Post: #1

Never mind the fact that men are much more likely to end up homeless than women, let's focus on women anyway.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/06/...women.html

Quote:Lisa Roberts and her 15-month-old son, Liam, spend their days at the Whitby library or walking around parks and playgrounds.

At night, the same playgrounds become their place to sleep, curled up in the play structures wrapped in blankets.

Roberts, 38 — who is nearly eight months pregnant with a girl — and her son have been homeless since the beginning of May, when she had to leave her basement apartment in Whitby because her landlord’s son was returning from university.

Living off welfare, she has been unable to find a one-bedroom apartment for less than $800 in Durham Region.

“I was told there is a 12-year waiting list (for affordable housing),” she says. And when a rental apartment is listed online, she says, landlords just don’t want to rent to people with children “because they can be destructive.”

Roberts has doctors in Ajax but is having trouble getting to them, and missed her last prenatal care appointment. Liam is healthy for now, she says.

Roberts is one among a growing number of women who are having to wait longer and longer to find homes in Durham Region, says Atiya Siddiquei, manager of the Muslim Welfare Centre, the region’s only shelter that caters specifically to women and children who are homeless but not fleeing abuse (there are separate shelters for that in Oshawa and Ajax).

“Honestly speaking, it’s really getting tougher and tougher every day,” she sighs. The 40-bed shelter is usually filled to capacity.

“Most landlords don’t want to rent to people from shelters. Bad credit is another problem; many people have been evicted in the past. It makes it very hard to find places for these women. It’s a long process (to get into affordable housing). If they are not abused, just homeless, they have to wait years and years, with no other option than rental properties.”

However, she says, even though women are now spending three months or more at the shelter while seeking housing, instead of six to eight weeks, it’s even worse in Toronto.

“We’re really finding women are getting stuck,” agrees Ruth Crammond, director of shelter and clinical services at the YWCA, which runs shelters in Toronto for women who are homeless or are fleeing violence. “Women are staying in Toronto shelters longer.”

The number of women and children entering the mainstream shelter system is also on the rise, according to a study noted in the first ever national report card on homelessness, released this week.

“It’s difficult to say why, but it could be a product of the pressure on low-income families, whose earning power is decreasing … as housing costs are increasing, which squeezes you out of the housing market and leaves you one crisis away from homelessness,” says Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

The report card called for all levels of government to contribute to building affordable housing. Ontario’s problem with affordable rental housing was recently described in an Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association report as “staggering and worsening.”

Women with children, in particular, want to find housing that is both affordable and in an area where they feel safe, notes Crammond. But after months in a shelter, they often accept substandard housing that can put them at risk of violence or further violence, she says.

“In rare cases we see women returning to their abusers … or entering relationships quickly to secure a place to live.”

Cases of homeless parents and children are investigated and dealt with based on severity, said Caroline Newton, spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies. A child will only be taken away from a homeless parent if there’s “an immediate risk of safety,” Newton said, adding that efforts are always made to get in touch with other family members who may be able to help temporarily take care of the child, or place the parent and child in a proper shelter.

If a child is taken into CAS care, the aim is to eventually reunite that child with his or her family, said Newton. “The protection and the well-being of the child is paramount, but the goal is not to just scoop as many kids as possible,” she said. “The goal is to be as least disruptive as possible.”

Back in Whitby, Roberts is frantically continuing her search for a home, poring over online listings provided by her social worker at the library every day. She takes breaks to collect batteries, which she exchanges for cash to help her feed her son.

She says that after spending one night in a shelter, that just isn’t an option — “it didn’t feel safe for my son. He stayed awake all night shaking,” she says.

Though her father lives in Whitby, living with him isn’t on the table. She says their relationship is strained — documented in passionate poetry and prose Roberts has penned over the years and one day hopes to publish. And she is no longer with the father of Liam and her as-yet-unborn daughter.

“I’m hoping to find something soon, before my baby is born,” she says. She has name picked out for the girl: Ailey. “After that, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Here's a quick idea. How about we return to the days when the father got the kids, no matter what?

The benefits:

(1) Father of kids may be more capable of giving their children somewhere to live that isn't a playground, and

(2) Mothers will be that much more inclined to shack up with men who will be reliable providers, if ending the relationship = losing contact with kids.

Post: #2

Wow, I remember when Whitby barely had a toys r us, let alone any homeless people. That whole pickering to oshawa area has really taken a shit in the past 30 years.

Post: #3

It's hard as hell for a woman to end up homeless unless she is completely out of her tree mentally. Branch after branch exists to arch to catch these women and for evrey women needing a place to stay a man exists willing to take a gamble to help.

How the fuck you end up on the streets knocked up with a 15-month old also? Like fuking really.

What is missing from that hamster rag is the back story of how we became homeless in the first place. She put no details of a classic abusive relationship with her man/baby momma. Was she just to much of a mess, poor mother, and possibly getting around? It takes a lot of rotten balls to put your newborn onto the streets. I don't care how alpha you are 90% of father wouldn't do it, not that soon unless it was a extremely nuclear situation. So what is the back story Toronto Star?

I'm being a huge ass hole on this but this story is strait junk. I'm assuming she got kicked out if that that child she is pregnant with is not the dudes she was living with.

But anyways back to the fact that basically a high percentage of homeless are men. The options she burned through don't exsit for men. Welfare? Hahaha. Also she has had options for shelters but deems them to be more unsafe with support services and staff then the lawless streets. Cool if she feels that but 90% of shelters are divided by gender and I really cant see women trying to prey on other women's children, maybe her but not her son.

Let's just be blunt here it's her being prego fuking things up. If he wasn prego she would be shaking up wih a guy right now. That's how these white trash girls roll.

I've worked in public health and have seen the differences of feme shelters to the big infested men shelters and rooming houses. Where are they speaking on the exploitive rooming houses in which many slumlords seize people's incomes as collateral for a roof over thier head, Where violence is a daily occrance?

Unless he is not mentally there no man would complain. He would just ask for a honest chance to make something of himself. My proofs set always told me that especially in Canada it's harder work to end up homeless then not. So many nets are in place that you really have to try hard to fuck up to do so. It isn't Survival of the fittest like in the USA were tech millionars can end up on the streets after some bad investments. In Canada you really got to fuck it up bad for yourself to end up in hat situation. So want to hear how she fucked up her own situation.

The Toronto Star is a rag paper. Nobody with a rational mind can't take that story serious. My issue is that she is fuking up potentially two lives here. I could care less about that former rock slut but her boy and future daughter need help. She is being selfish using her son as a pawn/prop, she knows damn well she is emergency/top priority for any services available so it's sad to see her fuking with things to prove a point. She called the Star to complain before calling apartment listings I bet. Fuck this mess of a woman.

That ends my rant.

Post: #4

And take the son away from her.

I don't want to know what horrors that baby is going through. A bat-shit insane, whore of a mom and exposure to the streets -- when you can barely walk.

And like most of these fucked up women if the son looks like the father who kicked her out or just knocked her up she will take it out on the boy.

Post: #5

I might let her suck my dick for a cheeseburger.

Post: #6

A woman is never broke as long as she has a pussy. Therefore, if a bitch winds up on the streets, it's her own fault, even if she has a kid.

Post: #7

I always enjoy how when some things happen to men, they're shrugged off--but when the same things happen to women, it's all of a sudden an outrage.

Homeless man? He should MAN UP and support himself, why is he begging for handouts?

Homeless woman? OMFG WHERE ARE THE SAFETY NETS IN THIS COUNTRY? HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN TO A WOMAN!?

Men dying in wars? That's the cost of democracy. The men overseas are proud to fight for their country and find the sacrifice worthy.

Women dying in wars? HOW CAN WE LET THIS HAPPEN?! WHERE ARE THE MEN ON THE FRONT-LINES TO PROTECT THEM?!

Men putting in long hours at the office? Advancement in the corporate ladder requires hard-work. No one's entitled to promotions. Promotions aren't free, you know.

Women putting in long hours at the office WHERE IS THE WORK-LIFE BALANCE? HOW CAN CORPORATIONS BE SO HARD ON THEIR EMPLOYEES?! WHY AREN'T THERE MORE WOMEN IN THE C-SUITE?!

etc. etc.

Post: #8

Quote:Though her father lives in Whitby, living with him isn’t on the table. She says their relationship is strained — documented in passionate poetry and prose Roberts has penned over the years and one day hopes to publish. And she is no longer with the father of Liam and her as-yet-unborn daughter.

I'm fucking tired of this shit. Stop being a cunt and maybe a man will want to take care of you.

Given the option of being a cunt or being homeless she chooses homeless?

Post: #9

Speaking as someone who used to work with the homeless (and in fact once crashed at a squatters' camp solely so I could write an investigative piece about it), I'd estimate that virtually all women on the streets are there for a reason.

Like everyone's been saying, women have so many more options available for them in terms of housing and financial support. Forget charities and welfare: where's this woman's family? Why won't her parents take her in? Doesn't she have any friends who could give her a hand? The fact that she can't avail herself of any of these options implies that she is seriously, seriously screwed up. The only women who are stuck on the streets are hardcore drug addicts and mental invalids. You get a slightly higher percentage of homeless girls in temperate cities like Portland or Seattle, most of whom are crusties or part of some other degenerate subculture that thinks showering is capitalist oppression.

I'd estimate that a quarter of homeless people are mentally unfit to hold a job (and would be better off being kept in state-run sanitariums), a quarter are legitimately deserving of help, and the rest are on the streets because they want to be there, because shooting smack and begging for money beats working for a living in their estimation. When I was volunteering at a soup kitchen in my teens a decade ago, I was constantly incensed whenever I saw these supposedly starving people sit down with their meals and whip out a cell phone that was more expensive than mine. Even today in Portland, the bum capital of America, you've got hobos lining up at the soup kitchens on Burnside playing with their iPhones.

One thing I will say in defense of the "honest homeless" (the folks who ended up on the street due to a series of unfortunate events) is that once you land there, it's virtually impossible to climb up without help. Check out John Dolan's book "Canada Was a Cakewalk," where he details how he got fired from a university in Victoria for being un-PC and subsequently ended up begging on the streets. He eventually had to beg his brother in Seattle for help to pull himself out of the hole. Thing is, Dolan and his wife were immigrants and didn't have a support network of friends and family to help them out.

This woman is on the street because of her own poor choices. She was given every opportunity to pull herself up and squandered them all. Sucks for her kids, but she deserves to be in the gutter.

Post: #10

(06-25-2013 12:21 AM)Matt Forney Wrote:  This woman is on the street because of her own poor choices. She was given every opportunity to pull herself up and squandered them all. Sucks for her kids, but she deserves to be in the gutter.

Nevertheless, homeless people, whether they are deservedly on the streets or not, are a real eyesore. They should be given a meager place to stay, perhaps a damp cell in a Greek Orthodox monastary, and be kept out of the public eye. I don't want to have to see homeless folks in every city and large town in America. And pushing them to the hinterlands isn't a solution, as we've seen with convicted pedophiles. It just leads to unsightly tent camps underneath highway overpasses.

Moreover, no matter how bad someone is or how much of a fuckup they are, the winters in this part of the world can be bitterly cruel. It makes me angry whenever I drive by panhandlers in January. The police should mercifully arrest the senseless bastards. Again, they should be locked up at the lowest expense, even against their will, as far as I'm concerned. They'll be grudgingly thankful afterwards. I say this despite being pretty much a libertarian otherwise.

Post: #11

I stayed in a shelter for a while many years ago. They fed me 3x a day, let me shower with hot water and gave me a place to lay my head. I was around addicts and weirdos but the ex junkies and religious people who ran it didn't put up with bullshit. They were quick to call the cops on someone if they started trouble. I don't know why she said it felt un safe if she's sleeping on a fucking playground. I stayed there while I looked for a job, got one and saved up then got the hell out.

Post: #12

(06-25-2013 12:21 AM)Matt Forney Wrote:  I'd estimate that a quarter of homeless people are mentally unfit to hold a job (and would be better off being kept in state-run sanitariums)

They were, before the Reagan years - but that's a portion of the legacy nobody seems to remember.