Toronto Star: May 13, 2000
Hey buddy, can you spare 200 bucks?

Picture By Michele Landsberg

IT'S your money.

So say the conservatives who lobby for lower and lower taxes. ``It's your
money.''

The most manipulative and fatuous ad slogan of the '80s and '90s greed
decades was ``Because you deserve it . . .'' That phrase was blazoned on
everything from luxury condos to overpriced cosmetics - presumably to wash
away any last twinge of guilt still harboured by the gilded classes.

Now the merchandisers of greed simply assume that no one has any guilt or
conscience left. ``It's your money,'' they shrill, urging more and more tax
cuts.

Well, it's your money, all right, but only if you fell from another planet,
fully formed and all turned out in your custom-tailored suit, and are
prepared to exist without any public services whatsoever.

If, on the other hand, you are a normal inhabitant of this province, you owe
everyone else big-time. We all do. The pleasant hospital where you were
born, the vitamins in your milk, the electricity that makes your computer
hum, the relatively clean water that pours from your tap, the sidewalks you
skipped along to school, the theatres, libraries, parks, streetcars, roads,
the safety and civility of your town or city - everything that makes our
Canadian life so fine is the result of a vast, intricate network and
inheritance of public co-operation.

Sadly, that once-common understanding of the public good has been seriously
eroded by the prophets of privatization. Watching the resulting damage to
our province, I sometimes think they should be arrested for malicious mischief.

Fortunately, not everyone has bought their simple-minded credo of greed.

The moment the Ontario government announced its budget a couple of weeks
ago, the buzz began: ``Where will you donate your $200?''

The Tories must think the voters are a really cheap date. They gouge more
than a billion dollars from the education system and then dole it out in
tiny dribbles, like so many trick-or-treat packets, to individual taxpayers.
I guess they thought this penny candy would sweeten us up for the news that
corporations will get a $3.9 billion tax break over five years. But no one I
know is tempted. Individually, those $200 cheques mean nothing; put
together, they can leverage tremendous social development.

Anne Golden, president of the United Way of Greater Toronto, nailed it: For
$160 million (of the $235 million giveaway in Toronto alone), the province
could build the 5,000 housing units in Toronto and the 8,500 outside that
would solve homelessness.

Every morning, when my fax machine cranks up to greet me with the daily
media release from the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, I'm reminded that
shelter for the homeless is our most basic and urgent need. Imagine: 22
deaths of homeless people on the streets of Toronto since last November.
Imagine: Every week, Toronto landlords file an average of 500 eviction
applications. That's a lot of families with their hearts in their mouths.

The Ontario Alternative Budget says that, with tenant incomes falling and
rents soaring, one in four tenant households is in danger of homelessness.

For those alert souls and healthy consciences who so promptly began to
discuss where to donate their $200, here's what my research turned up:

57 different agencies in Toronto are scrambling to fill the gaps for the
homeless. Among the projects: a volunteer street patrol; a downtown
infirmary for sick homeless people who are discharged from hospital while
still in need of care; a job skills outreach program to the women housed in
the Kingston Rd. motel strip.

All these and many more are funded through the United Way of Greater Toronto
at 26 Wellington St. E., 11th Floor, Toronto, Ont. M5E 1W9. Earmark your
cheque for the homeless.

The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is the dedicated, indispensable
political push behind the movement for decent housing policy. Its most
familiar spokesperson is street nurse Cathy Crowe. Send donations to TDRC at
168 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ont. M5V 2R4.

The construction of 17,000 units of co-op and non-profit housing was
cancelled when the Tories came in. Dauntlessly, the Co-operative Housing
Federation of Toronto, with some high-powered Torontonians on board, is
working hard to help public housing tenants buy their buildings from the
authorities and run them as co-op communities. Send donations to CHFT
Charitable Fund, 658 Danforth Ave., Suite 306, Toronto, Ont. M4J 5B9.

The Edmund Yu Safe House will be a haven for mentally ill homeless people in
crisis. It's the brainchild of weary volunteers from several outreach
agencies. Donations may be made through Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre,
1499B Queen St. W., Toronto, Ont. M6R 1A3, earmarked for Edmund Yu Safe House.

It's our money; we must make responsible choices.


Housing Now!

Cathy Crowe, RN
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416-703-8482 (117)
416-703-6190 (fax)