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Homelessness in Canada — Transcript

by Brendon Zhang · 2,461 words · 365 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00a lot of people say to me that
0:01homelessness has been around forever so
0:03it's not like we can do anything about
0:04it the reality is is that that's not the
0:08case
0:10homelessness and in definition used to
0:13mean the lack of tie to a family group
0:17it didn't actually mean being without
0:19shelter it was really in the 1980s at
0:22least in Canada and other countries of a
0:25similar nature that homelessness started
0:28to literally mean
0:30houselessness as
0:32[Music]
0:45[Music]
0:58well homelessness is itself in its most
1:01basic definition would be someone who
1:04lacks access to Safe secure healthy and
1:08affordable housing the estimations are
1:11between 300,000 and 1 million people in
1:14Canada will experience homelessness
1:17within a given
1:19[Music]
1:28year
1:30[Music]
1:50on Wednesday night uh am I was breeding
1:52snakes B constrictors and pythons and I
1:56someone tipped off Amo control on how
1:58big my snakes were over the bylaw limit
2:009 ft and and then Thursday night ammo
2:04control came and I lost my place I lost
2:06all my reptiles and I ended up here last
2:10night the first two nights I became
2:12homeless after lose my place I spent in
2:14a motel and cuz I didn't want to go to a
2:16shelter at all but once I ran out of
2:18money I had no choice and I think myself
2:21is because you know I didn't want to be
2:24associated with you know drugs and
2:26alcohols and what all the street uh
2:29stuff of involved like I just want to
2:31get back in my own place and relax be
2:34able to kick up on the couch and cook my
2:37own meals and sleep in my own bed and
2:40here is you know we sleep with other
2:42people and you know we we're out during
2:45the daytime so whether it's cold or not
2:47you have to go out I have tattoos on my
2:50face though I am trying to remove them
2:53um I've been having a lot of troubles of
2:55you know finding new places like I had
2:57my place for a year because my friend
2:59was was knew the uh landlord so he
3:02vouched for me but a lot of times I get
3:05turned away from places just CU how I
3:08look there's roughly 2,000 shelter beds
3:11uh within about an8 block radius of
3:14Ryerson University uh and there are
3:16roughly 3,800 shelter beds in the city
3:21technically speaking if you go into a
3:23shelter and just tell them that you need
3:26a bed for the evening because you've got
3:28nowhere to sleep that would what they're
3:30not going to ask you any questions
3:32they'll just take you in if you have an
3:34ID that's better if you don't have any
3:35ID then they'll still take you in we
3:38still take you in and then if you don't
3:40have IDs we help you get IDs from the
3:42government a lot of homeless people lose
3:44their IDs so we have Services which
3:47provide uh help for them to secure IDs
3:50again and while they're in the shelter
3:52system we help them we we do reporting
3:55so that they get allowance every week
3:57every Thursday they they get a certain
4:00allowance from the from the city Michael
4:02shop cot in The wsie Institute explained
4:04it in terms that homelessness is like an
4:06iceberg the reality is that we only see
4:09roughly 10% of an iceberg the other 90%
4:13is below the water it's the exact same
4:15thing with homelessness we only see
4:17roughly 10% of it and the rest of it is
4:20hidden but it still exists the types of
4:24homelessness include people who sleep
4:26rough which would be an estimation
4:28between 5 to 10% of the entire homeless
4:30population would be the the population
4:33that would be the most visible so people
4:36who are literally sleeping in the street
4:37or in bushes or in their cars and so
4:40forth people who are uh not deemed as
4:44properly sheltered um and then there
4:46would be those who are in in sheltered
4:49situations uh designed for emergencies
4:52from there it would be uh people who are
4:56uh hidden uh the population of
5:00hidden homeless would include people who
5:02are couch surfing or keep people who are
5:05uh living in a single family unit but
5:07two families are living there for
5:08example uh and then there's a population
5:11at risk and at risk is defined by uh the
5:14Canadian mortgage and housing
5:16corporation uh as someone who spends
5:19more than 30% of their income on housing
5:23and then severely at risk would be more
5:24than 50% of your income on housing uh
5:28and then there's the house population
5:30there's a lot of reasons for being
5:31homeless but uh one of the top reasons
5:34why they're homeless is Extreme
5:36poverty
5:38unemployment
5:40underemployment and mental illness and
5:42addictions these are the top four
5:44reasons many people are homeless because
5:47they could not afford a place many of
5:50them are actually
5:52unemployed a big percentage I would say
5:56upwards of 95% of our clients are
5:58unemployed causes of homelessness could
6:01be almost anything TR really quite truly
6:04uh most often we know that it's poverty
6:07it's violence uh it's uh unsafe
6:11situations in a home um so forth and so
6:14on uh but it could literally be almost
6:16anything but uh the primary cause is
6:21poverty um you know how somebody gets
6:24there or not uh it would be different
6:27for every single person think of a hobo
6:30you you'll come up with a stereotypical
6:32image of a a middle-aged older man with
6:35a beard uh who uh you know is looking
6:39fairly rough and ragged clothing and so
6:41forth and so on and the reality is when
6:43it comes to people experiencing
6:45homelessness you can take a look around
6:47yourself and it's the exact same people
6:50could look like any single person I mean
6:53your best friend might be experiencing
6:54homelessness family member so forth and
6:56so on you will never know by the look of
6:59someone so I I often hear people saying
7:03things like oh so and so looks homeless
7:06the reality is is that there's you know
7:08to look homeless looks like any other
7:10person in
7:13[Music]
7:18society I've been living in the shelter
7:21system for about 8 months now well I'm
7:23homeless because my family is all over
7:25the country mainly the East Coast which
7:27is Nova Scotia so there's no work in
7:30Nova Scotia so I had to come here to
7:32Toronto to find work and now I'm a sauté
7:34cook at Jack Asen on Front Street and
7:38I'm saving as much money as I can before
7:40I get out of here not all homeless
7:43people look as the
7:45appear like you could see somebody that
7:47looks like they have money and
7:48everything but they are in a
7:50shelter it's you just can't judge
7:52everybody and not everybody there is on
7:55drugs or everything some of us are just
7:57there because it's somewhere to
8:05stay I'm uh I'm a seasonal employee I'm
8:08a
8:09roofer do Roofing the summertime uh and
8:13I'm only in this situation because my
8:14house got robbed and my rent got robbed
8:17for the month of March and I did uh I
8:21didn't qualify
8:22for I couldn't pay my rent so I'm out in
8:25the street so I've got to wait till the
8:27end of the month so then I'm back in
8:29business again I got housing again if
8:32you take a moment and just think of all
8:34the different names you've heard even
8:37you know us as ordinary people uh that
8:41we've heard reped to people experiencing
8:42homelessness you'd come up with some of
8:44the worst insults you could think of the
8:47absolute worst insults um you know uh
8:51druggy um uh uh Pusher uh dangerous
8:56pedophile uh lazy
9:00uneducated you know uh loser drug addict
9:04drug Pusher mentally ill the myths are
9:08vast uh one thing that I that I think is
9:11really critical in in thinking about
9:13myths is is question around violence
9:17there's a general conception that
9:18homeless people are violent um and
9:24certainly you know some people
9:25experiencing homelessness are violent
9:27just like some students are violent some
9:29instructors are violent you know um but
9:32what I can tell you is that uh people
9:36experiencing homelessness are more
9:38likely to be the targets of violence
9:42than to inflict violence themselves
9:45there is a study released in the United
9:47States called America's growing tide of
9:49violence and um it looked at uh hate
9:53crimes directed at those PE at people
9:55experiencing homelessness and the
9:57reality was is that hate crimes
9:59outnumbered all other hate crimes
10:02recorded in the United States directed
10:05at people experiencing homelessness it
10:07is an absolute critical stage we have
10:10devalued and dehumanized people
10:13experiencing homelessness to such a
10:15degree that people are targeting them as
10:18vulnerable populations another reality
10:21or myth shall we say with
10:24homelessness is this concept that people
10:27experiencing homelessness are a drain on
10:29the the
10:30system the reality is is the system is
10:33draining
10:34itself in that um the most effective and
10:40cost efficient let alone the most Humane
10:44response to homelessness is first of all
10:48making sure people have a
10:50home and then if there's needed support
10:53in terms of health or mental health or
10:55addiction or whatever else might come up
10:58that also needs be in place but we know
11:02that the cost of homelessness or put it
11:06more appropriately the cost of our
11:08inadequate response to homelessness
11:10costs way more than it does to actually
11:13support someone through an affordable
11:16home which is cheaper than the shelter
11:19system shelter system will cost about
11:21$78 a night to put somebody into
11:24affordable housing will cost something
11:26like 25 or less it's cheap actually
11:29House people and people are supported
11:33and you know uh it's the most Humane
11:37response and it's also the most cost
11:39effective right it's hard it's expensive
11:43to maintain
11:45crisis it's cheaper to end
11:47it the problem is is that the Emergency
11:50Shelters have been functioning as
11:51long-term housing for a number of people
11:54I mean there's over 880,000
11:56people waiting on the the housing list
12:00in Toronto and it's a you know 12 years
12:03or more to essentially receive housing
12:06every morning they're awaken at 7:00 in
12:08the morning they have to leave because
12:11when they leave then the cleaners clean
12:14all the beds and all the toilets and all
12:16the public places the beds are the
12:19beddings are changed every day with
12:21fresh Linens fresh pillow cases and if
12:24possible fresh pillows and also fresh
12:27blankets uh the floors are clean and
12:30they they're washed and clean they're
12:31disinfected every day the toilets and
12:33the washrooms are disinfected and washed
12:35every day the new towels are also
12:38provided every day uh for those who who
12:41come in homelessness itself causes
12:45mental health
12:46issues you can't go through the
12:48experience of the entire Society
12:50rejecting you of inadequate nutrition
12:54inadequate housing inadequate Health uh
12:58resp uh Health
13:01response without developing stress
13:06anxiety you know and where does that go
13:09from there well it affects your health
13:10and your mental health homelessness
13:13causes health
13:15problems in our particular case the
13:18meals are prepared by a contra uh by a
13:20um a kitchen staff we contract it out
13:23because it's it's a lot of work for us
13:26so what happens is we contracted out to
13:28a uh contractor who provide the services
13:31and they make U meal plannings they
13:34provide the meals they um they create
13:37the menus actually the menu is prepared
13:39for the whole
13:40month and we try they try as much as
13:43possible to balance the meals with fiber
13:47with with protein with um fruits and
13:53vegetables we notice um when individuals
13:56are sick and we tell them you know
13:58you're not feeling well uh we know that
14:00you're in medication you need to go to a
14:03doctor they wouldn't go so what we do is
14:07we give them the tokens and tell them
14:09you go to your doctor they wouldn't go
14:12what our counselors do sometimes is they
14:14take the time out and actually bring
14:16them from the shelter to the doctor to
14:18the hospital they would not go so what
14:22developed one of the services provided
14:24by the city or some agencies is the
14:27health bus for example a health bus
14:29comes once a week and parks in front of
14:32the shelter and there they can actually
14:35access the Healthcare System right they
14:39can talk to a nurse they can talk to
14:40doctors who check them up and and and
14:43see how they are but interestingly
14:46here's one thing that you know you you
14:48you you'll see it's right at the
14:51doorstep of the shelter and yet some of
14:53people who some people who are sick you
14:55know they do not have the motivation to
14:58leave the shelter take a few steps out
15:01of the building go up in the bus that's
15:04really sad if we understand homelessness
15:08as a result of somebody's personal
15:12failure then the solution is up to the
15:16individual if we understand homelessness
15:19as a structural problem one in which we
15:23facilitated through lack of programs and
15:26supports and so for and so on then we
15:29have to respond appropriately it's our
15:31Collective it's in our Collective
15:33interest to respond properly
15:37appropriate the the situation as it
15:40exists now is that there is a large
15:44there is a a fairly
15:46prevalent understanding of
15:48homelessness as a result of someone's
15:52personal failure and if we think that
15:55way then we will not solve homelessness
15:58because we will continually push it back
16:00to that individual and say it's their
16:02fault as opposed to a structural problem
16:06but the reality is when so many people
16:08experience homelessness in Canada on a
16:10year-over-year
16:11basis we can't say this is just a
16:14variety of people personal failings this
16:18is um a structural problem and even if
16:22it is a personal failing think about
16:24ourselves and our own lives have you
16:27made mistakes I know I have and I've had
16:31people in my life there at the right
16:34times to be able to you know guide me in
16:38the right direction you know as we do
16:40for each other as we should in our
16:43personal lives why can't we do that on a
16:44structural
16:46level so Solutions really in terms of
16:50what's stopping us from moving
16:53forward is we need to shift our thinking
16:56in a country such as Canada we have the
16:59capacity to certainly change this
17:02scenario for so many people you and I
17:05will not survive in the streets if we
17:08have become homeless right now these
17:11individuals are survivors in the highest
17:26order

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