Poverty Awareness in York Region

I just fielded a call from a 61 year old man being targeted for eviction because his landlord doesn't like him. He has mental health issues and, as such, had a concerned friend make the initial contact call for him to me as he stood by. It was explained that this landlord, who owns only the one rental property as I understand it, just informed him he wants him out of his $500 per month rental room by Sept 1st. It's already August 21st..so in a matter of days.

I asked him why? On what grounds is he asking him to leave?  And from what I could gather - nothing - other than he just wants him out and "if he didn't get out, He wouldn't believe the shit he would tell the cops he had done". The guy contends he's done nothing but doesn't want the hassles and doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know anyone local and didn't know who to call.

Hmmm.. my thoughts are that the landlord just doesn't want this big 6"1 guy who seems "different" living there and therefore is pushing him out. "Well",  I advised him as he got on the phone with me, "You don't have to leave". And even if he did, he could leave on his terms - when he's had adequate time to get another place.

Seems the landlord had a bit of 'buyers remorse' upon renting to the hulking gentle giant, or something, thinking he can just move people in and out whenever he feels like it because the guy wasn't the perfect fit to his mold...well it doesn't work that way I advised him, and that actually he didn't have to leave at all since his rent was up to date and he's not bothered other tenants or anything, "but if you really want to move still,  Tell him you'll do him a favour and move out by Oct 1st"..

In the York Region Social audit, Behind The Masks, completed in 2010, we identified major gaping holes in York Region's social net system, including much around inadequate housing, and highlighted an almost lack of supports for men.


Since the time of that audit - which took over 6 months of my life to help produce and considerable amounts of other people's - I've seen no noticeable changes made, and the status quot has continued on as if there was no input from the people at all. When questions were raised about certain programs nothing changed, and the same programs continued along receiving funding with the same proprietors as if they were doing a great job.

The local mainstream media continues to spin the feel good stories about these various organizations who are apparently filling all these wonderful "needs" and promote their fund raisers and 'programs" for their niche clientele - whilst those most in need people who don't fit their mold or are not interested to, fall prey to the other wolves of society  supported by entities like the Era Banner with storylines that create a false impressions like that we had a dire immediate need for another women's shelter .

Meantime men here die on our streets. No stories about them though.

What other type of "business" would ignore the voices of the users of their end products such as housing providers, shelter providers, assist programs and the like do, and get away with it? Would any be in business if it were up to the "clients" and there were more dignified options in place? I doubt it.

Since the time of the audit - which did not call for more women's shelters but did highlight the complete lack of men's beds / programs - Y.R. has allotted 9 million dollars towards building this new women's shelter (we have 7 in various forms already) including also transitional housing, with more proposed to come, attached to the Belinda Stronach Tribute being built currently, and originally slated at $5 million , which will be filled when it opens with women not coming from York Region no doubt. 9 million tax dollars and counting to house out of towners. Great idea! And what of the costs to maintain it? And who decided B.S. should get her name attached to it? and why doesn't she pay the cost of it then?  I mean what possible connection does she have to single "homeless" women without children over 27 - the only possible category left the women can make a shelter for!? Please.

But what do you mean we already have enough women's shelters?..It can't be! The Mayor of Newmarket ran as part of his platform.....that we had none!

As the social audit report noted we have a Y.R. Women's Centre already, single mom programs, young girls programs, mom-preuneurial programs, abused women's shelters in Richmond Hill, Markham, Vaughn, Aurora, and Georgina, shelters for families including single  moms and married moms, single women up to age 26, religion run single women / shelter program (Aurora), and as well both Inn from The Cold and Out from the Cold include beds for all women - and then many of these women move to the top of the affordable housing list which the men are not afforded any comparable opportunity. In fact men have none of the aforementioned programs in York Region and therefore denied opportunities to access many waiting lists of opportunities. Of course there are no Abused Shelters for Men to escape the dangers of the streets to either. This is what can happen to men like that.

If it were any other group they'd be calling it discrimination.

With the rising cost of food and transportation in Y.R. - local transit costs $3.75 vs T.T.C. $3.00 - and the rising trend of "temp" or non-full time jobs, more and more aging men are getting caught in the trap. An aging out of work labourer for example would have a hard time competing for a job at the best of times against an able bodied younger person. As these men age and others strive to get a foothold in life, we cannot afford all our limited Y.R. social services resources to be spent in one area - and clearly with only 26 full time beds for men in York Region who make up 90% of our homeless here, something's out of wack.

Do we want that here? I hope not. Thank goodness I fielded that call from that senior tenant otherwise he'd of gone like a sheep to the street and become a statistic, not knowing his rights, and without likely a shelter bed since Y.R. has so few for guys like him, especially this time of year with but one shelter.  

I'm certainly not saying we should ignore our women and children but clearly we're not. We don't mind our men going to war and dying in disproportionate numbers for this country, we can at least give them some support. Stop ignoring the reality York Region, and pandering to the whims of some connected vocal committees with influential backers, and start building what's actually needed

affordable, single unit housing.

 I've noticed this "trend' of "training" opportunities" or 'employment opportunities" for people with disabilities or low income and, besides the fact the government is trying to mandatorize labour for those on disabilities regardless of education or skills, the use of 'charity" businesses that use free or cheaper labour (sometimes they pay them with food) is outrageous.

Do these programs really help or take away from paid work?

Under disguise of "helpful programs"programs' like the Inn from the Cold Catering "company" should be banned in its present model as it is not part of their mandate to begin with, let alone another way to make money from the poor via having them "learn" how to make sandwiches and the like under the disguise of teaching them a skilll from which I suppose they say they would now be able to get a job from. Meantime this business gets free labour? Hello!.

But wait you say they are doing a wonderful thing training people how to cater. Bull crap. Most jobs do that anyway at entry level, but at least you'd get PAID a wage then! One local struggling young man I know who works for a catering company was promised full time hours - something hard to get these days - but as yet the place hasn't been able to afford him enough to do so, and the kid walks to work - over 4 miles - ashamed to tell the boss he can't afford it.We don't need homeless shelters preparing food we need them for shelter emergencies only, which should be RARE, not the accepted status quo.

A friend of mine has a catering company and I'm sure he's not thrilled to lose anymore business to competition than he has to in an all ready tough market. Tough to say no to the poor shelter people, and great way to make your business appear "caring" by using such a catering "service". What a farce.

They likely got the idea from a visit I made to Montreal some years back that had a gourmet restaurant tucked in an old church in a poor part of town - Resto Pop - which uses high end discarded catered food as well as a CERTIFIED CHEF in house who teaches culinary skills. These meals are then sold for change to low income and shelter dwellers out of this converted church. And when I say change I mean 50 cents -$2 for a meal etc. and the workers were paid FULL WAGES. This was the model I spoke of when I raised the idea here at the square-table on Poverty in 2006 or so with Belinda Stronach et al, who are seemingly connected to shelters here now through the new "shrine" for single women to be filled by women from outside York Region when it opens in order to fill it, but learned long ago they are all about photo-ops and appearances than reality or caring, or if they are, are rather naive which I doubt.Unless of course the current course of governmental poverty reduction efforts continues and we will afford our aging low income single women to join their male counterparts on the streets - literally- and it will no longer be a manufactured notion as a pressing "need". A that point her Belinda House shrine is going to seem much needed!Yet by just giving people a little more to work with they could avoid being homeless most often - but they don't support that. Hmmm.Too dignified a solution I suppose.

I was speaking with another person at a business who had needed their yard cleaned up of refuse etc and was able to get a quote for about 1/4 of anyone else's. How can they do it? They use people with certain mental health disabilities on ODSP and don't pay the workers but they use it as an 'activity" or " program" for them or if they do get paid it's token. Often they have care and control of these "workers" who also live in residents. Make no mistake these "charities" are making money on them and / or saving it using them under the guise of " volunteers"when often these 'volunteers" are hungry as is and just happy to be warm and eat and if they get thrown a few bones it keeps them coming back enough that they can claim their "program" is a success. yea a success at keeping people attached to them instead of breaking free.I know men without who'da loved the job but how can he compete with almost free?

Free labour at local charities often pays them in food instead of money

As government steers a course toward forced labour on the disabled our local papers write that our social service 'professionals" think the review is going in the right direction
(I personally don't think it needs an overhaul whatsoever just a few tweaks like giving people more to work with to start with). Which professionals were these? The ones who's livelihoods depend on keeping people mired in poverty or come to their "programs" or rely on the free / cheap poor labour to conduct their "charity" business?

People who can already seek out work DO and don't need a hand or forced incentive pushing them to do it, but what will happen is " volunteering" will begin to cut into the paying jobs in hard more than it already has while working businesses who have to compete with real world overheads and don't have the sympathy card to play for funding from government bodies or the public so lest we get to cozy with this charities for all solution don't forget who the labour force will be made up of!

Tom Pearson

YRNG reports about York Region Council needing an elected Chairperson months after PACC urged action.

    It seems the York Region Media Group is finally getting with the program. Several months after we first began blogging, creating media, and reporting about a need to replace the York Region Chair not only because of the present chairperson Fisch's incompetence but also because an elected chair seems more democratic than having the same guy anointed every year with no challengers. It's just too cozy an arrangement for a guy making over $200,000 a year! The elected Mayor of Toronto doesn't make that much - and meantime Fisch seemingly doesn't think transit drivers should make even $50,000 a year - which is only 1/2 of the average household income in York Region. Pay them a fair wage, give them reasonable working conditions - like breaks - and let's get on with this thing! You can flop around all you want Fisch but your filet is cooked my friend, so I suggest you take the high road and bow out gracefully while you still can.  
Better yet take transit.

  Speaking of cozy arrangements, am I the only one who finds it astoundingly outrageous that an organization purportedly selling products donated free, that most people think are used to build homes for people in need, instead spends over a million dollars in 2011 for "administration costs". Huh? Let me get this straight..they built exactly 0 homes in Newmarket, Aurora or Georgina in 2011 and incurred over $1,000,000 in expenditure costs? On What!? And now "need" to hire professional fundraisers too?

   This U.S. based model corporate connected "charity's" usefulness has gone the way of the dinosaur I'm afraid as it doesn't fit our Canadian ideals or system and it stigmatizes those chosen - as they are expected to be the face in the media mouthing wonderful things about these wonderful people before and as they move in as part of the deal instead of with privacy and dignity - while at school the kids become the "habitat kids" and other labels which can lead to low self esteem and mental health issues.. Because they are vulnerable, the chosen families of course will go along with it all and who could blame them?

  They also build so few homes and include numerous qualifying conditions that should not allow them to market themselves in their numerous commercials as providers of "affordable housing". It's a wonderful sounding buzz phrase, but a misleading one, as it is one usually reserved for real builders of "affordable housing" - in the dozens or hundreds at once - not one or two units per year as they typically might build - and then uses the very people they claim to want to help for publicity campaigns.
Well you can't have it both ways I'm afraid. Sure it helps a few people a year locally, but at what cost?

  Habitat for Humanity York Region's future plans apparently include developing isolated ghetto-like properties by the sounds of it - a number of units per property - "because it makes fiscal sense" according to Habitat's E.D. Nancy Van Kessel - which goes against all the studies about building isolated low income housing projects.  This is exactly what is wrong with charitable solutions often. Since when does fiscal sense trump accepted social housing policy? And since when does York Region in general care about actual fiscal sense anyway? I mean where was "fiscal sense" when York Region Council ordered destroyed a perfectly good shelter a few years back whilst almost simultaneously announcing plans to build a "much needed" single women's shelter?

So Why is H.F.H. seemingly exempt from procedure or scrutiny? Because they are a wonderful charity with great commercials that say they are great so they must be? Or perhaps because they are, as their head office corporate website says, a great brand partner worth 3.1 billion dollars, as much as Starbucks as they write? Corporate charity is not the solution for affordable housing woes in York Region - building units in the dozens or hundreds of units with government funds are what is needed or an alternative like PACC presented which was a private venture offering mixed income owned condos along with some affordable units that the company would qualify tenants to own who normally wouldn't - not some band-aid U.S. modeled feelgoodgroup confusing reality by sounding like they are "providing affordable housing" in York Region, when in actuality most who need affordable housing would not even qualify for a habitat house based on their eligibility requirements. They do a lot of advertising but little actual building anyway from my perspective, and even then it's with conditions for those lucky enough to have enough of the right disabilities, or fit the correct "culture" or 'mold" that they are looking for each time, as often seems to be the case. Smile for the camera!

Tom Taylor, former Newmarket Mayor, and Father of Regional Councilor John, Chairs or sits on the Boards of a number of Y.R. service providing charities including YR Habitat for Humanity, Neighbourhood Network and Inn From the Cold.

  It all reminds me of these "Champions" some groups trot out each year from various sources who praise the organizations and charities they've accessed up and down meantime behind the scenes they're often getting extras like jobs, food, fees, and free goodies that bribe them enough to be the media 'face". In one case the face of the family shelter one year got up and said how she'd been homeless with her kids in Toronto and ended up in our Y.R. shelters, then Y.R.'s assisted housing, and that she loved her new life and job and now volunteered in the community she loved. Awww it was a wonderful speech. Teared me up. She left out the part about having a husband when this all went down who had lived with her right up until that very day ( now years on from her dilemma) as best I knew, as she'd introduced me to him when she moved in and I'd seem him often around - but who wasn't anywhere to be seen or mentioned on this day - coming across like a distraught single mom who'd gone through terrible ordeal all alone. Oh and volunteering? She'd looked me in the eyes previously at her own community hall and said "Fuck em" when dropping out the week we were to put on a puppet show for the kids in her neighbourhood - because there weren't enough other volunteers she'd said. I appealed to her that some just couldn't make it that night, but she wasn't interested. To say I was stunned would have been an understatement. We never saw her back to help again as I suppose she was busy with her new "career". The 'career" she referred to her in her speech was given to her by housing not long after she was moved in - while many others should have been considered before her - as it was a (part-time) tenants position and many qualified residents had lived there a number of years before her arrival. Not bad for someone who went homeless in Toronto! I sat quietly throughout her speech, although I may have shaken my head a few times in disbelief but I wasn't going to spoil their party and besides the food was great ...and the tour wonderful and programs sounded just wonderful too! Ha!

   Still, it's a sad state of affairs that vulnerable people are used to legitimize groups that upon further examination - including the recent social audit done on York Region - that many of these groups are failing and in some cases rewarded time and again for programs or services that are poorly run or useless or not user friendly. And it is them who seem always left out - the majority - the ones not the chosen "champions" - that we need to look out for because our society and especially York Region seems to prefer  pretty stories instead of reality, and consequently keeps rewarding the same offenders with funds. I wonder if somewhere in here a conspiracy exists ....and the various boards with seemingly many of the same people involved is a good place to start.

Kristine Carbis on the scooter along with a number of people involved with Y.R.'s 1st ever social audit Behind The Masks  hiding her face with the report in this photo as she seeks no recognition for her immeasurable efforts

  You want a "Champion"- look no further than P.A.C.C.'s own Kristine Carbis who not only represents her community by sitting on a unique tenant reference group providing input to the Region to best manage housing tenant issues but has also tirelessly (and quietly) volunteered in her community (association) for years and is the one distributing food and goods to those in need, organizing her community events and Christmas Parties, connecting people to resources and schools, assisting with numerous projects to help end the affects of poverty in her community such as sitting for several years on the board for a P.A.C.C. assisted group we helped start - Operation Sparrow - which provides low income kids access to recreation and transportation at no cost, as well as assist the Put the Food in The Budget Campaign, Do the Math campaign, the P.A.C.C. hosted I.S.A.R.C.(York Region) Social Audit, Oct 17 Int Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and the annual Friendly Neighbourhood Youth Roadhockey Challenge she also helps organize both with P.A.C.C. and within her community to make sure a team is formed and everyone can get there. Currently she is quietly presenting to the Y.R. District School Board people to help them better understand dignified approaches to dealing with those who come from lower income homes' and why seemingly simple assignments might be an issue for others - such as access to libraries, computers, printers, embarrassment and such. And she's done so the last few years with use of a cane, then scooter, due to her deteriorating physical condition. Her biggest regret? Not getting chosen to be on the York Region Disabilities Committee - another controlled YR entity. She wasn't given a reason why not. Probably because she'd speak her mind for the rights of everyone and not quietly vote yes to everything without question.
  Now there's a real champion.

Don't forget to vote for PACC's finalist video One Paycheck Away before Jan 20!

Tom Pearson 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!