“First
Things First”
A
proposal to end street homelessness in Toronto
By Councillor Norm Kelly
Policies
that tolerate people walking around or stepping over the sleeping bodies
of the street homeless don’t aid the latter and serve only to coarsen
the former.
1. Establish a
priority
2. Focus on the
street homeless
3. Conduct an audit
4. Create support
teams
5. Identify housing
6. Negotiate with
the province & the feds
7. Redistribute
& Reallocate present funding
8. Remove people
from the streets
9. Set a deadline
for ending street homelessness
10. Monitor closely
1.
Establish a priority
This Council
has 9 priorities, which means that it doesn’t have a priority. As
a result we spray money across a myriad of programs, forever initiating
new costly programs in one priority area or the other.
Take a deep
breath. Pick the priority, make it the street homeless and put all
the money it takes into the effort.
2.
Focus on the street homeless
The fight
against homelessness has suffered “mission creep” over the years.
Beginning with the street homeless we’ve progressed through the
temporary homeless to arrive at the at-risk homeless.
Do one of
these challenges well and do it for the group that has the most difficulty
helping themselves: the street homeless.
Studies show
that 85% of the street homeless suffer from drug and alcohol addiction or
mental illness. These are the most vulnerable members of our society and
they deserve our best effort.
3.
Conduct an audit
We were
going to do an audit in 1998 but backed away from it. It must be done now
so that we can determine the scope and character of street homelessness.
In New York
City, for example, officials had shied away from tackling the “squeegee
men” problem because they were thought to be in the thousands.
An audit -- insisted upon by Mayor Giuliani -- identified 180.
Knowing the scale of the challenge, the City then crafted a program to
handle the problem. That must be our start, too.
4.
Create support teams
What does it
take to keep the previously homeless in their new homes? Can it be done?
The Los Angeles and New York housing programs report an 85 % retention
rate. Our own pilot project – moving the inhabitants of Tent City into
housing – showed a similarly high success rate.
What we need
is a team (or teams) of
social workers, physicians and nurses, and employment counsellors working
closely together to sustain the lives of the newly housed and, hopefully,
restoring as many as possible to normalcy.
5.
Identify housing
Use what we
have. Toronto City Housing Corporation provides housing for people in
need. Is there a need that’s greater than that of the homeless? There
are also thousands of empty suites in the private sector.
6.
Negotiate with province and the feds
Given the
severe physical and mental deterioration of some of the street homeless,
arrangements must be worked out with the province to re-institutionalize
them and, in that sheltered environment, restore them in an effort to
re-introduce them into society within the supportive context offered by
the city.
7.
Redistribute and reallocate the funding
I would
suggest that we look at a long-term funding model that is based on a
street person’s “point of origin”.
If a person’s origin lies outside of Ontario or Canada, then the
federal government should pay the whole shot. If outside the GTA, then the
province covers the cost. If inside Toronto, then it’s up to our
taxpayer.
The city can
assemble its funds by reallocating some of the money designed for other
purposes or by making a serious effort to redesign its delivery of
services to free up resources or it can examine the $100 million plus it
sprays on the broad category of homelessness through 100s of agencies and
commit more of it to a tightly focussed street homeless initiative.
8.
Remove homeless off the streets
Let’s
leave political correctness behind and do what needs doing. This is not a
callous proposal, lacking in compassion. We wouldn’t let children live
and sleep on the street, why do we persist in enabling the
“child-like” to live this way?
I believe
that the policy I’m advocating would be consented to by many of the
street homeless but, to make sure that it covers the entire population
addicted to the streets, the Mental Health Act should be invoked to remove
the irrationally recalcitrant from the streets.
9.
Set a deadline for ending street homelessness
In hockey,
when you want to score a goal, you drive toward the net! That’s what
I’m urging Council to do: Set 2007 as the deadline and DRIVE TOWARD THE
NET!
Begin
immediately with the audit; implement the recently agreed to pilot project
and enter into further negotiations with the other two orders of
government on the basis of “point of origin” funding. Push to have the
program operating effectively in 2007.
10. Monitor
closely
Peter F.
Drucker, the management Guru, argues that “if you can’t measure it,
you can’t manage it”. So, figure out what has to be measured, keep a
real-time tally, and report it out on a regular basis through the
Community Services Committee.
