A rchive Date
[ 19-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/osvald.html
Homeless plan fails to get at real problems
By SHARON OSVALD - For the London Free Press
February 19, 2002
Last week Jim Flaherty announced if he becomes premier of Ontario he plans to pass a law requiring homeless people, with the enforcement of special police, to go into shelters, detox centres, mental institutions or jail to sleep at night. Sleeping on the street would be a crime. "I think we can, at the end of the day, virtually eliminate homelessness in the province of Ontario," said Flaherty, who was also responsible for Ontario's anti-panhandling law.
Out of sight, out of mind.
It reminded me of a quote from Alexis De Tocqueville. After touring the U.S. for nine months in the 1830s, observing reforms in the prison system, the French political philosopher wrote in his book, Democracy in America: "In democratic ages, men rarely sacrifice themselves for one another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle."
A few years ago my husband coined the phrase, " I love you in a World Vision kind of way." It meant I care about your general well-being (thus the monthly donation), but I have no wish to be intimate or really care for you personally. Though this saying was shared as a joke among friends, I was often moved by the meaning of the statement.
Even if Flaherty's efforts are based, as he suggests, on the compassionate goal of keeping people from freezing to death and being mugged or injured on the streets, his concern seems more like "a World Vision kind of concern," looking for a quick, easy answer to soothe the conscience without tackling the root of the problem. The unsightliness of poverty and the mentally ill is not pretty. Removing those people and problems from our sight will take it out of our view, but it will not eliminate the problem. True government concern about homelessness would do something about the 10 psychiatric hospitals either closed or closing. A government with real compassion wouldn't cut welfare (while trying to make people more self sufficient) without supporting agencies that help the poor. Forcing people to live in already underfunded, crowded and often dangerous shelters - detox centres, mental institutions or jails - will not "virtually eliminate homelessness in the province of Ontario." Not now not ever.
According to a city hall report on homelessness, about 20 per cent of Londoners live in substandard housing or are homeless. London's shelters, serving about 4,000 people every year, are maxed out. Advocates estimate 40 per cent of the homeless have mental illnesses. Others have suffered family breakdowns or are immigrants who lost their sponsorship support. Many are runaway youth from broken or abusive homes. London Salvation Army Maj. Patricia Phinney and Beric German of the Toronto disaster relief committee both believe affordable housing is the greatest cause of poverty and homelessness in Ontario. There hasn't been one new unit of affordable housing built in London in six years, not to mention how expensive it is to live in larger Ontario cities. Statistics show about one million Canadians use half their income for rent.
In the words of columnist Michael Coren, "Of course there are frauds and parasites. But they are rich as well as poor. For every drunk who takes a cab to a beer store there are thousands of people who are humiliated beyond belief because they have to go to the state, cap in hand."
I hope Flaherty will go back to the drawing board and look for solutions that will get Ontario's homeless through more than just the night.
Sharon Osvald is a London freelance writer. Her column appears Tuesdays. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
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