Stereotyping homeless

Hey All!

I was thinking about our discussion on Tuesday, and about some of the stereotypes regarding the homeless. I remember a video I came across that features an interview with Maurice Johnston; a homeless man, that due to a series of unfortunate events has ended up on the street. He is a former aeronautical engineer with several university degrees. He isn't necessarily as vulnerable as some other members of the homeless community, but I thought his perspective and story was valuable.

Hope you're all keeping warm!

The need for WISH

An Article about WISH, and the services they provide:

 

Sex workers lose all-night support system

 

Provincial government failed to renew funding for van carrying clean needles, condoms

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/workers+lose+night+support+system/1696026/story.html#ixzz1jv08feZc



          VANCOUVER — Four sex workers appear from the shadows on Kingsway at 11:30 p.m. and run over to a parked van. When they come up to the window, they’re handed condoms, clean needles, Gatorade and an updated list of known sex abusers.
They only have a few minutes between johns to get restocked, but sex workers could count on the van being there every night — at least until last Friday.
That’s when it was pulled off the road after the provincial government, citing financial pressure, failed to renew $250,000 in funding for it.
A dozen people, including former sex workers, lost their jobs when the van was parked. Vancouver’s sex workers lost their only all-night — 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. — support system.
Every night for the past five years, in a dark alley in the Downtown Eastside, three young women have stocked the van with boxes of condoms, clean needles, sterile wipes, first-aid equipment and refreshments.
On June 4, Larissa Deer and her co-worker Sarah Rogers, with a Vancouver Sun reporter riding along, were in charge of the van. The two women had the difficult job of reminding the sex workers they served that the van would only be coming around for another week.
The van was run by Women’s Information and Safe House (WISH) and Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE).
It was fitted with a bench running along the inside for sex workers hopping aboard, and a wall unit stocked with supplies and brochures about support services. The inside of the van was plastered with posters about missing women and abusive johns.
The service was started five years ago to enhance the health and safety of Vancouver’s sex workers, especially those who didn’t have access to a downtown drop-in centre. It was used by 40 to 50 women every night.
“These women are people, mothers of children, and the vast majority of them have had horrendous childhood experiences,” said Dr. Patti Janssen of the BC Women’s Health Research Institute. “It’s because we failed them as a society that they need our help now.”
The van followed roughly the same route each night, unless staff got specific calls for help. It started by trawling through the Downtown Eastside, then moved into dark, narrow alleys further east. Gatorade and condoms were the top requests from women who flagged it down.
“It’s such a good service,” said Selina Thompson, a sex worker in the Downtown Eastside. “Handing out condoms stops the spread of diseases, and of course, it’s the same for the girls using drugs and needing clean needles.”
The van also travelled to isolated strolls, such as near Kingsway and Fraser, trying to help keep women safe in a job that leaves them vulnerable. More than 60 sex workers have disappeared since the 1980s.
Being alone in isolated parts of the city makes these women vulnerable to those who prey on people on the margins of society, said Vancouver police Sgt. Tony Cavezza, and sex workers are victimized more than other women.
“If there’s no van, I don’t know what we would do, said Rawel Ladher, a sex worker who has called on the van when she was being stalked. “The job is often dangerous and the van goes into the dark places to help us.”
On the June 4 outing, Rogers makes a note of each woman the van meets. The records help keep track of the women and how strolls are changing.
“They make me feel safe, just knowing they are out there,” said Sandy Hubert, who regularly flags down the van to check in or check up on friends.
Staff members also take “bad date” reports, which record experiences with abusive or dangerous johns. Ninety-five per cent of all such reports — which go to police officers, sex workers and service providers — are generated by the van, according to WISH.
Police said they use the reports to find out about what’s happening on the street that they wouldn’t otherwise get.
Along the entire route, it’s clear that the women are grateful for the service. All thanked the staff on the van; many said good-bye with a sincere, “Drive safe!”
“It really hit home for me telling the women. It’s sad telling people it’s not going to be here. It’s such a fixture in the community,” Deer said as the van headed back from Kingsway into the darkness of downtown.
rtebrake@vancouversun.com


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/workers+lose+night+support+system/1696026/story.html#ixzz1jv0DwJFv

How much does welfare pay?

Ok so we've all seen those homeless experiments, where reasonably well off people slum it for a given period of time. Misha Kleider did it in Streets of Plenty, Guelph Students do it during 5 Days for the Homeless, and recently a member of BC's legislature did 30 days on a welfare budget. While these experiments often try to reproduce the emotions and conditions of the homeless there is always one caveat that takes away from truly replicating a homeless person's experience. The people conducting these experiments have a safe place to go when the ordeal is over.

How much is a welfare allowance, and how do people make budgets considering the strict limitations of accessing welfare? it is not as straightforward as it may seem. In order to the limit abuse of welfare and ensure adequate money goes to those that need it, Provincial bodies such as the Ontario Disability Support Program create a complex network of pathways for receiving welfare (ie. if you meet criteria a, b, and c, you will receive x amount of dollars). For example: Jagrup Brar, the BC MLA mentioned above, would have qualified for $610 dollars a month under BC's welfare laws. In Ontario, provisions for receiving welfare include:
    - Job status (Are you looking for a job? Can you prove you're looking for a job?)
    - If you have kids (more kids equals a greater allowance)
    - If you have a mental illness (or a physical disability)
    - Living situation (are you living alone? with parents? with friends?)
    - Age
    - etc, etc, etc.

I am curious how much welfare I would qualify for, but I am daunted by the immense and technical process of qualifying, applying, and keeping welfare. What boxes do I check on the paperwork? What conditions must I satisfy in order to get welfare? So many questions.

I have linked to the ODSP in order to explore how much money I would receive on welfare; hopefully this will make the process a bit more clear.  Also, I have copied the article covering Jagrup Brar and his 30 days on welfare, taken from the Epoch Times, for your reading pleasure :)

http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/odsp
The Ontario Disability Support Program helps people with disabilities who are in financial need pay for living expenses, like food and housing. Ontario works is a program run in conjunction with ODSP; more information on Ontario Works can be found on the left hand side-bar. 

Living on Welfare Tests Politician’s Endurance

‘You feel hungry all the time,’ says MLA who took on a month-long ‘welfare challenge’

A B.C. MLA is finding that surviving on welfare is just that—surviving, with every waking minute devoted to scrounging enough money for his next meal.

“Living in poverty or welfare is hard and demoralizing,” says New Democrat Jagrup Brar, who began a challenge on Jan. 1 to live on welfare for a month.

“It’s a tough life. You spend your whole day basically looking for food and shelter. It takes away your self esteem. It basically makes you a completely different person.”

The Surrey-Fleetwood MLA embarked on the experiment in response to a challenge issued to all 85 B.C. MLAs by Raise the Rates, a coalition of poverty advocacy groups.

Brar, 52, the only MLA to accept the challenge to live on welfare for a month, says he did so “to tell the story of a half a million people in B.C. living in poverty.

“As a father of two young children, it’s hard for me to imagine that we have 137,000 children living in poverty in a rich province. It is hard for me to believe that 70,000 people use a food bank every month and one-third of them are children,” he says.

Out of the $610 a single person receives on welfare in B.C., Brar spent $420 on rent, $42 on bus tickets, and $25 on a phone. Phone and transportation are necessary for welfare recipients who are required to look for work. After these expenses, he was left with $108 for food and any additional needs.

“I went out the day before yesterday to buy my groceries with a budget of $30 per week. I ended up spending $33 dollars, and I am right now left with $67 for the rest of the month,” he says.

“With a $30 weekly budget, when you go to buy groceries the first thing you look at is the price, not at the quality of the food. So that’s a huge challenge—not only that you can’t eat healthy food, but you can’t actually eat enough to survive.

“You feel hungry all the time. Hunger becomes your biggest challenge during the day.”

As organized by Raise the Rates, Brar is allowed to spend one night a week at his home—but must pay for any food he may eat there—and he will work one day a week in his office.

“During this month I will listen,” he says. “I will meet with the people living in poverty and on welfare, listen to their stories and share those stories with the people of B.C. to raise awareness about poverty, and hopefully initiate a debate based on the on-the-ground reality.”

Less Purchasing Power

In the 1980s, NDP MLA Emery Barnes lived on welfare for seven weeks, when the rates were just $375 a month. Barnes, a former pro football player, lost 30 pounds during his stint on income assistance.

Back then, Barnes said welfare rates needed to be raised to $700 a month. But rates today have even less purchasing power, notes community organizer Jean Swanson, who initiated the challenge Barnes accepted 25 years ago and the current one with Brar.

MLA Jagrup Brar shows reporters a breakdown of his expenses on welfare for one month. (Jagrup Brar's Constituency Office)

Swanson, whose organization paid the $610 for Brar because as an employed person he wouldn’t qualify for welfare, says Raise the Rates issued the challenge in hopes of bringing about change.

“We want to raise public awareness about how low welfare rates are, how punitive the rules are, and how inaccurate the stereotypes about people on welfare are,” she says.

“I think the combination of the low rates and the rules actually push people into crisis and make it more difficult for them to get back on their feet,” she adds.

“If you’re ‘employable’ you’re not allowed to keep a penny of what you earn, and this includes so-called employable single parents. You’re not even allowed to keep a penny of child support.”

The B.C. government says income assistance is intended as a temporary measure.

“Employable applicants are expected to look for work before they receive assistance and, where able, people receiving income assistance are expected to complete an Employment Plan, seek work, and participate in employment programs, so they may reach their goal of self-reliance,” the Ministry of Social Development’s website says.

According to December 2009 data from the ministry, the number of those receiving income assistance in the Expected to Work category increased by 45.4 percent between 2008 and 2009.

Finding accommodation that fit his budget was one of Brar’s biggest challenges. During his search he looked at several places, one of which reduced him to tears, he says, because the conditions were so bad, with tiny rooms costing as much as $400 a month.

“I’ve been told there are many others—there are hundreds of other houses like that.”

He finally found a room in a decent house in a nice neighbourhood, which he shares with eight others.

“My room is like a seven-star hotel compared to the things I saw,” he says.

“But it has its own challenges. Living with eight people is not easy. There are people with addictions and if you are depressed and a soft target you could become a victim of that situation.”

Brar says that although he’s finding the going tough, he’s in good shape and believes he “can last one month.”

“It’s only one month for me, but [there are] close to 200,000 people who live this life for too long.”

Check Out the blog of his experience at: http://mlaonwelfare.com/

**Ughh sorry for the green highlighting, I don't know how to get rid of it! sheesh, so frustrating...

Lullabies for little criminals

Janet mentioned the book "Lullabies for little criminals" on the last email, if anyone was interested. I have read it, and it is a pretty vivid portrayal of street life, addicting and the sex-trade. It follows a girl living with her addicted father in Montreal, and her entrance into the sex industry. I have an extra copy if anyone is interested, it is a pretty easy read! Cheers,

TED Talk: Steven Levitt on crack dealing

Hey All,

It was great seeing everyone on Saturday! I know we mentioned the researcher's perspective of the Downtown Eastside. Steven Levitt, writer of Freakonomics, has a TED talk covering the crack/cocaine epidemic and the economic realities of a crack dealer. It's pretty interesting, and it answers question's like: how much crack dealers actually generate in revenue, and how they get drawn into the lifestyle. Sadir's story isn't based in the Downtown Eastside, but it seemed relevant nonetheless. Check it out!

Communities of the Downtown Eastside

Chinatown: Founded in the late 19^th century, Chinatown expanded after the repealing _­­of the Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act after World War II. It continues­ to be a vibrant part of the Downtown Eastside.

Gastown: Founded in 1867 when “Gassy Jack” Deighton built a saloon. In the late 1960s features such as a cobble-stoned street and vintage lighting were restored as part of an effort to attract tourists.

Victory Square: Named for its war memorial cenotaph, Victory Square contains businesses, downtown campuses of post-secondary institutions, and a number of single room occupancy hotels that house approximately 1500 people.

Strathcona: A diverse area with light industry and many forms of housing (apartments, public housing, converted housing, and rooming houses). Nearly sixty-one percent of residents in Strathcona speak Chinese as their first language.

Oppenheimer: Initially home to many Japanese Canadians. In World War II, the area was devastated when Canada interned the Japanese and moved them to camps in the interior of BC. Today, Oppenheimer includes a courthouse, police station, , Buddhist temple, theatre as well as social services, retail businesses and some light industrial facilities.