'street-involved' not homeless, and yes, give money if you have it
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volunteers helped families pick toys for their kids at yonge street mission (cnw group/yonge street mission)
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living on the streets has never been easy. these days, it’s almost impossible.
in toronto, one of the wealthiest and most desirable cities in the world, around 500,000 residents live in poverty, struggling each day to keep their heads above water. according to the yonge street mission, which opened its doors in 1896 — over 125 years ago — 37 per cent of these people are single mothers and 46 per cent are recent immigrants.
“it makes me very sad because it means poverty has been entrenched in our city for all that time,” says caroline van nostrand, the director of development and marketing with the mission. “there are so many people falling through the cracks. i don’t think i’m ever going to be out of a job as long as i stay with the mission, sadly.”
the organization, which offers over 100 programs and services to those in need, had its hands full even before the pandemic washed over the world and made a difficult situation almost untenable. add in a housing crisis that has made an already unaffordable city even more so and you have a recipe for disaster. “we’re trying to evolve with the times,” van nostrand says. “covid has been a bit of a curveball for us.”
from feeding 700 people per week to 2,000
the mission used to feed around 700 people a week at the food bank located at their yonge street location. after the pandemic hit, that number jumped to around 2,000, almost overnight. a return to pre-pandemic levels won’t be coming anytime soon. “we have this new all-time high of numbers that we’re serving that will continue for who knows how long. this is our new normal. it doesn’t feel normal.”
it’s hard to know how many of these people don’t have homes to call their own. “we guesstimate that on any single night there are 5,000 youths sleeping on the streets of toronto,” van nostrand says. “and we actually see, i think it’s 2,600 or so of those through our evergreen centre in a year. so almost half of the street-involved youth in toronto at some point walk through our doors.”
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in an effort to raise awareness and recruit new volunteers and partners to their cause, the mission recently released a guide to help people learn how to better relate to the less fortunate living in their communities. in addition to providing invaluable advice to address a growing problem, the guide — and the mission itself — leaves the stigma associated with the word “homeless” in the past.
“there’s a lot of baggage that goes with that term, a lot of assumptions that are made with that term,” she says. “we prefer to say ‘street-involved’ and that sort of indicates the fluidity — you’re coming in and out of residences and there’s some movement there. we’re trying to unload the term and give them something that is reflective and respectful of their situation but also impart empathy because that’s a terrible thing, going from having a home and family to suddenly being cast out.”
the one-page guide, which is available in pdf form on the mission’s website, includes four straightforward steps to help facilitate conversation with street-involved neighbours and offer assistance in an empathetic way, something everyone deserves no matter their station in life.
it includes tips on how to talk to a street-involved neighbour, how to offer help (or politely decline) and how to support someone in crisis.
it also offers guidance on a question many people struggle with, whether or not it is a good idea to hand cash over to someone who may turn around and spend it on drugs or other things that will only make matters worse.
it’s not an easy question, van nostren admits, explaining that a conversation with a colleague helped her arrive at an answer. this much-loved employee would work with street-involved youth day in and day out at the mission, but when she would see them on the streets outside of work hours, she would always decline to give them money out of fear it would cross a boundary or may be misspent. soon after, she spotted one of these clients about to engage in a sexual act in an alley to earn some desperately needed money.
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“she said she went home that night and had this horrible sense of ‘i’ve let these people down,’” van nostrand says. “’because i decided to say no out of principle, she’s actually suffering more trauma and harm to herself and her psyche and everything else to get that money.’”
after another colleague reinforced the sentiment, the guide now recommends giving money (if you are so inclined) without judgement, resisting the urge to make assumptions and to remember something people often forget, or choose to disregard: that addiction is a medical illness deserving of compassion.
‘that was someone’s baby’
for people who assume panhandlers don’t want to work and are just after easy money, van nostrand isn’t convinced. “if that’s the case, they’re probably doing a way harder job by being on the street and asking for money than many people are in their day-to-day lives for which they’re getting paid and paying taxes,” she says. “i don’t think people understand there is danger to people on the street who are asking for money. they get beat up, they get chased, people throw stuff at them. the level of inhumanity that happens is quite shocking. we just have to suspend the judgement.”
in the short time it has been available, the yonge street mission’s guide is achieving its goals, stimulating conversation and attracting potential partners and volunteers eager to help make a difference in the communities in which they live. all van nostrand really wants is for people to look at their street-involved neighbours with a little more compassion.
“instead of seeing them as, ‘those people are nothing like me,’ maybe realize they are a bit like you,” she says. “maybe they haven’t had the good fortune you’ve had but elementally they are just like you. it breaks my heart that we stop seeing people as people and they’re just something bothersome on the street. i’m like, ‘that’s a person — that was someone’s baby.’”
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dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
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