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The NDP's leader is coming to Saskatoon to speak about homelessness. I haven't heard Jack Layton speak in person before and it may be an interesting talk, even if we rarely agree on policy. He'll be here May 21st, details can be found at Upcoming. Teens living in supportive care homes run by the EGADZ outreach program are speaking out in defence of their right to live among the middle-class home-owners of Saskatoon's new Hampton Village neighbourhood. Staff of the My Home program say the young people started making plans to introduce themselves to residents living on Allwood Crescent - where two new care homes are slated to open this spring - after a woman in a van slowly drove by one of their houses Wednesday evening, rolled down her window and gave them the finger. It was the last straw. "We decided we should meet the people that disapprove of us, because they don't know what the My Homes are and they don't know what they're talking about," said one of the residents, a 14-year-old girl who had just finished her chores when she caught the obscene gesture. Encouraged by city Coun. Myles Heidt and supported by Coun. Maurice Neault, a group of Hampton Village homeowners circulated a petition and appeared before a civic committee this week to argue against a recommendation for the city to contribute about $84,000 from its innovative housing program toward My Home Five and My Home Six, which EGADZ purchased in March with funding from the federal and provincial governments. The combined price of the two five-bedroom homes was $730,800. They were selected with the help of a Realtor and approved by the senior governments after an exhaustive six-month search for suitable houses in Saskatoon's tight real estate market. Heidt, Neault and the homeowners - among them Heidt's son, who owns a house in the area - argued the money would have been better spent in some other part of the city. Several of them, including a woman who identified herself as a teacher working in Pleasant Hill, said they fear for the safety of their own kids once the My Home residents move in, suggesting the teens' presence will bring down property values and attract gang members and crime to the neighbourhood. "I do not want my children to understand high-risk youth," one resident said. Heidt and Neault have argued for years that the concentration of care homes in their wards is too high - excluding seniors' homes, which they say are not a cause of concern. Civic administrators say their data shows a relatively even distribution throughout Saskatoon, however. The city has not received any complaints about the My Homes since the first one opened in Dundonald in 1997. Several neighbours of the existing homes have become staunch supporters of the young residents and staff who live in them. Some thoughts from two of Saskatoon's city councilors The total cost of the two homes, including landscaping and furnishings, is about $869,000. Most of that has been covered by the federal and provincial governments under various health, social services and homelessness initiatives. That's too much to spend on high-risk youth, the homeowners told the committee. "How do we know we're getting value for our money?" asked Heidt, whose son Trent is one of the homeowners opposed to the two care homes. "These homes are top-drawer. I believe it's too much money to put in for this type of program," Neault said. Heidt and Neault are not members of the planning and operations committee, but they attended Tuesday's meeting and took part in the discussion anyway, along with Mayor Don Atchison. Both councillors have argued in the past that the concentration of care homes in their wards is too high, though civic officials say the homes are spread evenly throughout the city. A rebuttal from Egadz Don Meikle. A key purpose of the My Homes is to give at-risk youth "an opportunity to live in a neighbourhood where it's normal, where they're middle-class people," Meikle said. "We are trying to show them that, yeah, people care about you and people want you. What kind of message are these homeowners sending back to them - that poor people can't live in a nice neighbourhood? That they don't deserve to live there?" Sadly I think that is the message that is being sent. I have seen the MyHome's and they are not "top drawer" but basic housing for kids who are overcoming a tough situation. The two councilors are modeling the "We believe in it but not in our backyard" world view. Labels: poverty Homelessness isn't just a problem in places like Toronto and Vancouver anymore. It also includes an increasing amount of women and children. Here is an example of an innovative housing initiative in Toronto called Eva's Phoenix Eva's Phoenix is a transitional housing and training facility, which formally opened in June 2000. Prior to opening, Eva's Phoenix ran its first successful employment training program funded by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), which supported 50 homeless and at-risk youth in life skills training and on-site employment on the Eva's Phoenix construction site, with our partners: Carpenters Local 27, Interior Systems Contractors Association Local 675, and the Painter's Union. Eva's Phoenix provides housing for 50 youth, aged 16 to 24 years, for up to a full year, and since 2002 has also allowed up to 160 youth each year, aged 16 to 29 years, to participate in its employment and pre-apprenticeship programs. Working with business, labour and community partners, Eva's Phoenix provides homeless and at-risk youth with the opportunities needed to develop life skills, build careers and live independently. Youth at Eva's Phoenix live in shared townhouse-style units with access to common areas. While at Eva's Phoenix, youth develop the skills to live independently through goal setting exercises, workshops and hands-on programs that are delivered in a supportive environment. I would love to add one of these to the shelter as it is service in big demand around here. We can help men out with this but there isn't anything like it for women in the city. The Urban Rest Stop provides a clean, safe and welcoming facility where individuals and families can come and use the restrooms, shower and laundry facilities. All services are provided at no cost to patrons. By providing access to essential hygiene services, the URS improves the self-sufficiency of homeless individuals and families. The Rest Stop is the only hygiene facility with extended service hours. It is open weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and weekends from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. These extended hours are specifically designed to assist homeless persons who are working or need to get to a job interview. A homeless job applicant cannot be successful during a job interview without the self-confidence that a shower and clean clothes can provide. A homeless individual cannot maintain steady employment or hope for advancement without access to showers and laundry facilities. Listen to their stats... As of January 2007, the Rest Stop has provided a total of 366,036 showers, 142,365 laundry loads, and 558,806 restroom uses to 21,540 unduplicated individual patrons. Since the February 2001 earthquake, which resulted in the closure of another Seattle hygiene service facility, the Urban Rest Stop has provided services at its maximum daily capacity of 100 to 125 laundry loads, 175 to 225 showers and 400 to 600 restroom uses each day. The problem is that there isn't any grocery stores in the area. The closest grocery store is the limited selection of food at Giant Tiger (really inexpensive but limited selection), 33rd Street Safeway, or the Safeway/Superstore in Confederation Mall. As for competing with other mall owners, they obviously don't see the benefit of a centralized service complex which would hold the following services. There would be some other organizations housed here. This seems to be an decision based on ideology rather than anything. The idea that the government should not be providing services it feels that private enterprise can and should. Of course this ideology doesn't work in reverse as seen my Royal University Foundation looking for private money to bring Saskatoon's main emergency room, ICU, and other facilities up to date. Is it a good project? On the government's side, the Westside Clinic is already operational and I assume isn't going anywhere and they house SWITCH. While I agree with the idea of an affordable food co-op but from it's inception, I have questioned if they are going to be affordable (which may be secondary to availability). Some friends have been involved and the questions on affordable pricing remain unanswered. It isn't a flaw with the business plan but a volume and distribution question. Also some would argue proximity to St. Paul's Hospital. So there are some questions of whether or not the government should be funding a project like this. On the Station 20 West side is availability. In my job one of my biggest challenges right now is providing health care and in particular, mental health care to the men who call the shelter home. In terms of health care, emergency room health care is not a good solution for the system (cost) or to the patient (lack of regular checkups). While it can be hard to get accessible health services for all of us, it is a lot harder to find a doctor if one doesn't have car. All of us in the house drive across town to see our doctor which would be a couple hour trip if we had to use a bus or incur a $40 bill if we used a taxi. That is a HUGE obstacle to those that I serve at work. Speaking of availability, that is the main advantage of the co-operative grocery store. As I just said, I am not really convinced that it is sustainable. At night the Shopper's Drug Mart on 22nd street often has one clerk and two uniformed security guards to stop robbery and to stop shop lifting. One can't tell me that it is making any money at all under those conditions. There is also another reason why Safeway, Loblaw, and Super Valu has all pulled out of the city centre. Despite that, affordable food is hard to come by. Wendy and I shop at Safeway (primarily at 33rd Street where we live and Wendy picks up stuff at the Centre at Circle and 8th where she works), Co-op, and Costco. We save a lot of money by being able to pick and choose. For the poorest in Saskatoon, there are not grocery stores in close proximity and if you would like to join me at the 7-11 on 22nd Street on days when government checks are sent out, it looks like a riot hit it by midnight (There is evidence that Scott Reid was somewhat correct when he made his quip about beer and popcorn). People are spending an incredible amount of their checks on food from a 7-11. Is it a great decision? Of course not. There are people with a very, very, limited food budget spending it in a horrible location (price wise and healthwise - don't get me wrong, I love a good 7-11 burger but it isn't a lifestyle I would recommend). The alternative is having to get a cab to go to a grocery store which is another huge budgetary issue. The people that most often who need to take a cab to a grocery store are often those that can't afford to. It is the reason why I was asked to drive people home from the warehouse when the Salvation Army handed out Christmas hampers. If we hadn't, the burden to get a FREE hamper may have too much for people to receive one. If you drive through Riversdale, Caswell Hill, and Mayfair, you see a bunch of homes that used to be corner stores and small grocery stores. Jane Jacobs wrote extensively on what happened to them but we abandoned them for the big box stores. While it made life better for some, it hurts those that can't make it to the mega malls. It is one of the reasons why I take Mark as much as possible to the Roxy Theatre and not the Galaxy. I don't want to lose something that means so much to the community. Of course this isn't a fight about movie theatres, it is about providing a place for healthy food, medical services, affordable dental care (even if it is done by students... shudder...), and more mental health providers in a place that desperately needs them. It is only $8 million dollars out of $9.1 billion dollar budget (wow, do we know how to spend money in Saskatchewan, where is Janice MacKinnon when we need her). It is also about investing in a part of the city that has seen so little investment over the last 40 years. Yes Meewasin and the Farmer's Market is nice but Riversdale has been ignored for much of the last several decades despite being represented by a New Democratic Premier since 1991. Investing in that part of the city also sends the huge message that we believe that we are not willing to leave behind some of the provinces poorest. I'll leave the last word to the editorial writers of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. Gantefoer believed the grant was cut because there was little chance the proponents of the project could raise the "$12 million to $14 million" needed to come from private interests. By next day he was admitting he was in error, and the necessary private funds were a minuscule portion of that amount. Even more incredibly, McMorris suggested the money had to be pulled from a project that would make it easier for inner-city residents to access timely health care because the funds were needed to buy a fire alarm for St. Paul's Hospital and to ward off a mould attack. The decision, he assured us, had nothing to do with politics. At least Wall's weak excuse was credible, if only because it illustrated an ideological basis to the ill-considered decision. The premier suggested the grant was killed because his government saw the inclusion of a co-operatively run grocery store within Station 20 as a threat to private industry. But to cancel the entire project rather than deal directly with the situation is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. When the NDP absurdly castigated Wall for giving his 14-year-old daughter driving lessons on a publicly owned rural gravel road, it demonstrated just how far out of touch with rural Saskatchewan that party has become. But Wall's clear lack of understanding about the dire needs of core neighbourhoods and the history of Saskatoon demonstrates just how out of touch he remains with urban Saskatchewan. Considering the role the province's largest city is playing in the economic revival of Saskatchewan, such ignorance could have dire consequences. The proponents of Station 20 want a grocery store not because they want to compete with private industry but because many people in core neighbourhoods don't have the wherewithal to keep hiring cabs to go shopping. The last of the downtown grocery stores left more than a decade ago. To ignore such realities for the sake of political partisanship and ideological reasons is an inauspicious beginning for a government that Saskatchewan people hoped could lead them to a prosperous future. If you have strong feelings about this, contact your MLA and let them know. Labels: economics, politics, poverty, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon An article in the San Francisco Inquirer suggests that as the city and activists feud over what to do with the homeless, they are frozen out of the services that can help. via "I could care less about their vigorous representation of the homeless," Henderson said. "At the end of the day, we all want to get them help." Isn't that true? Yet there seems to be such a disconnect over what's happening on the street and the perception, it is a wonder anything gets done. Local attorney Jim Haas wonders if it might be worthwhile for local law firms, many of whom provide pro bono attorneys for homeless causes, to meet with representatives from the district attorney's office to discuss what is being accomplished. No one doubts the motives or intentions of pro bono efforts. But what is the best use of the time of idealistic, well-educated attorneys? To get public-drunkenness citations dismissed? Or to help the down-and-out homeless work their way through the complicated system to get monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments? Or to guide homeless veterans through the process to get their benefits and medical plans? The Canadian Press points out the obvious A study says providing shelter for the homeless with severe addictions and mental illness throughout British Columbia could save taxpayers millions of dollars. "Addiction is the most prevalent mental health problem in both the street homeless and at-risk populations, followed by concurrent disorders and, less frequently, mental illness alone," says the Simon Fraser University report. The paper - entitled "Housing and Support for Adults With Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illnesses in British Columbia" - says providing non-housing services for such people costs the public system more than $55,000 per year per person. It says providing adequate housing and supports could reduce this cost to $37,000 per year. The same idea was previously written about by Malcolm Gladwell in his article Million Dollar Murray. The Barry Hotel is being demolished. In some ways I am not all that upset. It is old but not particularly well loved by the people of Saskatoon and is a well known flophouse. At the same time I struggle with it because when you live in a city with 0.6% vacancy rates, where do all of the residents who call it home (60 of them) go? Many are hard core addicts or have mental health problems and have been kicked out of every single care home in the city. Yeah the city may be better off with it gone but in 2 weeks, there will be 40 of Saskatoon's poorest who will be on the streets. Some have been there for 14 years and others are too socially challenged to be housed in group homes or shelter (violence, drug dealers). The cost of progress in this case does have a face and a name. Update: A few of you asked about the CMHC workshop. It was quite amazing. Faith based organizations from across the city were invited and it was well worth the time. I learned more about financing housing projects than I thought possible. I also walked away with some good ideas that occured to me about how to help some of our clients. One key thought was the difference between need and demand which is something that I need to keep in mind around here. An introduction to what it is like living on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Alongside Skid Row's hustlers, transients, and cops are a lesser known population of children, social servants and religious workers whose daily lives play out on LA's most dangerous city blocks. This is a five part series on YouTube telling their stories. Here is the rest of the series: Here is a background article if you want to know more and here is Skid Row in Wikipedia. The New York Times has a long article on Skid Row worth reading here. Some articles on Skid Row by Sam Slovick in LA Weekly Seventh most dangerous city in the United States and it's poorest. A photo gallery of the death of Cleveland. Here is some urban decay in Toronto and Detroit. Labels: photography, poverty, urban In the Maritimes, increasing furnace fuel costs are devastating some middle class families. My political punditry skills are pretty rusty but I would imagine a large segment of your voters being either cold or hungry would be devastating for many governments, especially in a time of record prosperity in other parts of the country. Dan Weston of the Fredericton Anti-Poverty Organization said rebate programs that offer amounts as low as $100 are "ridiculous." "One would think that heat in a winter country like Canada would be a right," he said. "People have to make serious choices - the choices are between food or rent or bills, because the price of oil eats up such a proportion of the daily finances." He said provincial governments need to do far more to help people heat their homes. If they don't, Wilson predicted, governments will soon be footing the bill for shelters to keep families warm when they run out of money. Non-profit agencies and some churches offer assistance, but they don't represent a permanent fix. The Nova Scotia branch of the Salvation Army offers help through its Good Neighbour Program, funded in part by companies including privately owned Nova Scotia Power and Wilsons Fuel, but families typically can't receive help two years in a row. A woman in Halifax who has used the Salvation Army and other sources to help pay her heating bills said such programs are just a Band-Aid solution. "You can't call them every month or every two weeks - it's a one-time thing, you're lucky if you get it once a year," said the woman, who struggles to support a family of four on social assistance. "We put in enough (oil in the tank) that will last, but that takes away from other things - food and bills." In Saskatchewan most of our homes are heated by natural gas but when natural gases went up a couple of winters ago, it did affect how Wendy and I lived that winter, although not as drastic as furnace fuel prices have in the Maritimes. The article does remind me of this interview with James Kunstler, the author of The Long Emergency When I say the core I don’t necessarily mean the downtown business districts. Those parts are going to be very, very problematical, and that’s another important point you have made. The places that are overburdened with mega-structures, whether they are skyscrapers or even just large buildings, are going to be in real trouble. These are experimental building types that have only been with us for 100 years. I’m even talking about 10-story pre-war apartment buildings. I don’t know if we can run them in the energy-scarce economy that we are going to have in the future. And it raises one really interesting question like the question of—take this for example—modern plumbing as we know it, where every apartment has a bathroom, a toilet, etc., is totally dependent on central heating, good and dependable central heating. You can’t be running space heaters in a 10-story Manhattan apartment building. If one-third of the building or one-eighth of the building isn’t warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, the whole building is going to lose its plumbing and then the building is going to become dysfunctional and we don’t know if this is going to happen or not. And it could. Because the natural gas situation in America—which is how we heat most of our buildings now—is arguably more ominous than the oil situation. There is more on the Long Emergency in Rolling Stone magazine Labels: culture, energy, politics, poverty, Salvation Army I was reading some comments, IM, and e-mail in response to my last post. Instead of editing my post, I am going to offer up some further thoughts. I grew up in the church and therefore Christmas productions. It was a lot of rehearsals and time that I could have been playing road hockey and in the end I was glad when it was over but I also admit it was kind of fun. It taught me some great truths, mostly about how important it was to learn my lines and sing in a choir (yes, I sang in a choir off and on into my teen years). It also taught me that it was okay for people to yell at one another and cry if they were musical. The community came, drank apple cider, and engaged for that season with our community. For the most part it was people connected to the performers (either kids or adults) or people looking for a nostalgic Christmas experience or other Christians looking to soak up as much Christmas as possible over the holidays (Christmas-holics?) I am sure there is some value in it and I am sure many people love it but come January, whatever changes in church attendance went back down to previous levels. Even if you are part of a church where a bunch of people come twice a year (Christmas and Easter), whatever is being done at Christmas isn't bringing them back very soon. I am trashing Christmas traditions and maybe there is some value in dusting off the Maranatha Christmas books but if the aim is to be a missional community, I think there may be some better options. It got me thinking of the Christmas ads the Salvation Army runs. Click on the ad for a full sized version. Partly because I can see a crack house while typing this blog entry out and where I work, the need is pretty obvious for me. Guys need warm winter clothes, many single parents who were on a losing strike at the University have very little for Christmas, there are even those who are trying to sleep outside in this weather (which makes the graphic there a little haunting to me). Today in a meeting arose the need for more programs for people with full blown AIDS and of course low income housing is a big issue with occupancy rates as low as 1% in the city. There are a lot of materialistic choices to be made this winter (I have even linked to some for you) but as I said before, there are a lot of things we can do that can make a big difference for others this winter. Maybe my definition of "making a difference" is different than yours but I still think the church can do better than a Christmas cantata. Labels: Advent/Christmas, affluenza, Christianity, church, holidays, missional, poverty Many friends and people I respect subscribe to the idea of a buy nothing Christmas. Christmas is too commercialized and how much stuff does the average person really need any ways. How about a different way of looking at it. Instead of filling a shoe box with a bunch of stuff and thinking we have done a great thing, how about making a difference locally? I did some media interviews today (one for French CBC Radio) with the cold weather descending on Saskatoon. In the one interview, I said the guys at the shelter could really use cold weather gear like wool socks, gloves, toques, scarves, used jackets, and stuff like that. You can drop them off at the Community Centre day or night. Don't "buy nothing" this Christmas but use some of your wealth to make a real difference in someone's life. Guys come in all of the time with frost bite or half frozen. I think because we don't see burning barrels on the streets we think people aren't homeless during the winter but there is a segment of the population that not only do we give shelter to, they also need the basics to keep warm outside. There are a lot of other organizations that are doing excellent work in Saskatoon that would appreciate some help over the holidays. In other words, embrace the strangers in your community this holiday. Labels: Advent/Christmas, poverty, Saskatoon Labels: poverty, simplicity |
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