26097 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Do any of you know how INCREDIBLY hard it is to receive welfare in this province? You've literally had to have exhausted all of your possible avenues for funds if you're a regular tax payer who has fallen on hard times before you have any hope of reviving a nickel.

Any, and I mean any chance that you could be in a position to seek financial help from friends or family will be taken into consideration and your application will hinge on whether or not you've exhausted those avenues.

I think there are agencies, or experts, used by housing agencies who have some means of sidestepping the requirements that a legitimately hard-pressed tax payer has and they can push through for welfare for those who seek their services.

I guess what I'm saying is unless you enter the world of social services, the social safety net is only available to people who have the necessary connections to get it. For average folks who need a leg up it's a very difficult source of support.

[VicHockeyFan]

Let's take the story of Clifford from the Our Place website...

 

https://www.ourplace...cliffords-story

 

At the end of a hard shift, most of us look forward to heading home, getting into something cozy, and relaxing. For Clifford, however, his bed was a dumpster behind the restaurant where he worked.

For the last four years, Clifford, 34, has worked the evening shift at a local restaurant, cooking up chicken and earning the respect of his employer.

When you meet this young man, it’s easy to tell that he takes great pride in being a hard worker and an employee that his boss can count on. So why, one may ask, was he spending his nights curled up behind a dumpster?

The short answer is that Clifford has never been great with money. The moment he gets paid, the cash disappears. But the true answer can only be found by looking deeper into his past.

 

 

OK, the article is being fair, it's telling us Clifford has a job, but then spends all his money.  They do not say what on.  It's not likely CDs or clothes, since he has no home to store these things in.

 

The ominous shadow of the residential school system that had scooped up his parents and grandparents lay waste to his childhood, sinking its claws into his own feelings of self-worth.

Abandoned by his birth parents, Clifford was raised by "Aunties and Grandmothers." Short in stature, he found school difficult as other students kept picking on "the smallest guy in class."

He made it to Grade 12, but preferred working over school, and finally stopped going altogether.

 

 

Throw in the obligatory residential school system, that he was never in... I suppose this will be a go-to excuse for many more generations.  

 

Moving from job to job, Clifford got involved in two serious relationships, finding stability for a time before the marriages broke apart.

"I was working a lot," he says in reference to his second partner, "and not giving her what she needed."

 

 

Hmmm, OK hard-worker, go on...

 

After his last break-up, Clifford became more lost than before. He was now the father of seven children with two ex-partners, and work became his only refuge.

 

 

Alright, well 7 kids with two women is not going to make things easier.  But go on....

 

With a creative mind, Clifford spent his down time building shelters in the woods "until the police showed up and made me tear them down."

He enjoyed the process, however, and would build shelters for other people who were homeless. After getting tired of being roused by the police, he found a sanctuary behind the restaurant’s dumpster. With the blessing of the owners, he built a small shelter and called it home.

But soon that began to take its toll.

"I got tired of being outside," he says with a look that comes across as an apology, as though asking for a warm place to sleep is a sign of weakness.

 

 

hmmmm, OK, now we know how he got to the dumpster part.

 

So anyway, it goes on.

 

https://www.ourplace...cliffords-story

 

My issue is, why does this guy get to double-dip?  He spends all his paycheque, then he also gets free food and the long list on my taxpayer dime at OP?

[VicHockeyFan]

Do any of you know how INCREDIBLY hard it is to receive welfare in this province? You've literally had to have exhausted all of your possible avenues for funds if you're a regular tax payer who has fallen on hard times before you have any hope of reviving a nickel.

Any, and I mean any chance that you could be in a position to seek financial help from friends or family will be taken into consideration and your application will hinge on whether or not you've exhausted those avenues.

 

Funny enough, I looked it up yesterday when an advocate was on CFAX.  You can apply for welfare as soon as you are unemployed and have $2000 or less cash in the bank ($4000 for a couple).  You can still have a car of value of up to $10,000.  You can have a home and a mortgage.  You can have all kinds of belongings as long as they are not very easily liquidated for cash.

 

It's not that hard.

[VicHockeyFan]

I'm not very sympathetic to Lloyd's story either.

 

https://www.ourplace...om/lloyds-story

 

At age 54, and married for 23 years, the hard-working bricklayer was brought so low by his wife’s death that he returned to a lifestyle that he knew well, a lifestyle that had tripped him up in the past.

 

"I was suicidal, super depressed, and began using drugs," he says. "I planned to take some heroin and take myself out."

 

Each time he hit a new low, however, something inside made Lloyd reach out for help.

 

"I entered detox nine separate times in four years," he says, shaking his head in disbelief. "But never got referred to stabilization even once. I was put back on the street over and over again."

 

 

Although his own childhood was troubled — his parents’ marriage breaking up when he was 12; his father having become an alcoholic

 

 

So 44 years after his parents break-up he is using that as his reason for drug addiction?

 

One of the ways Lloyd is working his way back toward his goal of independent living is by taking a part-time job at Our Place with the custodial team.

 

"I chased the job," he says. "When I heard there was an opening, I jumped at it because I’ve always liked to stay busy."

 

He adds, "I got my first job at 11 years old, washing dishes at White Spot here in Victoria. I’ve also done landscaping, demolition, painting, and earned my red seal in brick laying."

 

Visitors may spot Lloyd washing the pavement in front of the Our Place building on Pandora Avenue. Every day, he takes either the hose or the power washer and clears all the dirt and discarded cigarette butts from the main entrance.

 

 

Ah so here is the Our Place solution.    Give him a union job at $22/hr. washing the sidewalk.

[VicHockeyFan]

More sympathy for Kari, but the drugs theme is also in this story.  That's 3 for 3 here.  OP hand-picked the best 3 stories they had and they all involve drug use.

 

Yet we continue to enable drug use at Our Place, at CCH.

 

 

 

https://www.ourplace...com/karis-story

 

Her family life was never stable, and after being sexually assaulted at the age of 15 by a 40-year-old man, she ran away to live on the streets.

Her first stop was East Hastings in Vancouver, where at the age of 17, she was sexually assaulted again.

"I have gaps," she says. "Parts of my life are blank."

Life on the streets was difficult, and Kari soon found herself battling drug addiction.

"I was using everything," she says. "It was just what you did to stop the pain."

 

[J Billings]

Let's take the story of Clifford from the Our Place website...

 

https://www.ourplace...cliffords-story

 

 

OK, the article is being fair, it's telling us Clifford has a job, but then spends all his money.  They do not say what on.  It's not likely CDs or clothes, since he has no home to store these things in.

 

 

Throw in the obligatory residential school system, that he was never in... I suppose this will be a go-to excuse for many more generations.  

 

 

Hmmm, OK hard-worker, go on...

 

 

Alright, well 7 kids with two women is not going to make things easier.  But go on....

 

 

hmmmm, OK, now we know how he got to the dumpster part.

 

So anyway, it goes on.

 

https://www.ourplace...cliffords-story

 

My issue is, why does this guy get to double-dip?  He spends all his paycheque, then he also gets free food and the long list on my taxpayer dime at OP?

Well, one question that I don't think gets touched on enough is the financial impact of supporting a drug habit. As in, if someone can help a person beat the addiction, then they would have more money to spend on housing, etc. It might be taboo to raise that in Victoria, but surely that should be an incentive - that and the misery the addict must be experiencing. I just feel like maybe the "compassion" is sometimes misguided.

[VicHockeyFan]

Now is this over-the-top, or what?  Come on OP, the cold weather shelters were not full, you had vans shuttling people to them.  Not sure who this guy and gal is so cold frost was forming in their hair.

 

 

 

 

 

[spanky123]

More sympathy for Kari, but the drugs theme is also in this story.  That's 3 for 3 here.  OP hand-picked the best 3 stories they had and they all involve drug use.

 

Yet we continue to enable drug use at Our Place, at CCH.

 

 

 

https://www.ourplace...com/karis-story

 

Kari's story was posted to FB a year ago. So she is either not a client now or her 'transitional housing' has lasted 18 months thus far.

[Mike K.]

Funny enough, I looked it up yesterday when an advocate was on CFAX. You can apply for welfare as soon as you are unemployed and have $2000 or less cash in the bank ($4000 for a couple). You can still have a car of value of up to $10,000. You can have a home and a mortgage. You can have all kinds of belongings as long as they are not very easily liquidated for cash.

It's not that hard.

I actually tried to help someone apply for welfare. The obstacles in place prevented this person from having any hope of receiving the funds. This person could have really used the help over a period of several months. Zero in the bank, no assets. No-go. Why? Because all avenues via family were not exhausted.

It was heartbreaking to feel so let down by the system.

[3isenough]

Funny enough, I looked it up yesterday when an advocate was on CFAX. You can apply for welfare as soon as you are unemployed and have $2000 or less cash in the bank ($4000 for a couple). You can still have a car of value of up to $10,000. You can have a home and a mortgage. You can have all kinds of belongings as long as they are not very easily liquidated for cash.

It's not that hard.

I know of a few people that had no issue receiving welfare cheques, they didn't have to attempt to request assistance from family or liquidate any assets for cash.

[Mike K.]

Hmm. How recently were these experiences? I admit the one I'm directly familiar with was circa 2011, or thereabouts.

[VicHockeyFan]

Hmm. How recently were these experiences? I admit the one I'm directly familiar with was circa 2011, or thereabouts.

 

They might have just got a hard-ass intake worker.   Or answered incorrectly.  Just say you have no family or friends.  You are not obligated to list your family/friends once you are an adult.

[Archie]

I just walked from Pandora down Douglas to the library. There were beat cops all over , first time in years I have seen that. Its a good thing but also sad that it takes public shaming to make this happen. I wonder how long we will see this? 

 

Thanks HD for sharing your video's! 

[RFS]

we will need an HB video per week, each more damning than the last to keep the police presence up. thats the power of vibrant victoria

[A Girl is No one]

Mark my words: when they push the crime a block or two away from CCH, they will claim that the new facility reduced crime in the neighborhood. Anything happening a block or more away will fall in the "can you prove that it was residents of CCH". We heard that every single time about tent city.

And of course, how many times have we been told that Insite in Vancouver reduced crime, while they always omitted to mention the 60+ new cops they posted in the immediate viscinity of the facility.

Lies, lies, and more lies.

[Mike K.]

So what's the situation around the former tent city now? We haven't really had a then and now comparison on here.

[A Girl is No one]

Much improved where I am. Still some issues around Mt Edwards though. I see new fencing up on private property around there. Bc Housing and Coolaid are gearing up for the "consultation" process to make it permanent and increase the number of residents in yet, another low barrier facility. This one, 18 steps from a school with kids as young as 4. They also want to remove the security guards that have been there. Despite the security guard, there have been many issues, but it was better than when there was no security guard. This is absurd.

[A Girl is No one]

Here is another mention in the news where her flakiness says again that the $60M the CRD is borrowing ($30M is borrowed, the other $30M is given by the province, I think) will go towards Housing First for the chronic homeless. Nothing for the working poor or people on disability or people down on their luck. The chronic homeless are people like those at CCH. They are dealing with drug addiction and/or mental illness that makes them incapable of living on their own. That's many more CCH she wants to bring to Victoria! And we're borrowing a lot of money on the Victoria/CRD taxpayer dime to do it.

 

http://www.vicnews.c.../410949415.html

 

“(The coalition) led to a $60 to $90 million regional housing first program and now the coalition is the body to help lead the implementation of that program. Most of the people living in a state of chronic homelessness live in the City of Victoria, but the housing will be distributed across the region, which is fantastic.”

Edited by A Girl is No one, 18 January 2017 - 09:06 AM.

[VicHockeyFan]

“(The coalition) led to a $60 to $90 million regional housing first program and now the coalition is the body to help lead the implementation of that program. Most of the people living in a state of chronic homelessness live in the City of Victoria, but the housing will be distributed across the region, which is fantastic.”

 

 

I can assure you, not other jurisdiction is likely to take a low-barrier housing facility.

[A Girl is No one]

still... for those who support CCH/Mt Edwards etc. because they are not in their neck of the wood (and there are many such people, I have seen them in meetings, arguing for tent city/Mt Edwards/CCH only to get in their cars and drive home, safely away from the said facilities, at the end of the meetings), we are setting a very big precedent. If Mt Edwards is allowed to become permanent, I would venture to say that no one is safe in Victoria. Time to move to Oak Bay, Saanich or the West shore.