HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin No. 27

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN -Bulletin Number 27, February 15, 2001

A twice-monthly electronic bulletin published on what people are doing to
put housing back on the public agenda in Ontario, across Canada and around
the world. Our web site is http://www.housingagain.web.net

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In this issue:
1. State of the Disaster Report
2. Simcoe County: Summer Paradise, Winter Nightmare
3. Maybe not NIMBYs
4. Check out our Alerts!

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1. State of the Disaster report

"State of the Disaster. Winter 2000" is the report put out by the Toronto
Disaster Relief Committee last October, almost five months ago. It was
finally discussed by Toronto's Community and Neighbourhood Services
Committee on February 12 to a standing-room only crowd.

`We showed them stark footage of an Out of the Cold programme-like
depression era footage,' said Cathy Crowe, a public health nurse who is
one of the driving forces behind the TDRC. `It really shocked them. We
also showed two people calling the Street Helpline and getting no beds.'

The report's show the scope of the problem. One recommendation is that
the city's Medical Officer of Health should determine if the hostels
meet United Nations standards for refugee camps. One hostel has two
toilets for 120 people, which is considered sub-standard in refugee camps.

Another recommendation is that the $3.75 per day Personal Needs
Allowance doled out weekly to those in hostels should also be given to
the 400 clients in the Out of the Cold shelters. Many who are homeless
do not receive Social Service Assistance, so they have no money to buy
the simplest amenities.

Currently about thirty people sleep outside City Hall in an encampment
lit by the bright lights under the mayor's office, because for them the
light provides more safety than a hostel.

Before the meeting Crowe says she had a very unsatisfying meeting with
the mayor's office. A 1999 order empowered senior city staff to open
more hostel spaces because of terrible weather (and overcrowding), but
they insisted there were enough beds for men, ignoring women and
children. Buildings were available, such as Metro Hall and City Hall, as
well as unused public buildings, schools or the Armoury which was closed
as a hostel last year.

But there was no such problem with the councillors - most of the TDRC's
recommendations were adopted by the committee and will be before Toronto
city council on March 6. "The councillors were wondering why the news is
coming from Children's Aid, nurses, and the homeless themselves and not
from their advisers,' says Crowe.

Crowe says the all-day committee debate provided intense education on
homelessness, and that all councillors present got up to talk with
strong support form councillors Joe Mihevc, Olivia Chow, Anne Johnson,
Michael Prue and Michael Walker.

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2. Simcoe County: Summer Paradise, Winter Nightmare

"I'm very hopeful we can do cool stuff here in Simcoe County," says
Mandy Hillyard, head of Simcoe County Alliance To End Homelessness. If
she didn't have so much experience you could easily think she is a
wide-eyed optimist, smiling in the face of desperate reality. Raised in
the Toronto suburbs, Hillyard has lived fifteen years in Barrie and has
23 years of nursing experience in hospitals, in communities with the
Victorian Order of Nurses and Red Cross, and working in jails.

Eight years ago she started a drop-in centre in Barrie serving the
homeless, marginalized and socially isolated. It still attracts up to
100 visitors a day, even though some citizens feel there are no homeless
people in this fastest growing city in Canada. 

"Our new mayor Jim Perri has started a Task Force on Housing and
Homelessness. It was one of his main platforms during the election and
as mayor, he made it a major part of his policy. The hidden
homelessness-that's what's so terrible. In Barrie itself we have
absolute homelessness, and there are smaller numbers of these homeless
individuals throughout the county but the problem that we are unsure of,
and we are most concerned about, is the hidden homelessness. This is
rural homelessness and it is not obvious or the same as in large urban
cities."    

"For example, in Wasaga Beach some people are paying $200 to $300/month
for a cottage  off-season. This may seem reasonable but the heating
costs are hundreds of dollars every month because many of these cottages
are not winterized. Then in the spring, the people have to move out to
accommodate the tourist trade and the residents then become homeless.
These same cottages and motel rooms will fetch $500.00 plus per week.
One man rents a trailer for $250 just outside of Barrie but his heating
bill is $75 every four days for propane! He works odd jobs and never
knows when the money is coming. He is having a very difficult time.
Others sleep in boats that have been put up for the winter. They sleep
under the canvas, or they find abandoned vehicles, their own cars or
even in ice house."

Further south in Alliston there is no place to go, except from couch to
couch. When that fails, Hillyard explains, "last year the McDonald's at
Hwy 400 and 88 let people sleep overnight. As is the case in many of the
towns and cities in Simcoe County, the lack of transportation is a great
handicap and it affects where people can live."

Hillyard was part of the development of the Simcoe Country Alliance to
End Homelessness two years ago with other individuals from the
community. Now over 70 organizations are represented, with a staff of
two including Hillyard. H.R.D.C. funded these positions in the beginning
but now the funding for these positions are being pieced together by the
Federal and Provincial governments with no job security at present. The
United Way of Greater Simcoe County is the sponsoring agency.

Now federal S.C.P.I. money gives us the means to analyse the situation.
"What is astonishing," Hillyard says, "is the massive number of people
who are housed, but shakily. So many are just two or three months from
eviction, or having the heat cut off. If a car breaks down and needs
repair and the family is dependent on the car for a job, then food is
not bought and the hydro paid. The car has to be fixed but then begins
the cycle of debt that is almost impossible to recover from. It can be
disastrous. Advocacy has to be part of the Alliance's work. We have to
bring together the disconnected people and the working poor to help them
speak up and advocate for lower rents, an increase in minimum wage, a
decrease in daycare costs and an increase in the amount of social
assistance they receive"

"We're a county organisation but the federal government says S.C.P.I.
only applies within Barrie's geographical boundaries. We will allocate
other homelessness money from the Provincial Homelessness Initiative
(P.H.I.F.) and other sources to all of the areas outside of Barrie. This
federal money allows us to start planning and enables us to create
relationships which will lead to creative and tangible responses to the
homeless epidemic."

"Normally social services and trades don't talk to each other-ever. So
we hired an ex-city planner as a consultant. He knows many builders and
developers. Our hope is that this will lead us into dialogue that will
result in affordable housing initiatives for the county. We are finding
that builders and developers do have a desire to be a part of this
process for a variety of personal reasons."

"We just want to create housing, not for different groups. We need all
sorts of versions. Not huge scale but presented in a multitude of
different ways. Each project then becomes a pilot. Of course, this means
major by-law changes, but with our new mayor, there's hope.

"S.C.P.I. requires planning, prioritizing and relationships, but the
relationships are absolutely key. With that we can do anything.

"We are months behind the big cities in making use of S.C.P.I., but in a
year or two from now we will be well into different projects throughout
the county. A little piece will be the government, but the rest will be
a whole variety of contributors and interests."


3. Maybe not NIMBYs

Councillors in the Town of Collingwood were distressed about an article
in the last Bulletin indicating NIMBY-ism on their part. That conclusion
may not have been a fair representation of opinion in the area.

Gail Michalenko, founder of  Georgian Triangle Housing Resource Centre,
says when she met with councillors they were supportive of initiatives
to resolve housing problems for area residents, and to face up to the
challenge of the Intrawest acquisition of the Blue Mountain Ski Resort.

Supporting drastic zoning by-law changes allowing intensification and
creating a large number of affordable units will be a real challenge to
councillors and residents.One sign of good faith is that the Town of
Collingwood has given the Resource Centre $5000 to keep it open, and
Michalenko hopes other towns will too. The need is clearly there: after
three weeks' existence and no publicity, the centre has registered
forty-nine families looking for adequate housing. Seven families and two
individuals are absolutely homeless.

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4. Check out our Alerts section!

Check out our 'Alerts' section of HousingAgain for fresh news up-dated
daily and important and interesting information. Point your browser to
http://www.housingagain.web.net then click on "alerts". Make sure to
check regularly for new information. If you have a news release or other
news, you can post it to the site by clicking on "post".

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