This Saturday I am meeting with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

Topics For Discussion

1) Homelessness is NOT a problem, it’s a political agenda.

2) Economic slavery is the primary cause of homelessness. We are governed by people who owe their jobs to campaign funding from the upper classes. No wonder they refuse to protect poor people who are FORCED to work long hours for wages that are not sufficient to provide food and shelter for their families.

3) Subsidized housing & rent geared to income has created two classes of poverty. Those with government funded housing can live reasonably well and are the fortunate ones. Those without, live a daily existence on the edge of homelessness and have to spend money which should go to food on rent. They can not afford both. It’s either inadequate nourishment or homelessness. It is naïve to think that the failed policy of building so called affordable housing will ever come close to solving the homelessness issue. No government can afford to build enough housing units to ever make a difference.

4) We don’t need to build affordable housing; we need to afford the existing housing. There presently exists more than enough vacant housing to accommodate all of the homeless people. The problem is that people on social assistance or working at minimum wage do not have enough income to pay reasonable market rents. Our government has made war on the poor by failing to ensure a reasonable income for either of these groups. A livable minimum wage and reasonable social assistance rates would eliminate most homelessness. If government would give landlords a tax break for setting aside a portion of their housing units to rent at the rate provided for by ODSP or Ontario Works, we could eliminate most of the homelessness caused by affordability problems immediately.

5) Addictions along with physical and mental disabilities are major contributing factors in homelessness and next to economic slavery, are the most significant causes of homelessness. It is unconscionable that in the richest society that has ever existed on Earth, we still condemn sick people from these groups to homelessness and an early death. Any politician who says we can not afford to give these people proper care and a safe home is an outright liar.

6) There will always be a few people who choose to remain homeless, but if we give most homeless people a reasonable alternative, they will pounce on the opportunity and homelessness will be almost completely eradicated.

7) It is incredible that a multi billion dollar industry has been instituted to deal with homelessness when allowing people a livable income would eliminate its need at a fraction of the cost.

8) Police harassment, illegal tactics and brutality towards homeless people NEED TO CEASE IMMEDIATLEY. I could site several examples of police brutality, but the most outrageous is one where two police officers threw a friend of mine off a railway overpass in an attempt to kill him. He lived, but sustained multiple fractures to both of his legs. I watched as two police officers soused my squat and ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS in gasoline and set them on fire. We need a civilian watchdog to handle complaints about police. When I lodged a formal complaint, there was NO MEANINGFUL INVESTIGATION. Neither I nor a second eyewitness were ever interviewed. Every homeless person knows there is no sense in complaining about these events. Nothing is ever done except often there is severe police retaliation.

9) Homelessness in most underdeveloped countries is also a matter of economic slavery and political agenda. The difference is that there, a third element exacerbates the situation. Many of these countries rely on economic and material aid from the developed nations. Not nearly enough aid is forthcoming and corrupt political leaders and bureaucrats siphon off most of the cream so that little actually reaches the intended recipients. Add piracy to the mix and it’s easy to see why millions of people world wide continue to wander homeless and starving to death.

10) In spite of the lip service and band-aid solutions being offered up, homelessness and starvation continue to increase throughout the developed and undeveloped world at an alarming rate. Will it take violent worldwide uprisings by these desperate victims of social greed and avarice to facilitate meaningful action? If so, beware, for the time is rapidly approaching.

The Unacknowledged Addicts

I was homeless for ten years in Toronto. During this period and for several years previous, I was an active crack addict and alcoholic. A year ago I quit using drugs and alcohol, and I recently took up residence in a lovely bachelor apartment. You might say that I turned my life around. I feel that I did. I couldn’t have done it without the help of some very wonderful and caring people, but that is another story, which I will save for another time.

What I would like to discuss now is a revelation which was triggered by a comment a friend of mine made when we met accidentally last week.

I was downtown, walking on Queen St, when I happened to run into Paranoid Pete and Little Davy, two old friends from my homeless addict years. They are both in similar circumstances to what mine were for those ten years.

After hugging and clapping each other on the back, the way people do, who love each other and have been separated for some time, I began telling them about my new life without drugs and alcohol.

At the point in my rendition when I was proudly proclaiming that next week I would be clean and sober for a whole year, Peter said, “We’ll have to have a party to celebrate; no, wait a minute, that’s how it all started wasn’t it?” We all laughed and Davy said with mock sadness, “Relapsed eh?” (meaning relapsed into a state of not using drugs and alcohol) We all laughed again.

Now those two words really shook me. Webster’s New Dictionary of the English Language defines relapse as follows: ‘to fall back or revert to a former state, especially to regress after partial recovery from an illness.’ Its’ most common usage when speaking of addiction is to describe a return to the use of drugs or alcohol after a period of abstinence.

What Davy meant as a very clever joke, got me thinking about lifestyles. I can truthfully say that I did not relapse into an old lifestyle. I am in the process of creating a whole new way of life for myself. One I’ve never tried before, but there is a very real danger to any recovering addict, and that is to relapse into the addiction which plagues most of our society’s so called normal population. It is this addiction which I believe has been unrecognised or undefined up until now which is a major cause of people like my two friends and I rejecting the values of that society and turning to drugs and alcohol.

Up until Davy’s joking comment, I had absolutely no intimation that one of the leading factors which led me, and probably a great many others, to a life on the streets was a rejection of an addiction which nobody officially recognises as one.

I say “Officially,” because the condition is so widespread that several phrases have been coined into our language to describe it, but no-one speaks “Officially,” of its’ threat to our society. “Conspicuous Consumption,” “Galloping Consumerism,” “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” “Shop Till You Drop,” all describe symptoms of this addiction.

Stress, nervous breakdowns, heart attacks, family disintegrations, drug and alcohol consumption, ever increasing debt and bankruptcy are many of the results of this unhealthy urge to spend money one can not afford on products which one does not need and often never uses. People go into unending debt to purchase products which wear out, break down or otherwise become useless long before they are paid for. Products which are perfectly useful are discarded to make way for purchases of more sexy although no more functional newer ones.

The whole value structure of society has collapsed into an evaluation of what you own and what you’ve got. If you have lots of money or lots of things you are a successful member of society. If you don’t, you’re a loser. What you’ve accomplished no longer has merit; it’s all what you’ve got.

If this trend towards materialism is not recognised for the dangerous threat to our civilisation that it is, I fear we will have no power to prevent the ultimate emulation of the Roman Empire. The mighty seem to destroy themselves with their own decadence.

February 26, 2006

Ronzig

The Wasteful Society

If you are an average working stiff like most of us, do you ever wonder why you have to work your guts out year after endless year, just to stay afloat?

We live in times of almost limitless abundance and yet a large portion of the population in the industrialized countries are homeless and hungry while many more are only slightly better off. Not here, you say! Ah, but just look around you. Even rich countries like Canada and the United States are plagued with throngs of homeless people on their cities’ streets.

But why, you might ask? Surely there’s enough here for everybody.

There are two simple answers to this question.

First, even though there is an abundance of resources to draw from, they are not limitless. Every single product that you or I use depletes from the total pool of available resources. In other words, the fact that I am sitting here working on this computer is depriving someone else of the use of the computer, the desk it rests on, the chair I sit in, the clothes I’m wearing, the apartment I live in, the heat, water and electricity I use and so on, for everything I use. This is true for you too. This is the fact that limits every single person in the world. There is only so much to go around. It is abundant, but IT IS NOT LIMITLESS!

Now, it is only natural, and rightly so, that each of us is primarily concerned with our own well being and the well being of those we love. This, by no means limits our responsibility to be concerned for the well being of the billions of other inhabitants on this planet. One of the most important concepts in every religion is the dictum,”Love thy neighbour as you love thy brother.”

Would you let your brother go homeless or hungry?

“But, what can I do?” is the obvious question. Of course you can’t provide for the needs of billions of people, but you can, with little or no cost, become part of the solution and the solution rests solely on the shoulders of each individual in this society. It does not rest with governments. They are powerless, to remedy the situation. Indeed they are an integral part of the cause. Waste is the problem and governments are notorious for waste.

You can make a difference in this world. All you need to do is become “Waste Conscious.” If you will remember, every time you leave the kitchen tap running, that it took resources away from a limited pool of manpower and physical materials to provide that water. That means that somebody else’s dinner is running down your kitchen drain, NOT WATER! Just turn off the tap and you will become part of the solution.

Every time you throw an old appliance into the garbage because you bought a newer model and no longer need this old, fully functional one, you are depriving someone who can use it, who really needs it, from its use. Just donate it to one of the many agencies available and you will become part of the solution.

Instead of throwing away that old dress you no longer wear, just donate it and you will become part of the solution and God will love you for it. And if you don’t believe in God, the person who receives it will love you even if she has never met you.

Every time you leave your car engine running, you are not only polluting the air we all breath, you are wasting the fuel that otherwise may have gone to provide heat for one of the poor people in this world who die annually from exposure. Think about it. Do you really want to be responsible for the suffering of those less fortunate than you are?

Get the idea? A simple change in your thinking will improve the lots of countless others for the rest of your life, and as the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.” Sooner or later the benefits you bestow upon others come back to you a thousand fold and your life will become better. So, remember, it costs nothing to “Become WASTE CONSCIOUS and save the world.”

Ronzig

The Dickhead Awards

Dickhead of the Millennium

You’ve heard of the “two headed monster.” Here’s a twist, the “no headed two bodied monster.” Both bodies carry but one name and one philosophy. The name: George Bush, the philosophy, “nuke em” Both the senior and the junior bodies of this monster remain constantly on the alert for potential targets for their monstrous phallic weapons. Both of them in actuality are wimpy little dickless wonders who have never learned anything except how to be the big bully in the school yard. Since their reign as wanna be gods has transcended the millennium, they get my vote for Dickhead of the Millennium.

Dickhead of the Week

Here’s a target for you George. The world would be a better place if you nuked this guy off the face of the Earth.

Dalton McGuinty could qualify for Dickhead of the Year if he wasn’t such a pipsqueak. Since his effect in world affairs is as small as his mind, he’ll have to be satisfied with Dickhead of the Week.

In his quest to balance the budget on the backs of the disenfranchised, he has disqualified thousands of impoverished people from the special diet allowance increment to the basic social assistance pittance. This stipend was used by social assistance recipients with medical needs to purchase dietary supplements and nutritious foodstuffs. Good ol Dalton has changed the rules so that most recipients no longer qualify or only qualify for a miniscule portion of the funds. It’s back to Kraft Dinners and peanut butter for thousands of social assistance recipients with medical dietary needs, but hey, the budget is looking good.

As if this isn’t enough for our boy to win this coveted award, he has gone even further. In his quest to squeeze every drop of blood from the poor and the defenceless, he has targeted the victims of the government’s negligence in stopping the drug trade, namely the addicts. None of who ever got up one morning and said’ “What should I do today? I know, I’ll become a drug addict.”

Just when the epidemic of addiction is at an all time high and the need for treatment centres drastically under funded, Mr. McGuinty has cut budgets for detoxification centres resulting in closing down several and forcing the ones which remain open to eject their patients after only five days of treatment. This policy results in the elimination of the only true hope addicts had in making a come-back. But hey, the budget is looking good, even if our streets continue to look like those of a third world country with homeless addicts sleeping on the sidewalks throughout the winter.

Maybe Dalton thinks they’ll all freeze to death and eliminate this disgraceful situation. Too bad it’s been such a warm winter.

February 20, 2006

If you have a suggestion for a “Dickhead award,” send us the story. Maybe we’ll have a competition to see who should receive the annual grand phallic trophy.

Ronzig

Stop Wasting Money On Food For Those Useless Kids.

Now, I realise that Poor Billy Gates is hurting, and he desperately needs the more money so he can flog more of his crashing crap on an unsuspecting world. I highly recommend to all the greedy people that are depriving Billy Boy of his due, by using pirated software, PLEASE take next month’s rent cheque and send it to Billy. Of course, you should include the money that would otherwise be wasted on food and clothing for you children. Those kids really are a waste of money!

Who knows, maybe Billy would use some of it to develop an operating system that doesn’t degenerate into an unstable mess within days of installation. He might even include a registry fixer that a layperson can use without completely crashing his system. Better yet, he could develop a registry that doesn’t degenerate in the first place!

I wonder who out there is smart enough to create a foil for that money grubbers latest scam. “The Active Validation Tool”

Keep me posted if there is any progress.

Drugs Are Destroying Our Country

Every day, thousands of pounds of crack cocaine are consumed in Toronto alone! There isn’t a city or town anywhere in North America where the epidemic of crack addiction isn’t destroying the lives of the population. Children in their pre-teen and teen years are the most afflicted segment of this society. These young people who should be the hope and pride of our country are being destroyed by dealers who have no conscience. Violence and death have become a way of life in our cities.

How can this be happening? Where does this huge amount of contraband come from and how does it get here?

The answer is obvious, greed.

The cocaine industry is highly organised and gross annual sales would make the sheiks of the oil emirates envious. The dollar amounts involved are staggering and with so much cash at their disposal, the drug barons can buy customs officials, police officers, judges and politicians. And have no doubt, they do. How else could such vast shipments of drugs enter the country and be distributed throughout each and every city and town? Certainly, we read in the papers of some huge drug bust every now and then, but the largest of these busts amounts to a five or ten minute supply at the current rate of consumption. The fact is that the drug barons usually are responsible for the tips that lead to these busts. What better way to eliminate a relatively new and poorly organised competitor before he gets too strong?

What can be done? Absolutely nothing can be done, unless you and I get angry enough to demand a full scale attack against the parasites that profit from the drug industry.

To defeat this evil which has pervaded our society, the government has to get serious about the problem. It does no good whatsoever to harass and make criminals out of the victims of these parasites. Addicts are not by definition, criminals, they are victims of crime.

These are my suggestions:

1. Decriminalise the addict.
2. Decriminalise Marihuana.
3. Provide far more front line care for addicts in the form of detox centres and rehab centres.
4. Arrest every street dealer and hold him for trial, without bail.
5. Once convicted impose maximum sentences of incarceration without exception.
6. Train hundreds of undercover narcotics officers to work at every point of entry where drugs can reach our country.
7. Use computers to analyse the outcome of every major drug charge.
8. Use computers to analyse the arrest and conviction records achieved by drug enforcement officers.
9. Closely monitor the activities of every convicted drug dealer who has served his time and been released.
10. Create new sentencing guidelines which require judges to hand down extremely long sentences for repeat drug dealing offenders.
11. Automatically revoke the citizenship or landed immigrant status and deport every convicted drug dealer who was not born in this country.

What will this accomplish?

1. Decriminalising addicts will take the emphasis off of the victim and place it where it should be, on the dealer.

2. This will free up resources in the enforcement of our drug laws towards the real problems of crack, cocaine and heroine.

3. Providing more detox centres and rehab centres will reclaim some of the lost souls who can rejoin society. This will result in reducing the market for the drugs as well as return lost production in the economy.

4. Jailing street dealers will hamper the drug barons’ distribution network and slow down the spread of the drugs.

5. Heavy sentencing will keep the distribution network in disarray and result in making it more difficult to recruit replacement dealers.

6. There is no way for the quantities of drugs that are currently entering the country to arrive undetected. There has to be serious corruption within the customs department. When this is uncovered, the busts will not be measured in pounds or kilos, but in container loads. The removal of corrupt officials will seriously hamper the importation of narcotics and stiff penalties will make others reconsider their role in the problem.

7. Properly analysed, these court records should provide hints that will lead to the removal of corrupt court officials.

8. Properly analysed, these conviction records should provide hints that will lead to the removal of corrupt officers.

9. Almost every drug dealer who is convicted returns immediately to dealing as soon as he is released. This includes being released on bail as well as on parole. If he is monitored, he can be removed from society for a longer period of time when he is caught a second time.

10. A repeat offender is a parasite who is dedicated to the destruction of human spirit. He must be removed indefinitely if we hope to turn this plague away.

11. Most of the people who are selling this poison to our children arrived in Canada from some other country. It is time that we made it clear that they are not welcome here. An immigrant to this country will think twice when he realises that he will lose his right to remain in Canada the first time he is convicted of dealing.

If enough people agree with these ideas, I will be happy to run a petition to pressure all levels of government to get started immediately. Let me know what you think and tell your friends about this.

Ronzig

The Community

There is a whole community out there.

Homeless people share more of a sense of community than most of the rest of society.

It’s very strange that we live in a society where it is normal for two people who live or work in the same building to share an elevator and not know each others names, and not even speak. Most people don’t even know their next door neighbour’s name. We ride across the city, seated beside another person and don’t say a word.

Yet most homeless people know hundreds of other homeless people on a friendly communal level. They hang together in drop in centres and shelters. They build their squats close together. They often pursue what ever money making activities they specialize in as partners.

When one homeless person passes another on the street, he will acknowledge that person with a word or a gesture of solidarity.

There are several reasons why a sense of community is more prevalent on the streets than in society as a whole:

1. It is a common phenomenon that people who share a problem have a sympathetic attraction to each other. A Homeless person can relate to the problems of someone else in the same boat.

2. There is a great danger of violence on the streets, which tends to encourage homeless people to band together for mutual protection. Interestingly, homeless people fear the police and regular citizens much more than they fear each other. Much of the violence they are submitted to comes from these people.

3. There is a greater drive to socialize among the homeless than is the rule in more traditional forms of society. I believe that this is partly a result of the drugs and alcohol which homeless people use to ease the pain of being outcast. When people are using whatever mind altering substance they prefer, they tend to be more sociable.

4. There is an element of freedom to the lifestyle that is conducive to a joyful heart. Even though the life is difficult, it is the most liberated alternative there is to the ever increasing encroachment of government and business interests into people’s lives. Free spirits tend to find pleasure in each others company. (I believe that members of the more traditional segments of society recognize this freedom on an elemental level and react to it violently because of jealousy and fear.)

5. For many homeless people, the one thing they have left is their humanity and governments are constantly trying to take that away from them too. We are persistently moving towards criminalization of homelessness. The government wants to round us up and imprison us in so called shelters which will become nothing more than concentration camps. With each move that the government takes to persecute homeless people, there is a collateral reaction among homeless people of stronger resistance. The senseless laws that governments create to try to legislate us out of existence only succeed in instilling an ever increasing contempt for all laws, with the result that lawlessness is spiralling out of control. By creating ever more onerous laws in an attempt to contain the problem, governments only succeed in increasing the solidarity of the homeless community.

It’s interesting to note that the money that is spent trying to whitewash the problem could eliminate a large portion of it if the same funds were directed towards providing a liveable level of social assistance. Many of the homeless people out here would have a home if there was a realistic allotment of funds for rental accommodation. At present, a social assistance recipient in Toronto receives a maximum of $325.00 per month to pay rent. Any fool knows that it is virtually impossible to find liveable housing in Toronto for less than $500.00 per month. This $175.00 per month shortfall results in hundreds of otherwise normal citizens being unable to pay their rent and becoming homeless. The saddest thing is that once someone is homeless he quickly abandons hope and resorts to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. Once this happens, there is little or no hope of his ever becoming a productive member of society again. Less than 10% of the people who try to make a come back actually make it. Wouldn’t it be wiser to spend a little time and money preventing homelessness in the first place? Maybe then the community of homeless could be replaced by the community of Mankind.

Ronzig

Some solutions to homelessness.

The Revolving Door

There is a simple solution to revolving door homelessness. Many people who lose their housing do so because they can't manage money. Some have addiction issues and use their rent to get high, others have mental health issues and can't keep the importance of paying their rent straight in their minds and others have never been taught how to manage money. All the resources that went into getting them housed are wasted and years lost each time they travel through the revolving door. They can have the rent portion of their social assistance paid directly to the landlord, but it only takes a request to their worker to cancel this arrangement. Then they are free to spend the rent on other things and wind up getting evicted.

Instead of allowing this, the social assistance agency should lend them the rent arrears provided that the tenant signs a loan agreement which includes an irrevocable direction to the agency to pay the rent directly to the landlord until the loan is paid back.

It's simple, it's effective and it would eliminate a major cause of homelessness. And technically it wouldn't cost the agency a cent since the money would remain on the books as an asset, being an account receivable.

Vacancy Rates Are At An ALL TIME HIGH

According to several sources on my recent Google search for residential vacancy rates in Toronto, There is plenty of housing available to house all the homeless people in Toronto.

In a recent conversation with an apartment building owner, a solution to homelessness and to high vacancy rates could be easily accomplished by one simple and cost effect approach by the government.

Instead of the government building so called AFFORDABLE HOUSING, which when the cost to the taxpayer is factored into the equation is not at all affordable nor effective, the government should offer tax incentives to landlords who would be willing to provide a portion of their housing stock at reduced rates to people on social assistance. These reduced rate units would be available at the allowable rental rates provided for by the social assistance agencies.

The result would be a drastic reduction in the number of homeless people, a significant decrease in the number of families living below the poverty line and a major reduction in vacancy rates, which would in turn result in more market rental units being built.

Everyone would benefit.

1. Homeless people would be safely and cost effectively housed.

2. Families would be healthier and able to afford a more nutritious diet.

3. Landlords would increase net revenues with a marked improvement in profits.

4. The construction industry would have new projects to build.

5. New tax revenues from new projects would more than replace and lost revenues resulting from the plan.

6. The local economy would gain new impetus.

7. The government could redirect its efforts towards finding ways to provide better support to people with physical and mental disabilities and towards seeking real solutions to the addiction problems which plague our society.

8. The government would be the heroes for a change, instead of the villains.

It would be quite simple to develop a formula that would allow low income families that are not on social assistance to qualify for the low rent units too.

Homeless women. A digital conversation.

Helen wrote:

Thanks so much for the reply. I only have written one blog so far, under the name - one thoughtful woman at word press.com. Yes, I have seen your blog: it is great. Geoff, is a local friend, so we chat and see each other regularly, so I am very blessed. He is like a new family member. He is such a wonderful giving, loving person. He has taught me a lot about photography, and you should hear his organ playing too. No worries about the group. I just wanted you to have the award. I can see what you mean about group rules. I have joined so many, I'm thinking of slimming it down; it can get quite complicated. Sorry, to hear of your illness and hope you are on the recovery road now and about your own friends. You really are on the cutting edge of this subject. Not enough is done in our country about the ever growing problem of addictions. Alcohol is too easily available here and there are just not enough specialist clinics that can help. Homelessness in the C21st is a disgrace for any nation and a cause you could enlighten me further on for a project I am going to undertake for flick next year. More about that later. Take care for now, My very best wishes, Helen.

My reply:

Thanks for writing Helen. I am always happy to help where I can. Just ask.

Addiction and homelessness are often confused as synonymous, mainly because one will often, but not necessarily, follow the other. They are two completely separate symptoms of a single disease.

We take so much pride in being a classless society when ironically our capitalist system is bases on the clearly defined classes.

The upper class, which controls everything it can and constantly seeks more power to dictate how everyone should conduct their lives.

The middle class, which has grown so large and so prosperous, that the upper class now sees it as a threat.

And at the bottom of the scale, the ever expanding lower class, which in terms of per capita share of available resources, is getting poorer and poorer as the world gets richer and richer.

This class system uses economic slavery to maintain its integrity. The upper class hoards the lion’s share of resources and directs world functions on both the macro and micro levels. The middle class is used a lieutenants to carry out the policies set by the masters in return for an elevated level of existence. The lower class provides most of the labor in return for a subsistence level of existence.

What has kept the system functioning is the illusion that upward mobility in relation to class status is possible.

Historically, there has been a large gap between the upper and middle classes, with a narrow and often blurred gap between the middle and lower classes, but there has been a shift resulting in a narrow and blurred gap between the upper and middle classes and an ever widening gap between the middle and lower classes.

Therein lays the current problem. As the middle class moves inexorably towards achieving upper class status our society is evolving into a two class system with an unbreachable gap between them.

This shift has resulted in a clash of momentous proportions. The upper class, in order to maintain its power must crush the middle class assault on its lofty position. As the clash between the mighty few and the slightly weaker, but far more numerous interlopers develops, the lower class rapidly becomes a casualty of war. The walking wounded of this clash are the addicts and homeless. All hope has been rescinded and they have become dehumanized to the point where even fellow members of the lower class despise them.

You might say that addicts come from all classes, and so they do, but the underlying causes of the addiction shift when the addiction comes from the higher levels of society. Instead of desperation and escapism as is prevalent in the lower class, debauchery and irresponsibility are the main roads to addiction among the wealthy.

I fear that the class struggle will lead to ever increasing levels of violence unless radical changes are made soon. People without hope have nothing to lose and anger will escalate to rage on an ever increasing level. That is why I work so hard to make people understand.

If we don’t change the system, we are surely destined to follow in the footsteps of all the previous empires in history. Western civilization will collapse inward upon itself and self destruct. The enemy is not out there. It is within.

Helen’s reply: Hi Ronzig, What an amazing and incredibly intelligent reply. Both my husband and I read this and printed it. We can't dispute anything you have said here. I believe that with ever increasing expectation and the need and desire to do better, have more, celebrity status and even with pop idol and fame shows, more and more people want the good life now, better, faster, more, which breeds resentment and discontentment when "they" realize that not everybody can be famous or rich. You are right the middle classes strive to get into the chosen set and step on anybody/thing that gets in the way. The ruthlessness of the work place is one such example. Obviously we don't subscribe to these things. People compare themselves all the time to the next and depression is at its highest levels in the Uk as people aspire to "higher things" only to still feel the emptiness that is in their lives. Relationship breakdown, overwork, stress and burn out ,also I believe could fuel addictions to some extent. We are burying my friend tomorrow -see my first and only blog so far who died from alcohol and prescription pain killer abuse. He was 48. He was not homeless but lived with his mother. His father died of cancer 16 yrs ago aged 59. We knew he probably took these substances to ease his pain of loneliness and the frustrations of his own life. I would be specifically interested to know about women and homelessness; as this is going to be a focus point next year as part of my project. Do woman become homeless for different reasons and are there less woman out there on the streets compared to men? Do they receive more sympathy and attention? Would someone stop and talk to a homeless woman and offer money/help but walk away from a man who might seem more of a threat? Thank you so much for your incredibly rich and intelligent discussion. I would love to hear more and say a very big thank you for this information, Very Best Wishes, Helen.

My reply:

Hi Helen

I have personal experience with the dissatisfaction you speak of.

In 1978 I was on welfare and behind in my rent, at the very edge of homelessness. I got my real estate license and in less than 10 years I was a millionaire with 100 people working for me. To get there, I worked 14 and sometimes 18 hours a day, 7 days a week without a single day off. I became a slave to money and I was not at all happy. When I went bankrupt as a result of my addiction to crack, instead of feeling bad about my loss, I was relieved.

What followed was a rapid decline into homelessness, but I have to tell you, during my 10 homeless years I WAS HAPPY. I learned that the goal of financial advancement which society worships so intently is a trap which can only lead to despair.

Regarding your questions about homeless women, my friend Spirited Away will be visiting me Saturday and I’ll ask her opinions on your inquiry.

From my own experience, I can tell you that there are far fewer homeless women living rough as they call it. (meaning on the streets rather than in shelters) And I suspect there are fewer homeless women in general. I perceive two possible reasons for this.

1) It is far more dangerous for a woman out there. They are more likely to be raped or brutalized than men.

2) Sex. A woman is more able to find a member of the opposite sex to support her in exchange for sexual comforts and she is more likely to be able to support herself through prostitution. As distasteful as it is, a woman has more options than a man at that level of existence.

I’ll have more to tell you after I see my friend.

I am saving these digital conversations to post on my blog and I suggest you do the same. They are definitely revealing insights that people should be aware of.

Hi Helen.

I spoke with my friend about your questions and she will give the matter some thought. she has acute agoraphobia and has a great deal of difficulty expressing her deepest feelings and I suspect the subject is so close to home for her that she is having difficulty responding. Also, I have put a great deal of responsibility on her of late, so I'm sure you will understand her hesitance to make a rapid reply. I'm SURE THAT SHE WILL RESPOND ONCE SHE HAS TIME TO ABSORB THE QUESTION AND GIVE IT SOME THOUGHT.

She is homeless and a very caring and loving person with a marvelous talent for expressing raw emotion through her photography. You can see her work here......

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anacrisan/

I had a gallery showing of my work yesterday and invited her to show her work with mine as a joint show. I printed and framed a selection of her work for the show

I AM SO PROUD OF HER. SHE STOLE THE SHOW !!!!!!!!!!!

Everybody loved her work and she sold TWO of her photos. I sold NONE.

Joe Fiorito, a reporter friend from the Toronto Star did a long interview with her and I'm sure he will say wonderful things about her in his column.

She usually panics when people approach her, but there was no panic yesterday. SHE WAS WONDERFUL. She spoke with the people who came to the show, most of whom were total strangers to her, without a trace of panic AND she was obviously having a wonderful; time.

So, the show was A TOTAL SUCCESS.

I can't seem to find your blog again. Please send me the link one more time as I thought I had bookmarked it, but apparently not.

God bless.

Ron

I found the link http://onethoughtfulwoman.wordpress.com/2007/09/

The Saint of CNH

Every day, rain or shine, regardless of her own personal discomforts, there is an outreach worker trudging through the ravines, the valleys, the back alleys of this city. Her mission is to locate homeless people in peril, and without her vigilance, there would surely be far more unnecessary deaths among the homeless than the disgraceful number we presently account for.

The easiest way to reveal the extent of her services to these abandoned souls is to paraphrase the message one receives if for some reason she can’t answer your telephone call. It goes something like this.’ This is …………., tell me what you want me to do for you, and how to find you, or call back later.’ This open ended invitation to request her services in any area is for real! When a homeless person asks her to do something, anything at all, if it is within her immense abilities to accomplish it, it will be accomplished forthwith! If someone hasn’t received the monthly pittance which Ontario Works doles out, (usually because of an unjust disqualification?) our saint will be instantly on the case, and she won’t give up until the injustice is corrected. If someone needs to get to a doctor or court she will pick them up and chauffer them there. If someone requests assistance in finding housing, she will drive them to view available accommodations and negotiate with the landlord on their behalf, (translated: persist in persuasion techniques until the landlord relents and agrees to acceptable terms.) The list of her services is practically endless; help moving into a new home; a free mattress delivered from Sleep Country; a lift to a shelter, or somewhere to get a sleeping bag, or a free meal; a bottle of water on those hot days when dehydration takes it’s toll; or just a friendly face directed to a person who has grown accustomed to scowls. Whatever the real or perceived need, our saint is there to help.

After a full and exhausting day on the hard streets of Toronto, one would think she would go home to relax. Not likely! If you were to visit her home on the average evening, you would open her front door, which is never locked, to a scene which would strike awe in your heart. Before you is a little woman, well over half a century in age, busy discussing a problem with one of her clients, (translated: homeless person) in her own home, no less, hours after she has completed her daily duties on the streets. Her phone, which is rarely turned off, will ring every five or ten minutes with requests for help or advise. Her dinner table is covered with forms and reports and news clippings and just about anything but a meal. If someone doesn’t remind her to eat, she’ll probably forget. And so you will see the routine scene which dominates her home life until she finally drops into bed, exhausted, only to rise again in the morning to start again.

Our saint lives a life of total dedication to the alleviation of suffering on the streets of Toronto, and true to the nature of any real saint she insists on remaining anonymous.

Please pray for her rapid recovery, for my friend has worked herself ill. God bless her.

If you know of someone who does wonderful things to help those who can’t help themselves, we need to hear the story. These indispensable people may be the only hope for this civilization. Everyone needs to know that they are with us giving hope to the hopeless, for without them, we are all hopeless.

Ronzig