Back in November Robin Urback wrote an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail about the challenges of homelessness in Toronto with this headline and with her usual directness. She comes out swinging, as these two paragraphs demonstrate:
For years, a vocal minority of social activists have effectively dictated public policy in Canadian cities. Homeless encampments in parks and beside playgrounds have not simply been tolerated, but recharacterized as legitimate neighbourhoods to be protected...
It is not simply a matter of restoring the use of public spaces for everyone, but restoring a sense of order, of social cohesion, of faith in the institutions of governance. Because the longer visible signs of social decay are allowed to fester, the more inclined those with means will be to simply check out – figuratively and literally – leaving those without the ability to relocate to deal with playgrounds littered with drug paraphernalia. No one wants to live in a place where they perceive the rights of those breaking the law to take precedence over those who have chosen to abide by them.
Urback doesn't quite call those who support those who are in homeless encampments as "liberal bleeding hearts" but she comes close. There were many responses including one from a former Toronto city planner who seems to agree and speaks of the social contract that is key to a healthy community.
Of course, the notion of a social contract and faith in the institutions of governance makes sense to those who are employed, housed, and have enough to eat. For those in society who figure that the rules favour a few and not those on the margins. including the working poor, these notions ring hollow.
i don't disagree with the concerns for safety and access to public spaces. We all want our kids to be able to move about freely and all of us to be able to use our parks as they were intended. But after I read the article I returned to the book Encampment by Anglican priest Maggie Helwig. This is a grace and God-filled reflection on her work with those who are unhoused in the heart of Toronto, some of them living literally on the doorstep of the church called St. Stephens-in-the-Fields. She describes the huge difficulties of accessing a system of support for those without shelter and other basic necessities of life. She is both boundlessly compassionate and clear-eyed and frames her work in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She includes excerpts from sermons that are powerful.
Encampment is brilliant in my estimation, a view I've discovered is shared by actor and director Sarah Polley, who gives copies to friends.
Last week Helwig won her second award for the book, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize. She received the $40,000 monetary prize.at the Politics and the Pen gala, an annual fundraiser attended by some of Ottawa’s power players. According to the Global News report Helwig was direct herself:
“There is a tendency among politicians these days to speak as if you were helpless, as if you had no real volition or power but are only slaves of the God of the economy. But the God of the economy is a human creation, and you do have power, and you do have choices about how you use it,” she said in her acceptance speech.
She encouraged the politicians, lobbyists and businesspeople to consider the experiences of unhoused people as they wield their power.
“Policies of neglect, exclusion and displacement have a body count. The median age of death for homeless women in Toronto is 36 years, and it is not much better for men,” she said before reading a list of 20 names, all belonging to unhoused people in her community who had died in the last couple of years.
Communities of all sizes in this country are toiling away at addressing the issues of poverty and the need for what Urback calls social cohesion. I don't question the sincerity of our local politicians, social service agencies, and faith communities as they do this important and often thankless work. I pray that by the grace of God we will find solutions that are good news and Good News, as bleak as circumstances may seem. We must remember that the "unhoused" are human beings with names and needs who desire a better life.
This is a long blog entry but a final note: Helwig has chosen to give her awards of $20,000 and $40,000 to those who need rent money to get into housing. She literally puts her money where her mouth is.
