Community rallies to York Region homeless woman’s aid

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 10, 2015
By Lisa Queen

Growing up in an impoverished area of Nottingham, England, Rick Dunn has never forgotten how much it meant to him when the owner of a boxing club allowed him to train at the facility for free.

That spirit of giving is something he has tried to instill in the young people who train at his Fearless Mixed Martial Arts gym in Aurora.

So, Dunn was eager to help when his wife, Georgette, told him about a community campaign to help Janet, a York Region homeless woman who has lived in her car for more than 15 years.

Dunn, a former Royal Marine, was especially moved when he heard Janet was an injured former army reservist.

On Tuesday, Fearless donated $200 to Shelter from the Storm, the campaign to raise money to get Janet an apartment.

The Dunns waived their students’ membership fees for 10 days last month and instead asked them to donate to the drive.

“They (students) were saying ‘Wow, what a great cause’. We have a lot of 16, 17, 18-year-old boys. They were really motivated to help,” Georgette said.

“So, they’d empty their pockets. All these boys (would donate), with their lint and their bubble gum and whatever they had in their pockets. Ricky has always instilled in the people he trains here, all of the young boys, that we should give back. So, we do a lot of charity boxing events.

" I’d like to think we mentor the youths of our gym to be giving individuals.”

Students were pleased to help someone “down on their luck”, instructor Mike Yong said.

The cheque from Fearless is one of several donations to the campaign since Janet’s story was published on yorkregion.com and in some of its sister newspapers last month, finance chairperson Joanna Shackleton said.

“I think it’s been outstanding. People have come from all over to support us. The support is fantastic. I think if we hadn’t had the publicity we had in The Era, a lot of people wouldn’t have known about it, like Georgette and the Mixed Martial Arts club” she said.

“It’s nice to be able to connect with our community and give people an opportunity to do something in a small way to help one individual.”

The campaign has collected more than $2,500 in one-time donations and has commitments for $700 a month on an ongoing basis, organizer Jacques Soucie said.

“We still have a ways to go,” he said.

Other people have donated furniture or have offered to help Janet organize her many belongings.

“We’re feeling confident we’re going to be able to offer her sustainable support for the foreseeable future,” Soucie said.

“People who have stepped up know this could be a long-term thing, depending on how subsidized housing works.”

The campaign’s contributions will be added to Janet’s monthly disability benefit, said Soucie, adding she has been on the region’s waiting list for subsidized housing for several years.

Meanwhile, an offer from the Canadian Mental Health Association last month to help subsidize Janet’s rent through a federal government program has fallen through.

The program supplements a client’s benefits to a maximum rent of $1,000 and does not allow for contributions from outside sources.

Since Janet didn’t believe she could find an apartment suitable for her physical needs due to her health concerns for less than $1,000 a month in such a high-priced rental market, she opted to turn down the association’s offer and rely solely on the campaign, Soucie said.

Janet is appreciative of the community’s support and is looking forward to finding a home, although she also finds the prospect daunting after spending more than 15 years in her car, Soucie said.

“She is extremely, extremely grateful. As she, herself, said, ‘I sometimes forget or I’m not so good at saying thank you.’ But she is appreciative of what is being done,” he said, adding she has taken steps to reduce and organize her possessions.

“She has also said she continues to be afraid and nervous about this huge transition in her life.

She knows it’s going to be sort of a crisis almost. It’s going to be an opportunity, but it’s also going to be difficult.”

Finding a landlord willing to rent to Janet, who has no recent rental or employment history, will be a challenge, Soucie said.

“Hopefully, a co-op will be open to helping someone with her challenges,” he said.