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February 2004 marked our second year as an Inter-Net publication. For the first 18 months StreetViews Canada had a definite Saskatchewan taste as I was based in Saskatoon. We did have stories from Alberta and British Columbia but in the last 6 months I've been eking out a living in Calgary, Alberta. It was a real eye opener to see the other side of the coin regarding Calgary as the city of opportunity.

Our mandate hasn't changed at all. We still want to provide a wide range of perspectives from as many people as possible, as every viewpoint has the possibility of being unique. The best stories have remained varied from taking a behind the scenes look at hotel rooms, day in the life of a vendor, train hopping, workers standing up for themselves, open challenges to a provincial government and how the system is putting the crunch on the poor.

While Virginia Sellner and I will continue to publish stories on individual topics, we plan on doing a series on Calgary on how things aren't quite what business, tourism & other public relations firms would have us believe.

As we enter our third year of existence, we still want to provide as many diverse opinions as we can find. We want to be part of the ongoing solution in maintaining a level playing field even in our small way. Plus if it helps getting people learning how to think as opposed to being told what to think all the better.

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Connect Calgary started three years ago as a project that is part of the Smart Communities program. Industry Canada provides and administers the grant. Smart Communities intent is to aid Canada to become a world leader in the development and communication technologies. The Calgary Public Library is partner in Connect Calgary. Connect Calgary comes to an end in March 2004 but it is hoped that many of the excellent initiatives that have been started will be sustained, providing access for all. Diana Villeneuve added; "Many exciting initiatives started with this project and we hope to continue what's begun."

Connect Calgary is geared to the at risk population or to those who fall outside the norm of society. This includes the financially disabled, individuals living in Calgary shelters or under the assistance of social agencies. Diana Villeneuve believes the Calgary Public Library is for the public regardless of their life situation or economic ability & it is important to unite technology with the at risk population and to promote the Calgary Public Library. The website that provides access to many community services is Connect Calgary. Technology training is there for people who wouldn't normally have access to a computer. Once a person becomes computer literate, they can search out various websites such as low cost housing, emergency services, job banks and to set up an email address. Outreach programs are spread throughout the community for teens and children both in and off library sites. Computer Buddies team children with teen volunteers to help develop computer skills and enhance literacy skills. Another program that has gone over very well is Cyberseniors. It introduces seniors to the wide world of technology.

Promoting literacy in the community is one of the goals of the Calgary Public Library. Staff is committed to programs such as story time for children, adult literacy and community outreach. Diana Villeneuve added; " Under certain circumstances the library membership fee can be waived for those who are financially disadvantaged or can show financial need."

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The men and women on the streets don't yet know about the honour Cathy Crowe will receive today. But they most certainly know her track record.

"She's a persistent advocate for the homeless that tries to get the message through to government," said Dave Ryan, who spoke yesterday while having a smoke outside the Fort York armoury, serving now as an emergency shelter where about 130 homeless people, including Ryan, have been staying during this bitter cold snap.

Thursday January 22, 2004, Crowe received the Atkinson Charitable Foundation's Economic Justice Award. The prestigious prize, which honours her tireless and passionate work on behalf of society's most marginalized, will help her continue to get that message through.

The so-called "street nurse" will become the third recipient of the honour, which provides a stipend, research support and other expenses of up to $100,000 per year for three years. "She is just the most remarkable woman," Foundation president Betsy Atkinson Murray said on the eve of the presentation. "She is the saint of the streets, as far as I'm concerned." Crowe still finds it difficult to talk about being chosen for the honour without tears welling in her eyes.

Not because the 51-year-old is being recognized, but because the money will give her the freedom to pursue advocacy at an even higher level.

"I just started crying (when I heard the news). It was absolutely overwhelming - I never saw it coming," she said yesterday.

But it's likely that few who have followed her career and commitment will be surprised by the choice.

For 15 years, Crowe has worked as a street nurse (a term coined about a decade ago by a homeless man at the corner of Sherbourne and Dundas Sts. in downtown Toronto). She has worked with countless people written off as losers, addicts, "crazies" or just plain broken and not worth fixing. She has tended wounds, witnessed births and deaths (too many, she says), comforted the afflicted and prodded the powerful.

Throughout it all she has observed one undeniable common denominator: Regardless of the emotional and physical problems her patients face, adequate housing is a key factor in health. "We can't expect people to maintain health if they don't have housing," she states bluntly. And she's not just talking about the people huddled over street grates on a freezing night. Living in the crowded shelter system, she says, exposes people to infections like tuberculosis. With no fridge to store food (or income to purchase groceries), it's tough to eat three square meals a day, unless you're constantly on the move from one agency or church to the next.

Among the barest necessities of life, even a decent night's sleep can be impossible in a crowded shelter, with lights glaring from the ceiling and a stranger snoring or wheezing one bunk away. "It's just insane. And we have people who've been in this situation 10, 12 years," she says.

The solution, Crowe has always maintained, is housing. And not just bare boxes to wedge people into. Housing models that are flexible, offer support, and meet people where they are. She and others have for years championed the so-called "1% Solution"initiative that would see 1 per cent of the federal budget - with matching funding from the provinces and territories - go toward a comprehensive national housing strategy.

The vision of housing as a basic human right is one that Crowe and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (which she co-founded) have pushed relentlessly. Its 1998 declaration that homelessness was a "national disaster" on par with ice storms, earthquakes or other catastrophes received national media attention and was a move that the public - and the politicians - could not ignore.

Her passion has not diminished in the five years since then. If anything, she's even more convinced what must be done.

"I totally believe that a national housing program is as important as medicare," she says. It's a vision that's in sync with the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, which is devoted to the same social justice issues that Star publisher Joseph E. Atkinson espoused when he ran this newspaper from 1899 to 1948. He established the foundation in 1942, and its updated mission is to "promote social and economic justice in the tradition of its founder."

Crowe's work, in the view of the foundation, epitomizes those values. "This year, the (foundation) board said: `Homelessness is something that remains an insidious blight,'" said Charles Pascal, executive director of the foundation.

"And here's somebody who's a tireless advocate for those who are homeless ... someone who, with one hand, directly provides support, and with the other is trying to change the system." The two previous recipients of the award were Roy Romanow and economist Armine Yalnizyan, who wrote a groundbreaking report in 1998 on the growing gap between rich and poor. While receiving benefits from the award, Crowe will base herself at the Sherbourne Health Centre in downtown Toronto.

Though she has yet to settle on the fine print of what she'll do, she does know the general thrust.

"I want to witness and expose some of the problems and issues that I see, translate them so that people understand them, and work to inspire Canadians from across the country to get a national housing program."

"Cathy Crowe is a very compassionate woman," said 39-year-old Eddy Hakim, who's also staying at the armoury.

"She's a persistent go-getter when it comes to helping people in distress and the homeless. (She) advocates for the rights of human beings." In particular, the right to have a home.

The award ceremony l took place at the Church of the Holy Trinity, on Thursday January 22, 2004.

1% 1% 1% 1% 1%.... For more information and to endorse the 1 % Solution,
visit our website at www.tdrc.net

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC)
6 Trinity Square, Toronto, ON M5G 1B1
Phone: 416-599-8372 Fax: 416-599-5445
EMAIL: tdrc@tdrc.net
WEBSITE: www.tdrc.net

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The annual fight against homelessness in Canada kicked off February 3, 2004, with the national Raising the Roof Campaign. Wear a tuque today to support the cause.

The campaign enables folks from all walks of life to raise money and awareness for this continuing battle.

The Raising the Roof donations go to support programs and initiatives across the country to help people of all ages who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Proceeds from last year's campaign included donations to two Calgary organizations -- Boys and Girls Club Avenue 15 and the Canadian Mental Health Association Independent Living Support Program.

This years campaign launch included a ceremony on the main level of Bankers Hall. Legendary entertainer Tom Jackson took to the stage just after noon. Tuques were sold at the event.

Check out

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VANCOUVER Night-time walkabouts from Point Grey to Clark Drive show the number of homeless people in Vancouver has doubled in the last two years.

A City of Vancouver report going to council next week estimates that 1,200 people are sleeping outdoors on any given night during the summer.

In winter, between 500 and 600 people remain outside at night.

Those summer and winter numbers are roughly double the estimates generated from a similar city survey in 2001, when city staff reported 600 people slept outside during the summer and 300 were homeless in winter.

The Vancouver numbers don't include other large communities in the region such as Surrey, where the regional district estimated last May there were as many 250 homeless on the streets in a city with no year-round emergency shelter.

Vancouver's new census on the homeless is based on more than 25 walkabouts done from the spring of 2001 to the fall of 2003. A staff member of the city's tenant assistance program, often accompanied by a lone volunteer, would approach a person and try to strike up a conversation.

They offered help and tried to find out what they could about those people. A person was counted as shelterless only if they were sleeping outside at night, or sitting or walking around but said they were staying on the street.

Each walkabout ranged in distance from 25 to 70 blocks, and some areas were searched several times. The searches were usually done between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., when even shelterless people tend to stay still when they have no place to go.

Like a Vancouver Sun series on homelessness published in January, the new city survey found a sharp increase in the number of methamphetamine-addicted adults in their 20s living outside, as well as more working poor who couldn't make ends meet in temporary, minimum-wage jobs.

The survey was summarized in a report written by Judy Graves, coordinator of the city's tenant assistance program.

Graves, who has worked on Downtown Eastside issues for 25 years and on city-wide housing issues for 13 years, said Friday she was surprised when staff tabulated the results of their walkabouts and discovered the number of homeless had doubled.

"Personally, I find it quite disturbing," she added.

Her report highlights several changes between 2001 and 2003.

Some of the trends:

*There are fewer homeless teens, but more young adults. "In most of our overnight searches, at least two-thirds of the people we found were between 20 and 34 years of age," the report states. "Unfortunately, this is the age group most vulnerable to methamphetamine addiction when shelterless."

*There was also an increase in the number of aboriginal men and women living outside. In the Downtown Eastside about two-thirds of the homeless are aboriginal. In the West End and in Kitsilano, one-third are aboriginal.

"In addition, before 2001 it was rare to find a person of Asian origin living in the streets but it has now become common," the report adds.

*There are more working poor.

"The most startling change to report is the increase in the number of employed persons, usually male, aged about 24 to late 40s who are working, but who live outside or try to find shelter in [indoor sleeping] mat programs a night at a time," the report states.

"Much of the work available is part time, and pays at minimum wage or little more. Many of the employed shelterless do heavy physical work through labour pools, some work in restaurants or as house painters and dry wallers for contractors.

They are often laid off when it rains, or business is slow and may not be able to secure employment every day. Even working full time, their pay is so low they are unable to save the security deposit and first month's rent for a room while they are living outside."

*More college and university students are homeless.

"Sometimes this is explained by late approval of student loans, resulting in eviction for non-payment," the report states. "More frequently, the students say the cause is the high rent in the Lower Mainland, coupled with the low pay and instability of part-time employment."

*About half the shelterless people told city staff they do not have any income because they have difficulty getting social assistance, because the welfare system now involves appointments, delays and tasks they find too challenging.

"This seems to have been a particular problem for people with head injury, mental illness, severe depression, young people who are trying to find work, prisoners following their release from incarceration, those raised in foster care in B.C., and immigrants and refugees," the report states.

An accompanying report going to city council next Tuesday outlines what the city does to help the homeless. It recommends a "homelessness action plan" by September that outlines what action should be taken by the city, community, business and other levels of government.

Vancouver Councillor Jim Green, a former Downtown Eastside activist and part of the Committee of Progressive Electors majority that controls council, said all those groups should work together to house everyone they possibly can, and the city can help with procurement and hiring policies that favour local businesses and reduce unemployment.

Vancouver Councillor Peter Ladner, one of two Non-Partisan Association members on council, suggested council could allow the construction of new suites as small as 200 square feet, as some developers have proposed. That's far smaller than the current 320-square-foot minimum allowed with conditions, or the 400-square-foot minimum that normally applies.

Green said suites that small would result in "warehousing" and wouldn't give people dignity and a home large enough to invite friends in without having them sit on the bed.

"One simple solution like that doesn't do anything at all," he said. "As a matter of fact, it brings down the standard of living."

Glen Bohn can be reached at: gbohn@png.canwest.com
Source: City of Vancouver
© The Vancouver Sun 2004
Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc.

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In the last few years there has been a resurgence in protest activity. The protests have involved the Iraq war, promoting fair trade over free trade, the "evils" of capitalism and corporate rule among other issues that people feel strongly about. It seems that protest activity is at its highest levels since the sixties.

The positive side is that people take an active stance, get things off their collective chests and out in the open. Also maybe, if it isn't naive to believe so, the powers in charge get an idea of what the public wants. If people didn't make their concerns known on a large scale, just how bad could things get if the powers in place figured they could get away with anything? So with this in mind, people can and need to say boo and take a stance against conventional wisdom when needed.

But, on the other side of the coin, I do take issue with protestors on a couple of matters. It's one thing to complain about the system and how it needs to be changed. Not many of us would argue that concrete changes need to happen, but protestors need to offer solutions to what they feel are needed changes. Secondly protestors won't do themselves any favours by causing destruction like that at the Summit of the Americas at Quebec City in April 2001. Protestors risk losing much support and respect from the general public when they cause damage to private and public property.

True enough, all things must change or complacency sets in. One can only change themselves. If one tries to change someone else or vice versa, only hate or resentment will come to pass. An individual can't change the system by themselves, no matter how hard they try. They would become bitter and cynical. As it stands now, it takes lots of money or high connections to change the system, two things most of us don't have. But if people got together in large enough numbers and did things in a peaceable manner, think of what could be accomplished!

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