have decent housing,” McDonald explains. “People with physical and mental health problems will almost certainly see their situations get worse. Failing to ensure decent homes for all is a path to long term problems increasing.”

The count of homeless people is only the most dramatic evidence of the housing crisis in Edmonton according to ECOHH. In addition to those who are homeless, there is a need for at least 6000 more units of low-income housing over and above that currently available in our city. Organizations providing such housing have waiting lists more than a year long. “The charity of private citizens can never solve this problem—we need a clear public commitment to turn things around.

“The research is overwhelming—when people have access to modest adequate housing, they stay housed. People do not want to be homeless. And when they have homes most other problems in their lives also decrease. We’ve been counting homeless people since 1999 and the numbers have grown from 836 to 2618 people. Let’s start building housing now instead of standing watching the problem,” McDonald encourages.

ECOHH is a coalition of over 30 community organizations that provide housing or work with people experiencing housing insecurity. It supports the One Percent Solution, calling on a commitment by the federal and provincial governments of one percent of annual budgets to social housing. ECOHH is the sponsor of the annual Homefest concert in support of affordable housing. The 2006 event takes place November 12.

For comment on the count of homeless people please contact Cam McDonald at 423-7503 or Jim Gurnett at 423-9675.

2618 people ... that's not ok. And please remember these two things - first, this includes children schoolage and younger, and second, that this count only record the visible homeless - thise seeking space at shelters and such ... there are many many more that are "hidden" - they are staying with friends, or couch surfing, or are packed like sardines into a too-small place because none can afford rents to live in their own safe space.
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Read this Article. Really. Read it. [Nov. 8th, 2006|06:59 pm]
The 'forgotten' homeless
Nov. 7, 2006. 06:39 AM
RITA DALY
FEATURE WRITER

House the homeless. Shut down the shelters. Get 'em into permanent housing — once and for all.
It has become the mantra in cities across North America, including Toronto.
This latest, tough-love approach to solve the homeless problem has taken on unprecedented momentum — and is sounding alarm bells with some homeless advocates, whose message seems to have been largely ignored by both voters and candidates during the municipal election campaign.

For the rest of the article see http://tinyurl.com/y4z37f

This artilce rasies some very very important issues about the complex problem of housing the homeless - particularly the homeless currently in evidence on the streets, which are often more difficult to house than the many more 'hidden homeless' that are couch surfing etc.
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Calgary again - Emergency Cold Weather Spaces [Oct. 27th, 2006|07:31 pm]
Former Brick store to house Calgary's homeless this winter

Last Updated: Friday, October 27, 2006 | 3:57 PM MT
CBC News

A former Calgary furniture store will become an emergency homeless shelter with 300 beds, city officials announced Friday.

The empty Brick building on 16th Avenue in the northeast part of the city will be renovated and operate as a shelter that will run from December to March.

Both men and women will be housed at the shelter, which will be run by an organization called the Mustard Seed.

"There's an amazing turnover of people through the shelter system, so that gives us an opportunity to connect with an additional 3,000 people," said Floyd Perras, the senior operations officer for the Mustard Seed.

The clients will be pre-screened and will be bused in and out of the neighbourhood, he said.

This weekend, city staff will go door-to-door to discuss the plan, looking for approval from residents.

Building set to be demolished

The bright red, city-owned building is set to be demolished in April to make way for the widening of the street, which is part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The province announced Friday that $1 million had been set aside for emergency care for Calgary's homeless. The City of Calgary has put up $500,000, but will ask the province to repay the cash.

Calgary Alderman Andre Chabot says he's worried the city will never get that money back.

"It's not our responsibility, but we're not prepared to quibble about it right now. To make sure we provide this service, we're stepping up, we're doing it and looking for reimbursement somewhere down the road."

Still hunting for shelter for families

Another aid organization, Inn from the Cold, will be given money to house an additional 10 to 15 homeless families. The organization says it is already housing 100 family members each night, a 40 per cent increase over the same time last year.

Inn from the Cold is working with the public school board to find potential sites to house the extra families.

The province gave the organization an extra $100,000 earlier this fall to help with the influx.

Organizations that work with the homeless say there aren't enough shelter beds in Calgary because of the number of people flooding into the city to look for work.

The province's super-heated economy has sent housing prices soaring and the rental vacancy rate has dropped so low that even some people with full-time jobs have been sleeping in their cars or on mats in shelters.
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