>Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 16:31:27 -0400
>To: Street Nurses
>From: Cathy Crowe <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: it is a disaster
>
>FYI: This is the text of a deputation I did today to the first meeting of
the Council Strategy Committee for people without homes. If you support my
recommendations please consider emailing Frank Baldassini, committee
Secretary at [log in to unmask] or Councillor Layton, who chairs
the committee at [log in to unmask]
>
>Council Strategy Committee
>On People Without Homes
>City of Toronto
>c/o Metro Hall
>50 John Street
>Toronto, Ontario
>
>May 11, 1998
>
>Dear Committee members:
>
>Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today at your first meeting.
I'm here today to outline why I believe that you should consider Toronto's
crisis of homelessness a disaster for the purpose of receiving emergency
federal relief.
>
>In April I brought this concept to the Advisory Committee on Homeless and
Socially Isolated Persons for several reasons.
>
>First, our committee was formed in what I now, in retrospect, consider to
have been the early stage of an acute disaster. Disasters, natural or
man-made, are not restricted to countries in the tropics, but their
consequences are similar. In late1995-early 1996 our committee heard
evidence on the following warning signs of impending crisis: serious
overcrowding of our day and overnight shelter system, a 38% tuberculosis
infection rate among the homeless, clusters of freezing deaths of homeless
people, a rise in overall morbidity including  malnutrition and the spread
of infectious diseases and a rise in the number of homeless deaths.
>
>Second, after 26 years of nursing in the inner city of Toronto, I now turn
to disaster and relief effort literature to inform my nursing practice. For
example, the most common health problems I see are related to trauma,
tuberculosis transmission, spread of acute respiratory infection, hunger,
malnutrition, diarrhoea and lice and more serious than any of the above,
deprivation of the human spirit.  Similar to a refugee camp.
>
>Third, displaced persons suffer physically and emotionally - witness the
impact of the emergency shelters on people in Eastern Canada during the ice
storm. Although I considered offering assistance during the ice storm I
faced a heart wrenching reality, in fact a shocking reminder - that people
homeless in this city have been hit by a disaster, and many have been living
a disaster for up to ten years. New victims of the disaster, whether it be
due to eviction, unemployment or family violence, face dismantled health and
social supports, an emergency shelter system that is full and a society that
blames them for even being there.
>
>Finally, Council will eventually receive a report from the Golden Task
Force. I must ask - does the City have the budgetary capacity to deal with
any Task Force recommendations that have a significant cost associated with
them?  I suspect not. We need external financial relief now.
>
>I believe I speak for many when I say that in early 1998 we have reached a
point as a City and as front-line workers where we have to realize that we
are failing miserably responding to this disaster. The homeless numbers are
growing exponentially. As recently as Friday our committee heard of the
expected shortfall of 2000 emergency hostel beds. As of last week, the
system is full to capacity and in overflow mode for women and children.  The
reality is we are not in a position to solve this crisis on our own. Around
the world, forced economic migration to large metropolises has led to
similar crises around homelessness. In Europe and in the United States,
federal funding has been put in place to respond to a national issue that
has local ramifications.  In Canada, Toronto is clearly in the most serious
position with respect to homelessness.  I believe that the City should seek
emergency federal relief specifically to create low-cost housing and to
develop emergency shelter that can adequately meet demands.
>
>I would like to suggest the following recommendations to you.
>
>1. That the committee begin its deliberations from the premise that
homelessness has reached crisis proportions in the City of Toronto and is
unsolvable without emergency federal or provincial relief.
>
>2. That the committee request a staff report which would include: a) the
various pieces of provincial and federal legislation which deal with
emergency planning and or disaster relief; b) Canadian precedents whereby
government relief was provided for shelter or housing such as the post World
War II housing creation; c) analysis of the new City of Toronto Emergency
by-law as to whether it provides the means to respond to the emergency needs
(food, safety, shelter and health care) that face a significant proportion
of the Toronto public who are homeless.
>
>3. That the committee report to Council with recommendations on how to
proceed with discussions with the federal and provincial governments on this
matter.
>
>Cathy Crowe, RN
>