Fwd: Toronto Disaster 9 Oct
Bonnie Briggs (s248_1132@hotmail.com)
Sat, 17 Oct 1998 08:12:58 PDT
Drums in the park
Hi gang,
This is the latest fight that OCAP is involved in. Are there any
similar groups in the States?
Bonnie
______________________________________________________________________
>
>Endorsement form at bottom of message.....
>
>
>http://www.thestar.com/editorial/news/981009NEW01b_CI-HOME9.html
>
>
> TORONTO STAR October 9, 1998 =20
>
> Back Issues Fight to defend homeless gains strength
> Two armouries in Toronto offered as
> [Image] shelter on coldest nights
>
> By Laurie Monsebraaten
> [Image] Toronto Star Social Policy Reporter
> With files from Jack Lakey, William
> Walker, Caroline Mallan and Daniel Girard.
>
> [Image] Several hundred people, many of them
> [Navigation] homeless, crowded into a downtown church
> [Image] yesterday morning to call on all
> governments to declare homelessness a
> national disaster.
>
> They were adding their voices to those of
> more than 150 national organizations and
> 350 individuals from across the country
> who have already endorsed the declaration
> prepared by the Toronto Disaster Relief
> Committee. (SEE BELOW)
>
> In Ottawa, GTA minister David Collenette
> stopped short of calling homelessness a
> national disaster, but offered the Moss
> Park and Fort York armouries as shelters
> on this winter's coldest nights.
>
> ``All this has been possible because of
> the moral outrage of citizens such as
> yourselves, that homelessness must be
> ended,'' Committee Spokesperson Cathy
> Crowe told the crowd at the church.
>
> But Premier Mike Harris, in Hamilton last
> night, said ``I don't know whether it's a
> national state of emergency at this point
> of time. I don't know whether it's any
> worse than last year.
>
> ``I can tell you that there are far more
> jobs and far more people working and the
> food bank, I think in August, announced
> that food bank usage was down 10 per cent
> this year over last as a result of a
> booming economy in Toronto.
>
> ``It is always a challenge though.''
>
> At Queen's Park earlier, a request by NDP
> Leader Howard Hampton that the Legislature
> hold an immediate debate on homelessness
> was denied.
>
> Community and Social Services Minister
> Janet Ecker said there is no ``quick fix''
> to the problem.
>
> ``If there was a quick fix, I think we
> would have done it,'' Ecker said.
>
> She said her ministry funds emergency
> shelters and the ministry of health
> increased money to front-line workers
> dealing with the mentally ill, who often
> end up living on the streets.
>
> Liberal critic Alvin Curling (Scarborough
> North) said the homeless problem is a
> direct result of massive government cuts
> to welfare and health care and accused
> Ecker of being out of touch with the
> situation.
>
> The Disaster Relief Committee, a coalition
> of community activists, academics and
> business people, believes emergency action
> is necessary to end the deaths and
> suffering of homeless people on city
> streets across the country.
>
> Crowe read the names of more than 30
> homeless people who have died on the
> streets over the past few years. Several
> people die every week of homelessness in
> Toronto, said Crowe, a downtown community
> health nurse.
>
> While there are no reliable national
> figures on homelessness, at least 200,000
> people are believed to be homeless in
> Canada at some point every year.
>
> In Toronto, 26,000 used emergency shelters
> last year. Tonight, up to 4,700 people are
> homeless in the city with about 4,200
> filling emergency shelters and the rest
> sleeping outside.
>
> ``It is wrong that because detox beds are
> full in this city that people are made to
> languish on the sidewalks,'' Crowe said.
>
> ``It is wrong that a woman with HIV
> infection or AIDS is forced to live in a
> shelter.
>
> ``It is wrong for police to jail poor
> people just because they have no money for
> housing and have to sleep in a park,
> panhandle or squeegee,'' she said as the
> church erupted in applause.
>
> The homeless, who were offered a hot
> breakfast of pancakes and sausages before
> the event, seemed pleased that so many
> people were taking up their cause.
>
> ``I've lost a lot of friends to cold and
> drugs,'' said Terence Beal, 39, who has
> HIV and who has lived on and off the
> streets for more than 10 years. ``I think
> we need a change. We can't go on this
> way.''
>
> Bernard Parenteau and his girlfriend Marie
> McLeod have been sleeping in parks and in
> doorways since they arrived from Ottawa
> last week.
>
> ``No shelters will let you stay together,
> so we're staying outside,'' said the
> 43-year-old welder who came here to look
> for work.
>
> ``It's hard to find a place to stay that
> you can afford here. And it's hard to find
> a job without an address,'' he said. ``So
> it's nice that the homeless are getting a
> voice.''
>
> But Paul Ratchford, 42, said he doubted
> the declaration would change his life.
>
> ``I'm tired of being sick and tired,'' he
> said of the 14 years he has lived on the
> streets.
>
> ``Nothing will happen unless the political
> and social systems change and I don't see
> that happening any time soon.''
>
> Declaring homelessness a disaster will
> prompt governments to move quickly with
> emergency shelter, food and medical
> support like they did during the 1997
> Manitoba flood and during last winter's
> ice storm, said noted scholar Ursula
> Franklin.
>
> ``But in contrast to the ice storm, this
> is a man-made disaster,'' she said. ``This
> is not the result of coincidence or
> unforeseen or unforeseeable natural
> events. This disaster was predicted and
> predictable.''
>
> Collenette preferred to call homelessness
> a ``severe national problem'' rather than
> an emergency. He said homeless people left
> the Moss Park Armoury last year as soon as
> a cold snap ended.
>
> ``The homeless, many of them, don't want
> to go to a shelter. They want to stay on
> the streets and they want to stay on the
> vents,'' he said.
>
> University of Toronto social work
> professor David Hulchanski warned that
> emergency measures alone won't end
> homelessness.
>
> Of the $400 billion in taxes all
> governments collect annually, just 1 per
> cent or $3.8 billion is spent on housing,
> he said.
>
> ``That's one of the lowest amounts of any
> major country on Earth,'' he said.
>
> If governments doubled their spending on
> housing to 2 per cent annually,
> homelessness could be eliminated, he
> predicted.
>
> When the cold weather hits this winter,
> city officials are expecting a shortage of
> up to 760 hostel beds every night - 460 in
> shelters for single people and another 300
> in family hostels.
>
> And with the shelter system already full
> and no new city properties available, city
> hostel manager John Jagt is worried.
>
> While Jagt sympathizes with the call for
> emergency measures, he isn't sure a
> declaration of disaster is the answer.
>
> ``In an emergency, I can put up temporary
> shelters to sleep thousands in no time,''
> he said in an interview this week. ``But
> this kind of shelter isn't appropriate for
> more than several days or weeks.''
>
> The kind of permanent shelter that's
> needed for the homeless this winter
> requires proper zoning, community and
> political support, he said. And that takes
> time.
>
> In the past, it has taken the city seven
> or eight years to open new hostels, he
> said.
>
> Collenette said Ottawa is delaying its
> plan to hand responsibility for social
> housing to the provincial government until
> it sees assurances Queen's Park will not
> further download responsibility to
> cash-strapped municipalities, ``only to
> make matters worse,'' he said.
>
> Yesterday, about 75 people from the
> Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
> interrupted Toronto's community and
> Neighbourhood Services Committee meeting
> to demand immediate action on the problem.
>
> The group burst into applause and cheers
> when told the committee had already voted
> unanimously to call on Ottawa and Queen's
> Park to declare homelessness a national
> disaster.
>
> -------------------
>
> With files from Jack Lakey, William
> Walker, Caroline Mallan and Daniel Girard.
>
>
> -------------------
> Contents copyright =A9 1996-1998, The Toronto Star.
> -------------------
>
>
> Forwarded message..............
>
>
>Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 21:47:46 -0400
>To: bobolsen@aracnet.net
>From: Cathy Crowe <crowe@netserver.web.net>
>
>
> Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
> c/o 168 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON, M5V 2R4=20
>
>
> September, 98
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is asking you to
> endorse our call to have all levels of government declare
> homelessness a NATIONAL DISASTER, which requires immediate,
> emergency, humanitarian relief.=20
>
> We are a group made up of housing experts, academics,
> business people, health care workers, social workers,
> anti-poverty activists, and the faith community. We have
> worked with homeless people, studied homelessness, and have
> watched the homeless crisis worsen daily. We have bandaged
> the injuries caused by being homeless and have attended the
> funerals of many homeless people.=20
>
> We have asked ourselves these questions: Why is this crisis
> not dealt with like the ice storm in Eastern Canada, or like
> the flooding in Manitoba? Why are governments not
> responding to the hundreds of homeless people's deaths? Why
> are they ignoring the threat of diseases such as
> tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs, and hepatitis which are related to
> people's homelessness? Why is it that common sense doesn't
> dictate that this is one of the largest and most serious
> national disasters that Canada has ever faced?=20
>
> Our answer has been to come together and to draw up a call
> for Disaster Relief. The most basic human rights of a
> section of our community are being violated. We cannot sit
> idly by and let this misery and death continue - the time
> now is to act. We need massive and immediate government
> intervention.
>
> We appeal to you to endorse our call for action, join our
> committee, and/or to set up your own committee and send
> out a similar call.
>
> Attached is a form we are asking you to sign. Please send
> it back to us as soon as possible.
>
> Sincerely, Cathy Crowe, RN
> on behalf of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
>
> Note: Members of the committee are listed at the end of
> the two page State of Emergency Declaration available
> from bobolsen@aracnet.net
>
> List of endorsing individuals and organizations also
> available from bobolsen@aracnet.net
>=20
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D +++++
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>
> Call For National Disaster Relief for Homelessness=20
>
>
>
> (please print) I (name) ____________________, on behalf of
> (organization if applicable)_______________________endorse
> the call made by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee to
> have all levels of government declare homelessness a
> national disaster and to respond with immediate short and
> long term humanitarian relief.
>
> Signed by ______________________________
> Address ______________________________
> ______________________________
> ______________________________
> Phone ______________________________
> Fax ______________________________
> Email ______________________________
>
>
> SEND TO: Toronto Disaster Relief Committee c/o Cathy Crowe,
> Fax: 416-703-6190 or crowe@web.net or
> mail to 168 Bathurst St. Toronto, ON, M5V 2R4
>
> Committee contacts:
> Cathy Crowe, 416-703-8482 (117)
> Beric German, 416-964-2459
> .............................
>
> The complete State of Emergency Declaration issued by
> the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee available from
> bobolsen@aracnet.net
>
>
>
> Bob Olsen Toronto bobolsen@aracnet.net (:-)
>
______________________________________________________
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