October 22 2023: The work to end Homelessness

Fred Victor - Helping People Find Place and Purpose

Fred Victor, an organization in Toronto, Ontario is championing the fight to end homelessness.  Their mission is to improve the health, income and housing stability for people living on the margins and they are doing just that – with food security programs, health supports, mental health and addiction counselling, training and employment services. They meet people where they are and support them to meet their basic needs with drop-ins, emergency respite and shelters for women, men, couples and people with pets, as well as with transitional housing and permanent housing.  
Last year, in partnership with the City of Toronto, Fred Victor launched 86 new units of permanent, affordable housing at 4626 Kingston Road. New tenants have begun to move in and are excited to be a part of this vibrant community.

First Reading

This is an extract (edited in the interest of brevity) from an article written by Simon Jenkins, a Guardian columnist in response to Prince William’s charity, Homewards, an initiative to end homelessness in the UK. Its website explains, “despite tireless efforts across the sector and beyond, it continues to exist because we too often focus on managing the problem rather than working to

prevent it”.

Simon Jenkins writes: 

Bravo to Prince William’s plan to end homelessness. Here’s where he should start. The problems involved are complex, ranging from rough sleeping to the struggles of life on the murky fringes of the private sector. That the Prince of Wales wants to “end” homelessness cannot be a bad thing. Yes, it may have policy implications, but so does any act of charity. Yes, it risks mention of his own family’s gross over-supply of sleeping accommodation, but that is hardly the point. And yes, it may mean no more than his father’s practice of “bringing people round the table”. There is no harm even in that.

More useful is if it focuses attention on the issue itself. The good news is that the blitz on rough sleeping during lockdown showed action can work. Surveys showed the number of people rough sleeping in England peaked at 4,751 in 2017 and fell to 3,069 in 2022. The chief reason was that a real effort was made to find hostels and rally volunteers.

Homelessness is often the end of a road through mental and physical health issues, drugs, poverty, criminality and sheer hopelessness. The two greatest shifts that government can make is to improve mental health services, and reform and properly regulate the illegal drugs market. No past, present or future government has shown any inclination to do either.

Shelter, a charity operating throughout the UK, has a quarter of a million people, mostly families, in “temporary accommodation”, and another 15,000 in variously unsatisfactory or insecure hostels and shelters. Large numbers are immigrants.

Social housing can only dent the problem. It has traditionally gone to the “deserving” or qualifying poor, a lifetime gift and a costly one. Housing benefit paid to private and public landlords is more efficient as it can be targeted short term at genuine need, though it has fallen vulnerable to exploitation and austerity.

Most homeless people are fighting on the murky fringes of the private sector. This is why its regulation is crucial, but always controversial: even well-intentioned changes can lead to nintended consequences as evidenced by landlords simply switching to sales or Airbnb. What good is that?

Second Reading

The charity, Bethany Christian Trust, operates across Scotland to end homelessness. One of their stated aims is to prevent homelessness in communities where it is most prevalent, helping and accommodating people experiencing a crisis of homelessness and supporting people to stay in their own accommodation. The Trust is committed to giving equal opportunities to people who may use our services irrespective of race, gender, religion/belief, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, or sex. The aim is to put Christian love in action through all their work. Devotional opportunities may also be available.

One project, based in Bathgate, West Lothian, about 15 miles west of Edinburgh is the location where they strive to support young people to gain independent living skills with the goal of moving to their own accommodation when the time is right. The purpose built accommodation is provided in a combination of 4 en-suite furnished bedrooms, 3 fully furnished “move on” apartments and a 2-bed shared apartment that promotes independence in a safe environment. We are going to watch a short video relating the story of Nadine’s journey as a 16 year old homeless girl to becoming a more confident and settled young adult. It’s heartwarming but it may take a few moments for you to get used to her accent.

Link to video: https://www.bethanychristiantrust.com/nadines-story/

Third Reading

This reading is an extract from an article by Vinita Srivastava & Ateqah Khaki, Writing for “The Conversation”, an independent source of news analysis and informed comment written by academic experts, working with professional journalists who help share their knowledge with the world. There is also a podcast available. This particular piece addresses the challenges of affordable housing. Everybody knows it and almost everyone feels it: we’re in the grips of a major housing crisis. Home ownership is out of reach for so many people and for renters, units are hard to find and expensive. In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, vacancy rates are at their lowest levels in nearly two decades and average rents have jumped nearly 10 per cent — the sharpest increase in more than a decade. It seems everywhere you turn these days, there’s another rent strike, like the one in Toronto on Oct. 1. Hundreds joined in and tenants say it’s the largest rent strike in the city’s history.

One of the factors driving this affordability crisis has been a shift away from publicly built housing toward large corporate-owned buildings. As Nemoy Lewis, from the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, puts it: “housing is treated as a commodity rather than a human right.”