Helping the city’s homeless

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

For most city residents, the homeless community represents an absent element of their life, a topic that comes up in casual conversation or a statistic in a news article.

Some may observe them from time-to-time, but for most people, they are out of sight, and perhaps out of mind.

This isn’t the case for Christeen Thornton.

Over the past year, Thornton has become a regular at city hall, advocating in a number of ways for the city’s low-income residents.

Last year, she fought to have city council expand the Residential Rental Housing Licensing system to a city-wide basis.

The system, which aims to ensure landlords are maintaining their properties in accordance with provincial, regional and city policies, currently only exists in the area surrounding Durham College and UOIT.

Although some members of council voiced their support, the idea was ultimately passed over.

After that, Thornton and Daniel Cullen, another local advocate, launched the organization known as Direct Intervention Reaching Everyone (DIRE).

The goal of the organization is simply an attempt to get help to those in need, and more importantly, to those who need it and may be too hesitant to ask.

After a fire at a Centre Street home resulted in the deaths of four people, including two children, in January, Thornton put her focus on providing smoke alarm batteries to lower-income residents.

Since then, their efforts have increased significantly.

On a weekly basis, Thornton and Cullen are out in the community, visiting with precariously housed individuals.

On a Friday afternoon earlier this month, The Oshawa Express joined Thornton on her rounds around the community.

Equipped with a large bag filled with supplies, she heads toward the trail that runs along the Oshawa Creek, west of city hall.

She stops to sit and talk with a woman who is finding some shade under a tree at the side of the trail, handing her a few granola bars to snack on.

Thornton’s trip begins with some good news as the woman informs her she has found employment, and housing.

“Only a few more days and then I’m out,” she proclaims proudly.

Heading farther south on the trail, Thornton warmly greets a group situated underneath the John Street bridge.

She tells The Express that an older gentleman, the most vocal of the group, is somewhat of a local leader in the homeless community. He identifies himself as ‘Pops’

He is upfront in his thoughts on the situation for homeless individuals in the city.

“Oshawa don’t give two sweet craps about these young ones out here on the street,” he says.

‘Pops’ says that homeless individuals often find themselves in confrontation with local bylaw officers and police.

While he admits some “cops will cut you breaks,” he doesn’t hold back on his disdain for the city’s bylaw officers.

“They’re a bunch of clowns, that’s all they are. They wouldn’t cut you a break if your life depended on it. All they want to do is push these guys from one place to another,” he told The Express.

To him, he feels those in power within the city hope the displaced population would just pack up and leave.

He praised Thornton, and others in the community, for the work they do to lend a hand.

“I know there are a lot of people who have been trying to help,” he says.

Thornton takes a more diplomatic stance on how homelessness is being dealt with, believing the issue lies more in a lack of understanding than malicious disregard on behalf of the community and local government.

“Right now, we have investment pouring into the downtown to support business and things like that, but social services and social community centres are not allowed to open up shop downtown right now,” she says. “Meanwhile, we have increases to the homeless population. Every single week I come out, I meet new faces.”

Different from some advocates in the community, Thornton herself has first-hand experience with homelessness.

She says this provides her the ability to deal with individuals in need on a more personal basis.

However, she feels her voice was not being heard by those who have never been in that position.

“I don’t think they tend to understand. There is this thing called class privilege,” she explains. “Rich people tend to associate with other rich people. Obviously, there is an economic privilege, but there is also a social privilege.”

Thornton says to make the impact she’s hoping for, she had to make her efforts more licit.

“Until I launched DIRE and legitimized myself, nobody listened to me. What I had to do to be listened to, I had to be them. How do we supersede these barriers, these economic privileges, where poor people only associate with poor people, and addicts only associate with addicts?”

As far as DIRE’s end game, Thornton says they have ambitious plans.

Along with the Salvation Army, they are currently working on a housing program similar to one in place in Peel Region.

“We want to educate landlords on sensitivity. We will essentially become the tenants, so if a tenant has issues with a landlord, and they don’t feel comfortable dealing with it, they don’t, they deal with us,” Thornton says. “Essentially what we are doing is getting landlords to rent to us on behalf of homeless people.”

Mayor John Henry acknowledged that the city’s past dealings with homeless individuals have been “heavy handed.”

“For us at the city, when we find out there is a group of people or individuals who need help, we respond differently,” Henry states.

With the rise of opioid abuse and mental health issues, the same old concepts don’t work.

“We look at it very differently this year. We see more of a challenge, and we are responding in a different way.”

Instead of simply sending someone to confront individuals, Henry says healthcare and social service professionals are often involved in the process as well now.

With that said, there are sometimes issues of public safety and the city must act accordingly in these cases.

“We do have the ability to move people along off municipal property. There is a level of security that needs to be maintained, and this is a challenge,” Henry says.
Regional studies show the majority of Durham’s homeless are located in Oshawa.

To Henry, this is simply because the majority of available services are here.

“We have St. Vincent’s Kitchen, Cornerstone (Community Association Durham), and The Refuge (Youth Outreach Centre), they’re all located in Oshawa,” he says.

The mayor is adamant that homelessness is not an issue that the city and region can address alone.

“In order to deal with issues, we really need the other levels of government involved. We need to admit there is a problem,” he says.

Back to Thornton, she continues down the trail and encounters a man named Robert, who requests to speak with her.

Robert reveals he has been without housing for a few weeks now, but his situation is a bit different.

“I have a good job. I work in construction,” he says.

His problem is with alcohol.

“Once I get on the sauce, I just can’t get off it,” he admits.

He moved to Oshawa a year ago from New Brunswick and was staying with his brothers.

However, his drinking led to them telling him to leave.

“Once I start drinking, nobody wants to have anything to do with me,” he says.

When asked where he is currently staying, he points to the ground and says, “here…or anywhere I can find.”

Although he is working, Robert says rent in Oshawa is unaffordable for him and many others.

“You can’t find an apartment around here. They want $1,100, $1,400, $1,600 a month. I can’t afford $1,100 a month. I make $25 an hour, and I still can’t afford it. I mean it just makes no sense,” he says. “By the time you pay all your bills, you’re broke, you’ve got nothing.”

As a result of his drinking, Robert has also found himself in trouble with the law.

“I went to the liquor store and stole a bottle of the hard stuff. I got nailed for it, and now I got a court date,” he says. “It was something I did that was stupid.”

Incredibly, he confesses a small part of him thinks going to jail would be a good thing.

“I’d have a bed to sleep on and something to eat. I’d be safe,” he says. “You know I’m not a drug addict; I just drink. I don’t want to hurt anybody, I don’t mean no harm to anybody.”

This is not the first time he has been homeless, as he lived on the streets of Montreal and Kitchener in the past.

In his mind, there is a good number of services available in Oshawa.

“There’s a lot of services here. But you’ve got to get there, and sometimes you can’t walk, you can’t move.”

At this point, Thornton sees the direness of the situation and offers to personally accompany Robert to find some of the help he is need of.

Before parting, she tells The Express that she doesn’t think homelessness will ever be completely eliminated, but better planning is needed.

“Homelessness will never go away because bad things happen. But we can anticipate the fact that bad things happen in life to good people.”