As you already know Gentle Reader, I am currently circulating a petition about homelessness in my country, Canada. That's right, our own dear little Canada. One of the richest countries in the world. and one of the nicest countries in the world. And we have a housing crisis. We have thousands who sleep on the sidewalk or camp in public parks. Do you think they're too lazy to get a job? Maybe no one wants to hire them? Maybe rents are so high that a low paying job isn't enough to keep them alive. Maybe they have mental health issues, addictions. Maybe they lack skills and training. Maybe they're just so damn tired from life, so isolated, abandoned and unloved, that they can no longer fight for their survival. They're not able to. And even if they were, what difference would it make?
So, I am circulating this petition, asking the prime minister (that's right, Justin, Trudeau Junior, or just Junior, youthful fabulously good-looking, looks great with his shirt off (he even has a tattoo!), kind, nice, and just wants everyone to like him. Well, I am not easily swayed by good-looking politicians who want me to like them. Better luck if they enact legislation that will protect our most vulnerable citizens. For example, enshrining the right to housing as a fundamental and inalienable Canadian human right. Such as I have already highlighted in my petition. Here it is. Sign it. Then pass it on to as many people as you can:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Canadian_Prime_Minister_Justin_Trudeau_make_housing_a_Canadian_human_right/ÉÉ
Splendid, Gentle Reader. There is a place in heaven for you.
Notice, while reading the petition, that I have said housing, and not shelter. I had given it some thought before designing the petition, only to realize that the word shelter implies rubber mats on the floor, while housing suggests...homes. What makes this difference significant is the likelihood that our government will do anything it possibly can to weasel out of a commitment through any available loophole. Shelters are cheaper than apartments. Duh! But that is short-range reasoning. When you factor in the savings from giving people actual decent housing, housing with dignity, it really is a no-brainer. When we have access to safe, affordable, and decent housing, housing with dignity, we are able to rebuild our lives. We have a safe, clean and comfortable place to come home to every day. We can rest, clean and feed ourselves. We can unwind from the stress of the day. We have a place, and time and space where we can heal and recover from the ravages we have incurred, the damage to our mental, physical and spiritual health. We can begin our re-entry point into the community. Many of us are eventually able to work again and become self-supporting and self-sustaining, and tax-paying. Because our lives are no longer being tenuously meted out we are less likely to engage in practices and behaviours harmful to ourselves or others. We are no longer as likely to require emergency services, interventions or hospitalizations. The math has been already done and it has been shown that housing, as opposed to shelters, actually saves taxpayer money.
We also need housing rather than shelters for one simple reason: people who have survived street homelessness generally are in tremendous need of all kinds of supports: mental health, addictions/recovery, life skills support, friendship, programs to help them socially integrate to the community, and more. A few nights spent in a low barrier shelter is not going to provide that. The trauma of subsisting in a bug and rat infested sro isn't either.
Many Canadians, especially older Canadians, unfortunately are still stranded in a meritocracy mentality, believing that housing, even a modest bachelor unit, is a privilege that has to be worked for and earned. That might have been applicable many decades ago, when incomes and housing costs were fairly compatible and work and housing were easier to find. But even then in that golden age that never existed there were people living on the margins, homeless and vulnerable and generally reviled and stigmatized. We are finally addressing the stigma of mental illness and addictions and it has been found that no one should be denied housing if we really expect them to find some hope of recovery, or at least a significant slowing of their spiral downward. We now know that housing first is the way to address long term homelessness. We also are agreed that this isn't simply a matter of charity or kindness. I'm talking here about justice.
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