| Micki Joachim should be a homeless success story, but instead she’s about to celebrate her 62nd birthday at the Calgary Drop-In Centre.
Years ago she was on the streets because she was addicted to morphine and heroin, but she kicked her drug habit by going on methadone and got herself an apartment in Victoria Park. Recently, she and her roommate Terri were evicted due to Stampede expansion. Terri and Joachim spent a month squatting in an abandoned building before the cops kicked them out and charged them with trespassing. They’re now staying at the Calgary Drop-in Centre. This week some drug addicts tried to rob them of what little possessions they have left. Terri, who suffers from Hep C, bipolar depression and chronic fatigue syndrome, was recently beaten up by another homeless person.
"All I really want is a little place away from everybody who does crack and acts stupid," says Joachim who is on Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) due to severe arthritis. "I don’t care if I have to buy a tent and sleep out on the outskirts. I will."
Mike, who asked that his last name not be used, works seven days a week, 13 hour shifts, but he still can’t afford a place to live so he’s been living at the Calgary Drop-in Centre for a year.
He keeps a photo of his 13-year-old son on his locker at the shelter to use as motivation when he starts to get depressed.
"I don’t know where to turn to…. I really want to get the hell out of here," he says.
Thousands of Calgarians are in similar desperate straits. Last week the City of Calgary announced the results of the 2006 homeless count. It determined that the city is now home to 3,436 homeless people.
Mike has a simple message for various levels of government.
"Get your shit together and look at what’s happening," he says.
Ald. Bob Hawkesworth, who is chair of the city’s affordable housing committee, is calling on the province to establish a premier’s task force to come up with solutions for homelessness and he says he’s hoping it will become a major issue during the leadership race to replace Ralph Klein.
Fast Forward requested interviews with all the leadership candidates on what they’d do to address homelessness. Candidates Mark Norris, Ted Morton and Alana DeLong did not return phone calls by press time.
Leadership candidate Dave Hancock says homelessness is emerging as "one of the pre-eminent problems" in Alberta.
"It’s now people who are moving into the province or coming to the province to take on jobs but not being able to find affordable housing," says Hancock. "I think there’s a whole new level to it that, unless we come to grips with it, is going to continue to build and grow."
Hancock says he’d like to see frontline workers who deal with people who are at risk of becoming homeless given more flexibility.
"Take it away from being so… rule driven to where social workers and people who are operating programs on behalf of government have the ability to use their judgment in support issues," says Hancock.
He says, for example, if a person is $5 over an income threshold that would make them eligible for government support "you shouldn’t have to throw them out… and say come back when you’re really destitute."
He adds that income support programs like social assistance should be examined regularly to determine "are we accomplishing the outcomes that we want to accomplish as a society? That is, Albertans ought to be able to live in dignity."
He says his preference is for the government not to build affordable housing.
"I think it’s better to support people for the period of time they need support than it is to build a stock of housing, but if nobody else is building it then you may have to look at that option," he says.
Jim Dinning, who is considered the frontrunner to replace Klein, says he wants to tackle not just homelessness, but also poverty in general.
"I think one of the things we’ve got to do in the province is to make poverty reduction one of the government goals," he says.
He’s also in support of building more affordable housing, but he says the province also needs support from the federal government.
He adds that ensuring the availability of education and re-training opportunities is crucial "so (people) can afford to pay the rent, not just in an affordable housing unit, but maybe in a market-based unit."
More community-based mental-health programs are also necessary to help prevent mentally ill people from ending up on the streets, he says.
Ed Stelmach says the rapidly escalating rate of homelessness in Calgary "does not reflect the kind of Alberta that I love and it almost seems to be the price of prosperity."
He says the provincial government has to increase the amount of affordable housing because "lack of housing leads to serious social issues so it leads to even greater costs for the taxpayer."
He’d also like to see better planning between municipalities and the provincial government to address the issue.
Lyle Oberg wants to see a "rental assistance program" developed for the working poor to ensure that they can afford a place to stay.
Oberg says he’s not in favour of the government building affordable housing.
"I don’t agree with the affordable housing component of it. I agree that you should subsidize the individual persons and give the individual persons the choice as to where they put their dollars," he says. |
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