Community campaign raising money to get Newmarket homeless woman an apartment

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 20, 2015
By Lisa Queen

With fall just around the corner, the fear that creeps around the edges of Janet’s mind begins to once again consume her thoughts.

Will this be the winter she freezes to death in her car?

The prospect leaves the York Region homeless woman sobbing as she talks about the 15-plus years she has existed in her vehicle.

“Winters are horrendous,” said Janet, an articulate, injured former army reservist, who is resilient, but bears the emotional scars of a hard life.

‘I fear when they will find my body’

Finally, a community initiative offers Janet hope of getting off the streets.

A homeless existence hasn’t always been her way of life.

While she had a difficult childhood and a tumultuous relationship with her mother, at one point she had a mortgage and a relationship.

When the relationship ended, Janet lived in a motel room for a few months before eventually calling her car home. At one point, she lost many of her possessions, including a beloved cat and its kittens, in a fire suspected to be arson.

Now, spending her nights parked in plazas, even a vest, coat, sleeping bag, blankets and thermal socks and boots haven’t prevented her from getting frostbite several times on cold winter nights.

Janet, who suffers from several health concerns and receives benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program, takes sponge baths in washrooms of doughnut shops.

On the region’s waiting list for subsidized housing for several years, she treats herself occasionally to a motel room so she can sleep in a bed and bathe.

Doctors told her more than a decade ago she wouldn’t survive another winter in her car.

Janet has beaten the odds year after year, but as she looks forward to her 58th birthday next month, she wonders how long she can last.

“Winters I get very depressed as I have always hated the cold, but I was told 14 years ago I would not survive another winter existing like I am,” she said.

“So, I fear when they will find my body.” At long last, there may be hope for Janet to get an apartment.

A dozen residents who have gotten to know her over the past decade at community dinners have come together to form a campaign called 25X30.

The idea, first envisioned last November, would see 30 people each chip in $25 a month to contribute to Janet’s rent.

So far, about a dozen people are donating various amounts, according to Newmarket resident Jacques Soucie, who, along with fellow volunteer Barb Martin, is spearheading the campaign.

“A couple of people, having heard her story and having known her, felt this was an area where we could make a difference in the life of one person,” he said.

“It’s going to help one person’s life dramatically. So, it is just that one person, but it is that one person’s life. If it was my life or your life, would you think that’s important? Absolutely.”

Beginning this week, the campaign seeks donations from the public through a Tilt crowd-funding account called Shelter from the Storm.

After word came last week that the Canadian Mental Health Association has agreed to help subsidize Janet’s rent, the campaign will now contribute toward housing and living expenses, with anything left over being used for other homeless people, Soucie said.

The organizers and Janet will sign a letter of understanding.

While Soucie praised Canada for having government programs that help the homeless, he pointed out Janet is just one of thousands of York residents living in poverty or homelessness.

“Essentially, here is an individual who has been living in her car for quite a number of years and the government-sourced or government-funded programs have not, to this point in time, been able to help her,” he said.

“I think it’s shameful this kind of thing happens as often as it does.”

Homelessness in York is often a hidden problem, Elizabeth Brims, the region’s program manager of community partnerships, said.

“The key around homelessness is it’s not just a big city problem. We have a lot of invisible homeless.

Because we don’t have one major urban centre and have nine municipalities, our homeless population is spread right across that whole area,” she said.

“It’s not like Toronto, where you can go downtown and say, ‘Ahh, there it is.’ I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of people are sleeping on couches in a friend’s basement, for example. That would be considered homeless, if you don’t have a home and you’re couch surfing.”

The region has several programs to help people who are homeless and prevent others from becoming homeless, Brims said.

York Region has 10,000 households on its waiting list for 7,000 subsidized housing units, with the average wait being 10 years, Heather Tillock, manager of community partnerships and support services, said.

Meanwhile, the region has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in Ontario at 1.5 per cent, she said.
The average rent for a bachelor apartment is $815 a month, compared to $1,036 for a one-bedroom, $1,194 for a two-bedroom and $1,357 for a three-bedroom.

While six of the region’s municipalities allow legal basement apartments, which increases the rental housing stock, they are not permitted in Vaughan, King Township and Richmond Hill.  The region its increasing the affordable housing supply, Tillock said.

She pointed to the recently completed projects of Mapleglen Residences in Maple offering 84 seniors’ apartments, Kingsview Court in King City with 66 seniors’ apartments and another 39 recently added, Mackenzie Green in Richmond Hill with 140 apartments and Lakeside Residence in Georgina offering 97 apartments for seniors, individuals and small families.

Meanwhile, under development now are the Richmond Hill Housing and Community Hub, with 202 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 14 emergency and 11 transitional beds for youths, and Belinda’s Place for homeless women in Newmarket, with nine transitional apartments and 28 emergency beds.

Governments alone can’t solve the challenge of providing an adequate number of affordable housing options, Brims said.

Newmarket Regional Councillor John Taylor, who is chairperson of the region’s community and health services committee, said it is upsetting Janet has been homeless for so long.

“It is truly unfortunate that someone in our community has found themselves in such a difficult circumstance. I am confident that the community and our agencies will find a solution,” he said.

“Having said that, we must come to the realization that we have significant challenges related to housing and homelessness in York Region. These challenges will only be met through a combination of all levels of government working together toward more innovative solutions.”

As the federal election campaign plays out this fall, Taylor is calling on candidates to provide their positions on the need for a national housing strategy.

While Janet is anxious about the prospect of living in an apartment because it has been a long time since she has performed even routine tasks such as buying groceries and cooking, she dreams of the home she will be able to create.

A real bed. A tub for bubble baths. A pet cat. Maybe a relationship one day. “Getting a place to live would be everything. I could get control of my life, not live in fear and be able to do what others do and make friends and do all the normal things,” she said.