Poverty Awareness in York Region

York Region Food Network was asked to move out

Y.R. Food Networkers ousted from building - Did they lobby on behalf of other tenants' clients' rights too much?

   The recent release of preliminary initial findings from the social services review Commission confirmed the feeling we had from when we met with Commissioners Frances Lankin and Munir Sheihk earlier this year when they seemed mired in relating everything to the labour force - as if the only barriers people had were work related - and they seemed fixated that if you fix that, that would be the end of the "problem". Gee, if that were the case it'd have been "fixed" long ago. These guys still don't get it and seemed already fixated and predisposed (re:directed) on this relationship as well as the fact people apparently, in their conclusions, need 'incentives" to work, to get off welfare. Never mind the lack of adequate daycare, jobs, transportation, health supports or pay. But what about while people are on social assistance (usually a temporary measure for the majority) can they not be given enough to pay rent and eat? And what about those in need NOW! They were big on quoting only select input from people they chose to, but nothing of the points from our hundreds, if not thousands, of Ontario-wide connected parties that have studied and researched the 'problem" for years, not months, and have some great realistic and DIGNIFIED solutions that don't involve charity. And I don't mean political parties I mean people.

  And how about jobs with a future instead of pigeon-holing people into quick fix " skills' training programs that often have no local bearing, but sound good on paper. The report cites these  but leaves out specifically mentioning a raise is needed in the meantime, and that people are actually worse off now under their government than Harris' after taking inflation into account as they have never adequately brought rates up to where they were before the infamous Harris conservative slash, burn and blame programs of the mid 90's. The prelim just goes on and on and on about the "labour" market and in doing so deliberately creates a divide by pitting poor against working poor in its set-up as well.
   Like this is a choice for most? Who would choose to live a life of misery and hunger? It's just more of the blame game and it even points fingers at the disabled as the "review" encompasses suggesting forcing them to 'work" for their income by making it mandatory. Whose brainstorm was that?

   People on disabilities have a hard time often just getting out their doors in winter here being as our system doesn't provide free(or any) driveway snow shoveling services, but makes them rely on charities which are inconsistent at best.

Tom and Ashley volunteer community organizers. Recently Ashley was told to buy a walker and change her medication after years of being told she had a certain illness and made to take mal seizure causing pills. She went for her 1st walk unassisted . she still has not had her daughter returned now 6 mos seizure free. Meet her Sat Mar 17 volunteering at the Friendly Neighbourhood youth road hockey Challenge.

  One such couple spent the last two weekends stranded inside their house when the charity service didn't show up and their calls for help to them went unanswered. Do you know how depressing that is in winter to be stranded? And what about food and errands, doctors? During this period they also were expected to attend at the Children's Aid office to visit their daughter since she was taken off them for no other reason other than they were disabled and poor. They couldn't make the visit. This gets held against them on their "file' as well. Frankly I don't see why their daughter isn't brought to them since its not their fault of being DISABLED, even though as one half of the couple in question discovered, after 6 years of being ordered to take seizure causing medication when a new doctor stopped it, that she has now not a SINGLE SEIZURE in 6 mos but they still don't have their daughter??!....They are losing their energy to fight and certainly don't have the money for a fancy state-like attourney. So now they're to be forced to do labour too? Good luck with that hair brained idea! Might as well call them the Liberal Conservative Party at this rate.

  The York Region Food Network having been "evicted" last month by the controlling powers that be at the Inn From The Cold building, moved out of 510 Penrose in Newmarket to an obscure location in Aurora that is a tough access for people without vehicles. Too bad, they did some o.k. work there and often stood up for the rights of those on low income, instead of only using them like some do as 'clients' and "guests", but I guess they were sticking up for peoples' rights too much and not playing nice quiet accept the lousy treatment of people tenant that they wanted there. Some "hub".

Fred Joly one of the performers for Opening Face-off party to raise youth award funds for FNY Road hockey challenge

   If you want to get away from it all for a night and feed a good cause that isn't a corporate charity connected to the money people like Y.R.'s seem to be, then come to the Opening Faceoff Party in Newmarket on Fri Mar 16 at 7:30pm PM for a ripping great lineup, free entry/snacks and donations go to $1000 youth friendship award.

TP OUT!

A sign on the door of one of the "non-existent" single women's shelter spots in York Region

  I just read with glee once again about how badly we need another women's shelter in York Region and thank goodness Belinda Stronach has come to the rescue of all those 500 downtrodden homeless single women we have! The Writer, Chris Traber, left out some pertinent facts like 90% of all homeless are men and that the 500 homeless women stat he quotes are in fact not 500 women at all but instead 500 contacts made by any woman single or not to find shelter, that didn't end with them staying there. So, in other words the same people calling numerous times per year to find out if room is available are counted each time, as well as calls referred to another shelter - as long as it doesn't end in them sheltering the caller. So if someone calls the Yellow Brick House and is then directed to call the youth shelter and then the family shelter, that's 3 people to their "stats". Belinda has a good heart I think, but she is often misinformed by people around her, either that or she really believes this bullcrap spin. And no offense meant, but she has no grass-roots experience and no real understanding of what low / no income people go through, man or woman. For goodness sake, her father in the same paper / issue was mentioned as Canada's 21st richest citizen...and anyway aren't there enough buildings, streets, and trails named after people still alive and still involved in community workings around here already!?

  The now defunct Homelessness Alliance's former Director, Jane Wedlock, from where the Era article quotes its "stats", knew that homeless / low income men have by far the least supports here - from shelters to programs ( no men's center here!) and I confronted the former Director  in her office at the time for caving in and supporting the manufactured bandwagon of obviously the least need, when this single women's shelter was being worked up for proposal behind the scenes to the Region some years back now.       
  Affordable housing was what was / is needed and she knew it. It played well though - this brand new of course - shelter for vulnerable single women, with the players and media, as they too were either bamboozled or sell-outs, or in some cases part of the conspiracy of half-truths spun as facts that translated into this manufactured idea of an overwhelming need for more shelters, which was then more or less rubber stamped by council. We don't. Wedlock seemed to take the position that since we weren't likely to get any affordable housing soon, then both a men's and women's shelters were "needed". "One at a time" she'd said. To which I'd replied, "Then we should be taking care of the most in need first shouldn't we!" She now has a cozy Y.R. United Way job.

With a homeless father and son in 2011 we finally got some attention to the lack of supports for men in Y.R.- still nothing.

  Another missing stat is the one that says individual women's shelter use in York Region was down in 2011..why? because of the opening of the new family shelter which takes a lot of the women in, as well the INN From The Cold and Out From the Cold which now shelters all women and still have room for plenty more  as they aren't near full on the women's side- or even used at times. That's right the room sits empty...often! The youth shelters also cater to single young WOMEN up to age 27 which the writer claims so passionately that York Region has absolutely none of. So where is this great demand! It's manufactured my friends to make some people look good.

  Now what should have been done, if they worried about costs at all, was realized in advance the family shelter would / is take the load off the other women's shelters - and then turned one of them into a single women's shelter - thereby saving taxpayers millions of dollars. Those dollars could then have been used to build what is ACTUALLY needed - more affordable housing. Instead, the Region approved the release of $3 (or was it 4?) million dollars to build one, providing this caring "group", and now board, raised the rest. Oh yea, and it has to be run as well, with paid staff lest we forget.And what of the area's Y.R. Councilor? What is his position on this issue? The one who's dad and former mayor sits on or Chair's many of the area's related charity and shelter boards? Hmmmm.

  What we really need immediately is affordable housing for singles so that those homeless women that they'll be shipping here - likely from outside York Region - to fill it up like what we do with affordable housing here for families - can have a place to live after their 6 weeks are up at Belinda's Place - or will they get special status to stay longer than the men do? And I assume by all the wonderful "life changing" programs the writer says they are going to do there it will all happen after supper time - as I 'm thinking that, like the men, they'll be kicked out during the day to their own devises. And guess what? There's a building already available on Leslie St. that could house what they want but no - it has to be a 5 million dollar project that taxpayers are paying the bulk of and whenever Belinda bores of it you'll be stuck maintaining it without her influence. I wonder if the Quakers knew before donating land for this?

  I first spoke about the idea with Belinda, I believe, at one of her functions several years ago. In fact memory serves it was the Good Brothers concert who she'd rented for the Aurora Town Park which I assume she booked for the B.B.Q. as a thank-you gesture for (her) Neighbourhood Network volunteers. P.A.C.C had joined the N.Network in order to open up dialogue by supporting their start-up charity and I attended with P.A.C.C. member Dan who hails out of a wheelchair. I don't think she remembered it was I who had beckoned her to join the "Squaretable on Poverty" that we organized while she was M.P., to which she agreed only after I went live on the C.B.C. to solicit a response from a group who had until then, all but ignored us (P.A.C.C.). At any rate, at that time, she said to me, " Did you know they have no women's shelters in York Region?"..I was aghast knowing of 3 right off the top in Markham, Aurora, and Georgina which have the distinction of houses for those "abused" but where no real verifiable proof is needed, so regularly women have gotten around the "abuse" condition by simply claiming it. It's common knowledge of women booking into Georgina for years for summer time in advance, and this was relayed to me by someone who worked there in front of many others. There are also Inns from the Cold which shelter all women, and youth shelters which shelter women up to 27, and the family shelter which I assumed includes women too. I informed her she was misled somewhat at the time and I would have discussed it further had she attended any of our Square Table on Poverty meetings, other than the forced initial one, after which it was an assistant always instead.

  Here's a letter a P.A.C.c.er sent to Regional Chair Bill Fisch in 2009 before they tore down another existing  building that also could have been fixed up and used as the shelter or transitional housing of which only a few for adult women exist currently in York Region and none for men.The Region claimed it couldn't be fixed, yet the foundation looked solid to our visual inspection.

This property on Leslie St. in Queensville is ideal for a shelter and has sat empty since last January. The Region knows it.

  Dear Chairman Fisch,
  It has come to our attention that the shelter known as “Leeder Place” has been slated to be torn down next week. The reason given according to your reports is that the building was not worth fixing up due to costs, yet another shelter (family) is currently being erected at significantly more of a cost. It would seem to us that spending $100, 000 - $150,000 to fix it up, as opposed to $3,000,000 on a new building would make more fiscal sense - or at least lower the need for a full new 40 bed structure as you plan, and save costs. Subsequent inquiries as to seeing the building inspectors report that lead to this decision have not been available to us to view as we were referred by a board member to seek it through the freedom of information act - leading us to wonder if there is something more to this decision?
   The same report indicates that shelter beds are in demand in the region, which is well known, thus we feel the tearing down of any shelters need be scrutinized with public input and as far as we can see no public consultation has been done to date.
  I wonder if we could have the destruction of this shelter postponed until such time as we and others have had a chance to have some input.
  In our opinion this shelter could be used as true ‘transitional” housing as there seems to be no exit strategies for shelter dwellers other than 6 weeks and then out to the streets in many cases, whereas in other regions they offer some longer term temporary housing, especially for men who tend to be homeless longer term which could include an “exit strategy” - instead of recycling them back into shelters via the streets.
  The slated building is only 40 years old whereas the existing buildings being kept are 100 therefore we don’t see how one and not the other can be kept.
  Please let us know if you are willing to delay implementation of the raze order this so that we can have some public consultation on this important matter.
  Sincerely,
  Rick H, Housing Specialist, Poverty Action for Change Coalition
They did not reply.
  
Adult Men in York Region have only 26 full time beds to choose from in a population of over 1 million people. No abuse shelters for them even though many are robbed, beaten, and terrorized while living homeless. Even though statistically men are assaulted and killed in far greater percentages than women or children and lest we forget - men are humans too. They bleed. They cry. They fear.They die.

A winter shelter for single women in York Region which the Y.R.M.G. claims none exist in YR. It sat empty that week

  Next up..the local Y.R. boards of these hostels, shelters and organizations seem to be a closed door to a select few with no real grassroots membership. P.A.C.C. will look into this further for the P.A.C.C. report on You Tube! Watch for it!

Fred Joly points to the hearty grub available for attendees



Tom Pearson at the Neighbourhood Network Breakfast at the Aurora Cultural Centre


The impressive breakfast was served continental style - kind of like "Inn from The Cold" meets Spagos. Ha! After the usual coffee, tea, and juice choices the tables were littered with mini muffins of all flavours, fresh fruit, granola with plain yogurt, bagels, and a hot baked egg dish seemingly stuffed with healthy accompaniments..mmm? Out of etiquette, I was halfway through my granola yogurt when I realized no one else was eating. Oops..Faux-pas perhaps I thought, as I sheepishly looked up at Fred who too was devouring something deliciously edible. After all he was looking to me to show the ropes. Gulp. Sorry Fred.


Quite the gathering at the annual Neighbourhood Network breakfast


After munching and mingling, we all got to introduce ourselves and give a 2 minute blurb about who and what we were, which I wasted my entire timeslot talking about an event we already held - our annual Friendly Neighbourhood Youth Road Hockey Challenge - free to all kids and awarding one with an $ education award as I want to grow sponsorship. I never got to mention anything new we're up to such as the " House of Hope"work program including a new grow food initiative in it's infancy that rewards land lenders with $ for allowing food to be grown on their property. PACC was able to find 1/2 acre for such use with overflow going to those in need at no cost. We hope to add collaborative partners to expand including training at risk persons to become independent organic growers and farmers.

Others of note in attendance were Belinda Stronach's (Founder) N.N. crew including Linda Potter, Tim Jones, Steve Hinder, John Crowell - who celebrated a 30th birthday, and Tom Taylor among others. Belinda Stronach was also just honoured with an honourary doctorate I understand as well, so a positive buzz was in the room. It was an opportunity to mingle and make possible collaborative partners such as for our road hockey event or Oct 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty or to just plain engage folks with many being outside our usual circles, such as Aurora Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club members and great gents such as Aurora Senior's Centre's Charles Sequeira who shared with me he's noticed an increase in seniors affected by income, and as well it was nice to share with Inn from the Cold's Brenda Northey about our PACC pilot program the Talk 2-one messaging system which has allowed us to distributed phone numbers with voice-messaging 24/7, helping to place homeless and at risk men and women into homes and jobs! We will be reporting results to YR Commissioner Adelina Urbanski soon in hopes of having the service picked up York Region wide!

I also took the opportunity to refer to a program represented by the Salvation Army as dignified to point out that having to ask for handouts no matter how well intentioned - is not dignified - and programs perhaps should not be stated as such. Don't get me wrong the S.A. church do some good work. Luckily, with my wording, not many got the dig - after all - we're all friends here right! Ha!As a PACCer once said to me from her scooter, "Poverty doesn't need a middleman"


Fred chats up Rob Clark explaining his out-of-the-box two-sided business card

Fred Joly, pictured speaking with Snap Aurora and RC Design's Rob Clark, also attended with me as PACC's other representative. Fred, who comes from lived experience, is now an SEO website expert - meaning he can drive targeted traffic to websites by the droves from the search engine results pages - and as well he has helped us with our new "House of Hope" programs which includes training others in painting / drywall taping to professional standards which he used at the "House Of Hope" location at Green Lane and Leslie St's in Newmarket Ontario, to teach the homeless guys and others who got paid work on the project how to do so professionally to standard. Fred Joly is also a talented artist, songwriter and musician with plans to assist workshops and sales spots once the house is up and running among other great work he's done for Poverty Action for Change Coalition. When you'd like increased qualified web traffic to your website (get more donations especially) - Fred's willing to offer special rates for optimizing websites for York Region non-profits or charities.

Check out this Fun Video showcasing services by the Neighbourhood Network by TP Entertainment & Media via PACC!



Up next I visit Ontario Government Poverty Reduction co-chair Frances Lankin in Toronto