Homelessness in York Region

The Toronto Star has published an article on the shocking rise of homelessness in York Region.  The tenor of the article is all wrong.  Homelessness isn't "hidden" as the article's headline suggests.  It is all around us and the crisis is plain for anyone to see.

In Newmarket, the youth shelter is filled to capacity.  East Gwillimbury has a men's shelter, the only one in York Region, and it too is bursting at the seams.  The Inn from the Cold, which operates seasonally in Newmarket, has difficulty keeping up with demand.

The Salvation Army, many local churches, United Way, and others run programs to help people on the precipice of becoming homeless, with programs and resources.

Yet, despite all of this, the problem persists.

Walk on Newmarket trails or through Jokers Hill trails in the early morning and the evidence of homelessness abounds.  Visit the library on a cold wintry day and you will see people who have nowhere else to go to keep warm.

In a town as wealthy as Newmarket, it is a community-wide tragedy to have people living without shelter surrounded by homes approaching $1,000,000.

Yet I don't want to give the impression that money solves the problem of homelessness.  Particular to Newmarket, we run into the issue of poor leadership that has exacerbated the crisis.

Mayor Van Bynen recently tweeted a photo of himself collected a large novelty cheque from the Royal Bank Branch on Yonge and Savage for Belinda's Place.  It is an ironic photo because directly across the street from the branch is the unfinished Belinda's Place, many months delayed (like so many other Newmarket construction projects led by this Mayor), despite having already reached its fundraising goals.

And it is an ironic photo because Royal Bank, (like all of the major banks), through predatory lending practices, that prey upon people who can't afford credit with 24% Visa or Mastercard interest rates, are the leading villains to the homelessness problem.  Social scientists used to blame addiction or family breakdown for homelessness, but after seeing the outcome of the 2008 US lending crisis, the billions of dollars each Canadian bank earns annually in profits are now looked upon in a much more sinister different light.

But ultimately, we need to look at those politicians at York Region Council who give a whole lot of lip service towards dealing with homelessness yet do absolutely nothing about.  York Region has 1.1 million residents yet only provides 30 spaces for homeless men (located in East Gwillimbury).  How can this make any sense to a self-appointed homelessness advocate like Newmarket's Deputy Mayor, John Taylor?  For years, he has been a leading member of the Housing York Inc. board, a taxpayer funded organization that provides emergency and low cost housing in York Region.  This organization is failing badly in its mandate to help.

If you are on the risk of becoming homeless and you live in southern York Region, (Markham, Richmond Hill, or Vaughan), there is very little help available from Housing York Inc.  Moving north, there is slightly more help available.

York Region is wealthy.  Corporations like the Royal Bank with their billions in annual profits are wealthy.  Surely there are scraps available to resolve the shelter bed shortage for this upcoming winter.

30 shelter beds for homeless men in our municipality of 1,100,000 residents is barbaric.  We must do much better.