To refer to original letter that got me fuming, go to: http://www2.canada.com/courierislander/news/letters/story.html?id=4dd5f5b0-48cc-4d38-bc5a-1c37ab32e0cf
To the editor
Dear Sir,
I read with interest the letter from Andrew Turner (Mother and Father Not The Answer – April 24, 2009) regarding the underlying social current in our Province and his concerns about “the NDP mothers” and “union fathers” taking control of our lives for our own good, crippling the life of a mature province and creating a culture of irresponsible demanding victims.
I think Mr. Turner needs to worry more about Big Brother yelling to the masses from his ivory tower ‘Do you Believe” or “This is the best place on earth”. Just because you chant it repeatedly doesn’t mean it is so. In the last 8 years, the Liberals have crippled the life of marginalized people, and have created a culture of poor bashing and neglect of unforgiveable proportions.
Mr. Turner insults NDP supporters as nothing more than a group of hairy backwards thinking lazy high school drop outs and overprotective mothers who do everything including feeding sandwiches to angry 40 year old sons living in the basement. Let’s go with that analogy.
In many cases, the basements in this province are the best places on earth for thousands of marginalized British Columbians who have fallen victim to the Big Brother locking them down there. The unlucky ones comprise our street homeless populations that we all know are at the highest rate in BC history.
But let’s get back to the parents’ basements.
We have the 40 year old seriously developmentally disabled son who is rotting on waiting lists to get the support he needs while his elderly parents struggle in isolation or spiral into crisis and breakdown.
We have the 40 year old recently unemployed millworker and his family forced to move into that basement because they are now unemployed thanks to mill closures under the Liberal watch.
We have the 40 year old woman and her child fleeing to that basement from an abusive and violent marriage who is on a three week waiting list for an emergency needs assessment at welfare and cannot qualify for legal aid, which has just taken more significant cuts as it did in 2002 under the Liberal watch.
We have a 40 year old man who grew up poor and who could not afford tuition to qualify for anything other than minimum wage jobs and now cannot afford the spiralling costs of rent in this province and no hopes of finding any social housing available. His children are some of the 21.9% of kids in B.C. who live in poverty, the highest rate in Canada. They live in his parents basement now, they were in a camper before that.
We have a 40 year old man who has terminal cancer and cannot qualify for disability assistance because his condition is not expected to last for two years. His $610.00 a month does not cover his medical, housing or nutrition needs. He really appreciates the sandwich.
We have a 40 year old man who is serving a year of house arrest for street racing and killing a family in the process.
We have some younger people in the basement too. A lot of 19 year olds who have aged out of the foster care system, many of whom have terrible emotional and mental handicaps who have been set free to the streets to figure it out. Some are lucky enough to be taken in by good Samaritans or family members who may have a room in their basement and who are charitable enough to make that sandwich for them, but the soup kitchens try to take up the slack.
We have children hiding in the basement so the parent can go to work to make a living but cannot afford child care so they are told to stay there and not answer the door.
Mr. Turner is probably not aware of a new term called middle aged boomerangers, an alarming trend, thanks to the economy that Big Brother thinks is so great, of formerly solvent 30 and 40 something’s who are moving back in with parents because they can no longer afford to pay for their own housing. Many are professionals with university educations. They are not just the irresponsible NDP potheads who aspire for that cushy union job. While they are in the basement, they can occupy their brains with the reading of the recent 121 page Ombudsman’s Report on Improving Fairness and Accountability in B.C.’s welfare system, or the many reports from the Representative for Children and Youth demanding better services to children in care in this province and more accountability for those who have died in care.
At least the NDP is willing to go into the basements of British Columbians and talk about what they see. The Liberals stay in their ivory towers and don’t look down unless they hear a noise. It is the NDP who is making that noise. The Liberals just want us to pay for more soundproofing
Friday, April 24, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Homeless Shelter Opens 24/7
It is long overdue, but the conversion to full time operation of homeless shelters will certainly ease the situation of people previously forced to battle the elements outside and mark time until they could get back indoors at 5 p.m.
What bothers me is the disclosure that if the shelter is converted to be open full time, it will be a place for people to find refuge and get back on their feet, not to "waste time." Further, the shelter wants to get a signed commitment that residents will go out, come back with information that they have applied for jobs and that "they are at least looking for jobs."
While I understand that the Salvation Army is "under new orders from the Province" and as such, it is all about getting a job, there are a lot of broken people who we send to the local shelters. They are broken by drugs, alcohol abuse, divorce, AIDS, early pregnancy, lack of education, dementia or mental illness, post traumatic stress and impenetrable hostility. The psychological burden of being homeless certainly does not make someone "job ready". Homeless parents with children and no available childcare are not "job ready". Homeless people who are exhausted from being homeless, whose feet have calluses and sores from walking everywhere and keeping their shoes on 24 hours a day, who feel cold all the time and who are constantly tired no matter how long they sleep are not "job ready". Homeless people who cannot get dentures paid for by welfare and who are toothless or sick from rotting teeth are not "job ready".
To expect someone in this circumstance to sign a commitment to "at least look for a job" is not only unrealistic, but potentially reckless. To accuse someone of "wasting time" when they are not emotionally or psychologically up to par to do much more than rest, who are numb to feeling after such a long time of lacking sleep, peace of mind, personal security and safety, does not consider all the dynamics of homelessness. I fear that if a work search is a requirement to maintain shelter, and it must be if they are having them sign some form of declaration to do so, it will be of no use to many people if the shelter is open 24/7. They will not "qualify" for shelter.
What can someone who has no money, no address, no telephone number, no identification, no bank account, no adequate clothing, no or limited education and skills, and no home except for a shelter with a ten day stay maximum possibly offer a local employer? Will they be reliable, punctual, enthusiastic team players? Will they have the ability to work independently? Will they be able to serve the public well and come to work with adequate dress and deportment? Will their minimum wage provide for the rental housing, nutrition, electricity, transportation and childcare they need? Will they be able to find rental housing with the "welfare stereotype" that exists in this community among many landlords?
If we want to tackle the growing problem of homelessness in our community, there must be some attention, some engagement from all of us, some willingness to focus on homeless people not as statistics but as individuals, needing care, needing to be welcomed back as full members of the human race. This could mean unfolding the social safety net and letting them rest in it for a while.
Homelessness deprives people of far more than shelter. They have no place from which to be productive and giving, to be restored, to be welcomed, to be themselves, to enjoy hobbies, the love of a pet, to give physical expression to their personalities. The homeless are, quite simply, deprived of their humanity. Restoring that to them requires more than a $70,000.00 public expenditure, temporary bedding and a mandatory job search.
What bothers me is the disclosure that if the shelter is converted to be open full time, it will be a place for people to find refuge and get back on their feet, not to "waste time." Further, the shelter wants to get a signed commitment that residents will go out, come back with information that they have applied for jobs and that "they are at least looking for jobs."
While I understand that the Salvation Army is "under new orders from the Province" and as such, it is all about getting a job, there are a lot of broken people who we send to the local shelters. They are broken by drugs, alcohol abuse, divorce, AIDS, early pregnancy, lack of education, dementia or mental illness, post traumatic stress and impenetrable hostility. The psychological burden of being homeless certainly does not make someone "job ready". Homeless parents with children and no available childcare are not "job ready". Homeless people who are exhausted from being homeless, whose feet have calluses and sores from walking everywhere and keeping their shoes on 24 hours a day, who feel cold all the time and who are constantly tired no matter how long they sleep are not "job ready". Homeless people who cannot get dentures paid for by welfare and who are toothless or sick from rotting teeth are not "job ready".
To expect someone in this circumstance to sign a commitment to "at least look for a job" is not only unrealistic, but potentially reckless. To accuse someone of "wasting time" when they are not emotionally or psychologically up to par to do much more than rest, who are numb to feeling after such a long time of lacking sleep, peace of mind, personal security and safety, does not consider all the dynamics of homelessness. I fear that if a work search is a requirement to maintain shelter, and it must be if they are having them sign some form of declaration to do so, it will be of no use to many people if the shelter is open 24/7. They will not "qualify" for shelter.
What can someone who has no money, no address, no telephone number, no identification, no bank account, no adequate clothing, no or limited education and skills, and no home except for a shelter with a ten day stay maximum possibly offer a local employer? Will they be reliable, punctual, enthusiastic team players? Will they have the ability to work independently? Will they be able to serve the public well and come to work with adequate dress and deportment? Will their minimum wage provide for the rental housing, nutrition, electricity, transportation and childcare they need? Will they be able to find rental housing with the "welfare stereotype" that exists in this community among many landlords?
If we want to tackle the growing problem of homelessness in our community, there must be some attention, some engagement from all of us, some willingness to focus on homeless people not as statistics but as individuals, needing care, needing to be welcomed back as full members of the human race. This could mean unfolding the social safety net and letting them rest in it for a while.
Homelessness deprives people of far more than shelter. They have no place from which to be productive and giving, to be restored, to be welcomed, to be themselves, to enjoy hobbies, the love of a pet, to give physical expression to their personalities. The homeless are, quite simply, deprived of their humanity. Restoring that to them requires more than a $70,000.00 public expenditure, temporary bedding and a mandatory job search.
Criminal Responsibility
It certainly speaks to the compassion in this community when so many friends and co workers of Phyllis Hards have spoken out through their pain with such empathy towards the man who took her life.
The recent sentencing of Dale Huttunen has also generated some frustration and a sense that the sentence is not long enough.
I would like to remind everyone that Dale Huttunen has a life sentence. He is incarcerated in the solitary confinement of his mental illness. Two lives were lost that day, although it could be argued that Mr.Huttanen's had been gone long before this tragedy occurred. We will continue to hear of these types of violent acts as long as we continue to ignore the monster under the bed that is mental illness.
We are putting people on the street with serious problems. There are people in our community whose mental illnesses have either been unrecognized, ignored, under treated, languished on waiting lists, or treated and released into the world to get along by themselves. Which of them is the next to lose touch and hurt or kill someone?
In many cases the mentally ill are unemployed, very poor, and often homeless. I challenge anyone to try and find assistance for a mentally ill loved one with a lack of funds. How do we suppose the mentally ill are to live the best life they can and obtain the immediate and ongoing treatment they need if they have no money to do so?
How many times was Mr. Huttunen turned away while he journeyed through the underfunded and poorly coordinated revolving doors of mental health services available to him until he lost control of the forces within himself?
We all pay a price for mental illness going untreated and undertreated. Phyllis Hards paid the ultimate price. Mr. Huttunen pays with living the torture of knowing what he did to an innocent and helpless elderly woman and he has to live with that for the rest of his sad and impoverished life. There is no time off for good behavior.
As we remember Phylis Hards and her horrific death, we need to mourn a system that rejects and then criminalizes those on the margins of society...those with severe, untreated mental illness. Locking them up in prison after they do something horrible is not the answer. Ignoring the issue does not make the problem disappear, just as we learned in our community on April 26, 2006.
The recent sentencing of Dale Huttunen has also generated some frustration and a sense that the sentence is not long enough.
I would like to remind everyone that Dale Huttunen has a life sentence. He is incarcerated in the solitary confinement of his mental illness. Two lives were lost that day, although it could be argued that Mr.Huttanen's had been gone long before this tragedy occurred. We will continue to hear of these types of violent acts as long as we continue to ignore the monster under the bed that is mental illness.
We are putting people on the street with serious problems. There are people in our community whose mental illnesses have either been unrecognized, ignored, under treated, languished on waiting lists, or treated and released into the world to get along by themselves. Which of them is the next to lose touch and hurt or kill someone?
In many cases the mentally ill are unemployed, very poor, and often homeless. I challenge anyone to try and find assistance for a mentally ill loved one with a lack of funds. How do we suppose the mentally ill are to live the best life they can and obtain the immediate and ongoing treatment they need if they have no money to do so?
How many times was Mr. Huttunen turned away while he journeyed through the underfunded and poorly coordinated revolving doors of mental health services available to him until he lost control of the forces within himself?
We all pay a price for mental illness going untreated and undertreated. Phyllis Hards paid the ultimate price. Mr. Huttunen pays with living the torture of knowing what he did to an innocent and helpless elderly woman and he has to live with that for the rest of his sad and impoverished life. There is no time off for good behavior.
As we remember Phylis Hards and her horrific death, we need to mourn a system that rejects and then criminalizes those on the margins of society...those with severe, untreated mental illness. Locking them up in prison after they do something horrible is not the answer. Ignoring the issue does not make the problem disappear, just as we learned in our community on April 26, 2006.
Seniors afraid of buskers.
This hate filled "I've got mine, now get out of my way" mentality is not a pleasant side of the Campbell River community. Stereotyping buskers as being unemployed, homeless, beggars, and dangerous ("regardless of how polite they appear") flies in the face of free enterprise and to ban them contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and the presumption of innocence. Street performing is protected by these rights, rights that many of our pensioners fought for and rights that are appreciated. Perhaps it will ease the fears of those who worry about their personal space or personal safety that the common law ensures that buskers or others should not impede pedestrian traffic flow, block or otherwise obstruct entrances or exits or do other things that endanger the public. It is common law that any disturbing or noisy behaviors may not be conducted after certain hours in the night. It is common law that "performing blue" (i.e. using adult material that is explicit or vulgar or obscene remarks or gestures) is generally prohibited. It is common law that unless invited to do so, busking for a captive audience where people cannot move away is generally not acceptable. If buskers are indeed panhandlers, then this applies to the likes of George Burns, Bob Hope, Simon and Garfunkel, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, even Benjamin Franklin. Give our talented artists in Campbell River the opportunity to be heard, and trust that the policies and regulations the city is considering imposing will make this a win win situation for everyone.
The Mental Decline of Mr. Rogers
The double entendre of the article title "The Mental Decline of Mister Rogers" and the irony of it was not lost on me. Fred Rogers, the infamous children's television host, who strongly endorsed every person's self worth from his neighbourhood of make believe, would feel very sorry for the other Mr. Rogers.
Unfortunately, our neighbourhoods are not so special for those with serious mental illnesses.
The government has boosted the economy on the backs of the mentally ill. This started when the provincial
Mental Health advocate was let go in 2001. Her mandate was to determine what was needed for those with mental illness in our province and guide the Ministry of health to where the problems were. Unfortunately and probably not coincidentally, as soon as she was critical of government she was let go. The government said they could do her job themselves. In firing her they removed the protection on mental health funding which has resulted in mental health money being used to offset deficits in other areas of health, and made it infinitely more difficult for people with disabilities to access income, housing, specialized care, and pharmaceutical supports. Mister Rogers would not be impressed with the horrible and embarrassing situation that has resulted.
Our office has recently erected barriers to protect ourselves from violent outbursts. One of our staff has been assaulted by a mentally ill person who was off his medication. We have had other close calls. We have panic alarms. Our sense of safety and security has been compromised. Our clients, those with mental illness who are in poverty and suffering from neglect and abuse are being criminalized for want of care. They are living independently when they shouldn't be, and many are homeless most of the time. Some are too mentally ill to qualify for homeless shelter, or turn to addictions to numb their pain which just makes their situations worse. Others are dying from suicide. The danger created to front line workers, as we have already sadly experienced in our community hospital, is real and potentially deadly. The danger created for those suffering from terrible crippling mental illness is a life of torment and hopelessness. Is this really the kind of neighbourhood we want? If you are not lucky enough to have the right family, the right finances, the right connections then you end up like the other Mr. Rogers.
It is up to us, the electorate, to demand change. To demand that the most vulnerable among us be provided compassionate, responsive, efficient and when necessary, institutionalized care so that they may lead peaceful and happy lives.
In accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, Mister Rogers speech was simple but eloquent: "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence."
Take ten seconds and think about how fortunate you have been, with loving and enduring families, and then think about how you can and should contribute to help people like Barry Rogers become who he is capable of being. It is possible to help him find peace, dignity, stability and purpose, so instead of being someone to fear, he could simply become our newspaper delivery person in whose skilled hands we can trust our broken bicycle.
Unfortunately, our neighbourhoods are not so special for those with serious mental illnesses.
The government has boosted the economy on the backs of the mentally ill. This started when the provincial
Mental Health advocate was let go in 2001. Her mandate was to determine what was needed for those with mental illness in our province and guide the Ministry of health to where the problems were. Unfortunately and probably not coincidentally, as soon as she was critical of government she was let go. The government said they could do her job themselves. In firing her they removed the protection on mental health funding which has resulted in mental health money being used to offset deficits in other areas of health, and made it infinitely more difficult for people with disabilities to access income, housing, specialized care, and pharmaceutical supports. Mister Rogers would not be impressed with the horrible and embarrassing situation that has resulted.
Our office has recently erected barriers to protect ourselves from violent outbursts. One of our staff has been assaulted by a mentally ill person who was off his medication. We have had other close calls. We have panic alarms. Our sense of safety and security has been compromised. Our clients, those with mental illness who are in poverty and suffering from neglect and abuse are being criminalized for want of care. They are living independently when they shouldn't be, and many are homeless most of the time. Some are too mentally ill to qualify for homeless shelter, or turn to addictions to numb their pain which just makes their situations worse. Others are dying from suicide. The danger created to front line workers, as we have already sadly experienced in our community hospital, is real and potentially deadly. The danger created for those suffering from terrible crippling mental illness is a life of torment and hopelessness. Is this really the kind of neighbourhood we want? If you are not lucky enough to have the right family, the right finances, the right connections then you end up like the other Mr. Rogers.
It is up to us, the electorate, to demand change. To demand that the most vulnerable among us be provided compassionate, responsive, efficient and when necessary, institutionalized care so that they may lead peaceful and happy lives.
In accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, Mister Rogers speech was simple but eloquent: "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence."
Take ten seconds and think about how fortunate you have been, with loving and enduring families, and then think about how you can and should contribute to help people like Barry Rogers become who he is capable of being. It is possible to help him find peace, dignity, stability and purpose, so instead of being someone to fear, he could simply become our newspaper delivery person in whose skilled hands we can trust our broken bicycle.
Working Poverty
Recently I passed by one of our first of probably many Shopper's Row pan handlers of the summer season. A person behind me shouted at him "get a job" to which the man replied "I have a job". I stopped and went back and spoke with him and learned that he has a full time job working for minimum wage. His son required medicine that he could not afford given his limited income, and of course, no medical benefits. He was collecting spare change so his son could be well. In collecting spare change, he was viewed by some as lazy, blameworthy, and invisible when in fact he was a hard working desperate father willing to humiliate himself to take care of his child.
We all disagree endlessly about why the poor are poor and what, if anything, the rest of us should do about it. Many blame poor people themselves, stressing mistakes or bad character, while others point to what they consider an unjust society. And a lot of us can go either way, case by case.
In almost every case, within just a few minutes of conversation, you can identify the mistakes that led to a poor person's troubles: drug or alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, criminal trouble, failure in school. lack of access to higher education, undiagnosed or untreated learning disabilities, untreated mental illness, or bad luck. I've also noticed that the people who pay the biggest price for such mistakes, who wind up as poor adults, are the ones who lacked a cushion to recover from their poor choices - that is, those who grew up poor, those who got lost in the education or health care system, and those who lack a family support system.
It is perhaps easiest to comprehend a day in a life of someone working full-time for a full year and living in minimum wage poverty by converting a typical working poverty income into a daily dollar amount.
And contrary to public opinion, most minimum wage earners are not young people living at home.
For an average working poor Campbell River family consisting of two adults and two children where one parent earns eight dollars an hour (and the other stays home to avoid $18.00 - $30.00 per day child care costs) take home pay is about twelve hundred dollars a month.
It costs about $653 a month to feed a family of four. This does not include non food items.
It costs about $934 for a 3 bedroom rental including rent utilties and phone.
In addition to food and shelter, families need to pay for personal care items, household needs, furniture, telephone, transportation, school supplies, school field trips, health care and so on. There is no money for entertainment, recreation, reading materials, insurance, or charitable or religious donations and in some cases, prescription medications or even over the counter medications.
It easy to understand why poor families must cut into their budget for essentials why they must rent substandard housing; why they move often in attempts to save rent; why they purchase poor-quality food with little freshness or variety; why they must supplement their food budget with trips to food banks; soup kitchens, why they own a minimum selection of mainly used clothing and why they have to panhandle for spare change.
For the poor family of four, living on $10.00 per person per day is not an exercise in the imagination. It is reality, day after day and with no relief in sight.
And here is where the cycle repeats itself. Children who grow up in low-income families stand out in a variety of ways from their better-off peers. They are less healthy, have less access to skill-building activities, have more destructive habits and behaviours, live more stressful lives and are subject to more humiliation. In short, they have less stable and less secure existences and as a result are likely to be less secure as adults.
Poor children stand out even at public schools. It is not surprising, therefore, that the school drop-out rate of poor children is twice the rate of children who are not poor. Surely, as a fundamental principle of fairness, children's opportunities in life should not depend on the economic circumstances of their parents or the stigma that society puts on them for being seen as poor.
We need to insist that minumum wages be raised to a decent level so "getting a job" actually results in keeping parents home with their children rather than out on street corners begging for change.
We all disagree endlessly about why the poor are poor and what, if anything, the rest of us should do about it. Many blame poor people themselves, stressing mistakes or bad character, while others point to what they consider an unjust society. And a lot of us can go either way, case by case.
In almost every case, within just a few minutes of conversation, you can identify the mistakes that led to a poor person's troubles: drug or alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, criminal trouble, failure in school. lack of access to higher education, undiagnosed or untreated learning disabilities, untreated mental illness, or bad luck. I've also noticed that the people who pay the biggest price for such mistakes, who wind up as poor adults, are the ones who lacked a cushion to recover from their poor choices - that is, those who grew up poor, those who got lost in the education or health care system, and those who lack a family support system.
It is perhaps easiest to comprehend a day in a life of someone working full-time for a full year and living in minimum wage poverty by converting a typical working poverty income into a daily dollar amount.
And contrary to public opinion, most minimum wage earners are not young people living at home.
For an average working poor Campbell River family consisting of two adults and two children where one parent earns eight dollars an hour (and the other stays home to avoid $18.00 - $30.00 per day child care costs) take home pay is about twelve hundred dollars a month.
It costs about $653 a month to feed a family of four. This does not include non food items.
It costs about $934 for a 3 bedroom rental including rent utilties and phone.
In addition to food and shelter, families need to pay for personal care items, household needs, furniture, telephone, transportation, school supplies, school field trips, health care and so on. There is no money for entertainment, recreation, reading materials, insurance, or charitable or religious donations and in some cases, prescription medications or even over the counter medications.
It easy to understand why poor families must cut into their budget for essentials why they must rent substandard housing; why they move often in attempts to save rent; why they purchase poor-quality food with little freshness or variety; why they must supplement their food budget with trips to food banks; soup kitchens, why they own a minimum selection of mainly used clothing and why they have to panhandle for spare change.
For the poor family of four, living on $10.00 per person per day is not an exercise in the imagination. It is reality, day after day and with no relief in sight.
And here is where the cycle repeats itself. Children who grow up in low-income families stand out in a variety of ways from their better-off peers. They are less healthy, have less access to skill-building activities, have more destructive habits and behaviours, live more stressful lives and are subject to more humiliation. In short, they have less stable and less secure existences and as a result are likely to be less secure as adults.
Poor children stand out even at public schools. It is not surprising, therefore, that the school drop-out rate of poor children is twice the rate of children who are not poor. Surely, as a fundamental principle of fairness, children's opportunities in life should not depend on the economic circumstances of their parents or the stigma that society puts on them for being seen as poor.
We need to insist that minumum wages be raised to a decent level so "getting a job" actually results in keeping parents home with their children rather than out on street corners begging for change.
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