jillumbach General Information, Media

Smoking to be banned inside Grey housing units

By Denis Langlois, Sun Times, Owen Sound

Monday, July 8, 2013 5:22:45 EDT PM

Three fires over eight months in 2012 at Grey County-owned housing buildings has prompted the upper-tier government to move to ban smoking inside residential units.

A no-smoking clause will be included in all lease agreements — signed by new tenants and tenants that have transferred to another unit — starting Jan. 1, 2014.

Existing tenants will be “grandfathered” and can continue to smoke in their units for the length of their tenancy, unless they opt to sign a no-smoking policy addendum to their lease, said Grey County housing director Rod Wyatt.

The new policy will also ban smoking outdoors within five metres of any windows, doors, patios or balconies.

“We’ve been considering this for a couple years now,” Wyatt said in a recent interview.

“Certainly the fires gave us the impetus to move forward at this time.”

The county owns 888 residential units. About half are located in Owen Sound, with others in communities like Hanover, Flesherton, Dundalk and Meaford.

One unit was destroyed and two others were heavily damaged after a fire broke out May 25, 2012, at the Alpha St. townhouse complex in Owen Sound. No one was injured in the blaze.

Nearly two months later, fire crews responded to a blaze at county-owned Lemon Court at 85 Lemon St. in Thornbury. One unit was severely damaged. A tenant was taken to hospital as a precaution and two were displaced.

The third fire resulted in the death of an elderly man, which heavily damaged a unit Dec. 15 at the county-owned Maple Villa apartment complex at 81 Bruce St.

Wyatt said the July and December fires were both caused by “careless smoking.” The Alpha St. fire was ignited by a stove, but evidence of “unsafe smoking” was found in the unit, he said.

He said the county has received an increased number of complaints from tenants about the impact of secondhand smoking.

The Smoke Free Ontario Act already bans people from smoking in common areas of multi-unit dwellings, which include hallways, lobbies, elevators and stairways.

jillumbach General Information

YMCA of Owen Sound Grey Bruce requires a Housing Support Worker

YMCA of Owen Sound Grey Bruce requires a:
Housing Support Worker (Part Time, July ‐ December 2013)
Responsibilities: Assist youth and adults to secure and/or maintain housing within their local area. Work
with other organizations to coordinate housing supports. Conduct client assessments to determine
housing support needs.
Qualifications:
• Post‐secondary degree/diploma in Social Services or related discipline
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Self‐motivated, a strong team player
• Works independently with minimal supervision and is disciplined in setting priorities and outcomes
• Minimum Class G Driver’s License; able to travel throughout Bruce and Grey Counties; must have
own vehicle
Location – Hanover, with travel throughout Grey and Bruce counties
Hours: 21 hours per week
Wage Range: Commensurate with education and experience

Please submit resume and cover letter by Thursday, July 10, 2013 to:
Program Coordinator, Community Services
YMCA of Owen Sound Grey Bruce
1450 1st Ave. West, Owen Sound, Ontario N4K 6W2 or email to:
employmentservices@ymcaowensound.on.ca
Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

jillumbach General Information

A Home for Her

MONCTON — Moncton’s Shelley Terrio never dreamed she’d end up living alone, in her car with what little she owns shoved into the back seat. But that’s exactly where she found herself this past May.

“I would get in my car hang on to my keys and put them between my legs and put my seat back and try to get 20 minutes of sleep and wake up and start all over again,” says Terrio.

Terrio says her journey to homelessness started just over 10 years ago. She had a roof over her head and was earning a steady income until about the age of 31, when chronic back pain caused by scoliosis of the spine took over her life.

“I spent most of my days in bed and then depression really set in because I was not a part of society anymore, I had lost my ability to work.”

Forced to live only on her disability income, Terrio’s life took a dark turn.

“I ended up in the psych ward in 2001 and in 2003 after taking enormous overdoses and being on life support for 72 hours and I was not supposed to live.”

Terrio survived, but since then she has struggled to survive financially. In May of this year, her life hit an all time low when she could no longer afford a home to live in and she started living in her car. Night after night she says he was gripped by fear that someone might find out that she was homeless.

“I just didn’t feel like I was anything I just felt like I was taking up space.”

Terrio sat alone, hiding away from the world. That when those suicidal thoughts began drifting back into her mind.

“Death, that was the only thing that I could conclude would end my suffering cause I had no other option.”

Until a family member lead her to Michele Nadeau.

Nadeau runs the YWCA program, A Home for Her, that houses homeless women in Greater Moncton.

“We get to hear their stories and then if we are able to place them we do have apartments that are scattered though the Greater Moncton area.” says Nadeau.

Through A Home for Her, homeless women are paired up with roommates and housed in fully furnished apartments for one year. The program started last October and is not subsidized. So participants are required to pay 350 dollars in rent a month to live in their apartments. They are also required to take part in support counselling to learn how to get back on and stay on their feet financially and emotionally. Nadeau says the program’s goal is to empower women.

Terrio enrolled in the program just over a month ago. Now, instead of sleeping in her car, she sleeps in her own bed every night. She says her back still aches every day, but she says it’s nothing compared to the pain of being homeless.

© Shaw Media, 2013

jillumbach Advocacy, General Information, Research

The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013

The State of Homelessness in Canada: 2013 is the first extensive Canadian report card on homelessness. This report examines what we know about homelessness, the historical, social and economic context in which it has emerged, demographic features of the problem, and potential solutions. The State of Homelessness provides a starting point to inform the development of a consistent, evidence-based approach towards ending homelessness.

The goal in developing this report was to both assess the breadth of the problem and to develop a methodology for national measurement. The Canadian Homelessness Research Network and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness believe that homelessness is not a given and that not just reducing, but ending, the crisis is achievable.

The information for the State of Homelessness in Canada report has been compiled by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network (Homeless Hub) and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness from the best available research to date. Because we lack strong data on homelessness in Canada, our estimates of the scale of the problem are just that: an estimate, but they represent an important starting point. As the first national report card on homelessness, the evaluation of the response to homelessness by Canada’s homeless sector provides an important means of benchmarking progress toward ending homelessness.

Below is an Infographic on the average monthly costs of housing people while they are homeless. Data came from the The Wellesley Institute. You can access the State of Homelessness 2013 report at: http://www.homelesshub.ca/SOHC2013/

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