Poverty Awareness in York Region

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!