Recession Relief Coalition/stories

On this page you will find heart rending stories about how the recession has affected the individual people and communities of Canada. You will be able to see first hand why the Recession Relief Coalition is working so hard to convince all levels of government across the country to take strong measures NOW to alleviate the suffering and loss of hope that accompanies falling upon hard times.

Would you like to tell your story about how the recession is affecting you or your community? 

We'll use these stories to convince the government at all levels that more needs to be done.

Your story could be selected to be included in a documentary video we will produce about how the recession is affecting Canadians

added Feb 20 

Deborah Jules speaks of the frustration of trying to help with limited resources

Hi my name is Deborah, and I am an employee at the Christie Ossington Neighborhood Centre. I am currently the Food Access Drop-in Worker. In the last year i have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people accessing our lunch program, as well as our Foodbank which is geared towards single and sole support parents. Its especially difficult, because 80% of the time there is not enough food to distribute. And although "NO ONE" goes away empty handed or hungry, i always wish that there was more that i could do.
An increase in job loss and unemployment definitely does not help. It is heart breaking, to see mothers who are unable to find jobs, or who had a job and has lost it due to the recession. New comers also are suffering, due to non-status. I have had volunteers who have been denied to stay in the country, cry on my shoulders because they have no status, and have to choose between eating and saving the little money they have, in order to not look like a failure in the eyes of their families if they return home.
These are the situations that i deal with on a daily basis, and you can't help but to hurt for them, and think very deeply of what you, I would do if faced with the same circumstances. I hope as a community, we can work together to make sure, that people can enhance their lives first, starting with proper nutrition, and am certain that the rest will follow. 

added Dec 22 

Smart Sckool CBC interview

An inspirational interview with Shelly Batcules, a previously homeless artist, instructor, social activist and caring humanist.

added Dec 22 

Ronzig’s story

I’ve had two low points in my life and the lesson I learned from each is:

there is no justice in our society.

1.    My son’s mother, who introduced me to crack, refused to let me see him and I went to court to gain access. The judge ordered that I should have him every second weekend and for one month each summer. She did not comply and a second court order was issued.  She still refused to allow me access and my lawyer told me that I would never gain access as there was no mechanism other than jailing her for contempt of court to force compliance. My son was three at the time and I didn’t see him again until he turned nineteen. I quit crack when my son was born and didn’t start again until I was no longer able to see him.

2.    After nine years as a homeless crack addict, I managed to rent a room. On March 1, 2005 the landlady didn’t come to collect my rent and I used some of the rent money to get high. The following morning I went out and begged enough money to pay the rent. When I returned, I found the lock had been broken off my door and all my things were lying outside in the snow. There had been no notice and I was only one day late with the rent. This eviction was illegal. I called the police. They refused to charge the landlady with the illegal eviction or do anything. When I asked for their identification they refused to comply and I was left with no recourse but to return to homelessness.

This was the dead of winter and I was quite ill. I knew that I would be dead before the month was out. I wasn’t sure I wanted to live, but after thinking it over I realized I had been kept alive because God had a purpose for me. I called an outreach worker who got me admitted to a detox centre on March 2, 2005. I’ve been clean and sober ever since.

I spent six weeks in the detox centre regaining my strength and attending daily meetings. I was on a waiting list for an in-patient rehab program. My progress was good. The counselors concluded that in-house rehab was unnecessary and they got me admitted to a home for recovering addicts and enrolled me in an outpatient rehab program.

I had been on the waiting list for assisted housing for years. While staying at the home for recovering addicts I turned 59 and a housing worker informed me that I qualified for seniors housing and amended my application. On October 1, 2005 I moved into the rent geared to income apartment where I presently reside.

I needed something to do to keep me from boredom (a major cause of relapse) and get me started on a new life. I began searching for a course to take. Any I was interested in were unaffordable, ten to fifteen thousand dollars. I was about to give up when I found a brochure about the Toronto Board of Education’s Continuing Education Program. A 9 week course, 2 hours a week only cost $10.00 if you are on social assistance. I took 3 courses and then 4 and then 3 again. That kept me busy for nearly a year and introduced me to computers, the internet and digital photography. With this grounding, I was ready to build a new life. I developed a talent for photography and digital photoArt and now have 20,000 pictures on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/9326442@N08/

It was time to get to work at the mission God had for me and I began as a social activist/advocate. I created three websites.

My photography and art website http://ronzigsportfolio.synthasite.com/   

A website about poverty, homelessness and addiction http://downbutnotout.synthasite.com/       

A website for the Recession Relief Coalition http://www.recession-relief-coalition.org/       

I formed and chair the Communications Committee for the Recession Relief Coalition.

I do video recording of events in Toronto that need to be documented and post them on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RonzigsGallery#grid/uploads          

I am preparing to launch a new outreach program that will speak with people affected by the recession. We’ll use their stories to inform the government about the human tragedy that is unfolding and we will offer referrals to agencies that may be able to help.

I am working on launching regional chapters of the coalition so that we can document how the recession has damaged other communities across Canada.

This is the most fulfilling period in my life. I work to inform people about social injustices in the hopes that I can make a contribution to their elimination. It brings me joy when I am able to help someone or when someone tells me that I have changed the way they think about an issue.

 Stories from Down But Not Out a website about poverty and homelessness

From an anonymous writer

From an anonymous writer

added Jan 1 

Hello Ronzig:
It has been about six months since I posted here, as the former executive who took your advice and became a part time janitor. You were kind enough to ask me to send an update at times so here it is.
Much has happened. The job I had as dishwasher/janitor ended in late July. By the end of September I had also lost the room I had, as rent went up just as I had almost run out of money. I was forced to move into my pickup. So for two months I was without a home. I still had enough money for food and for gas, but not enough for the rent for an apartment as well. The money from selling my possessions was enough to keep me going for a while, but I had to make choices. I had bought the pickup with some of the money and had to be very careful with what I had left.
It was a tough blow but I would not give up. I often thought: how did I come to th is? How did I fall from success and privilege to sleeping in a pickup? I had no one to blame but myself. I had lived above my salary for years and had false values. It was a dark time. I am not yet ready to think about it too much. A man I had worked with in the restaurant allowed me to use his shower at times. I am very grateful to him for his generosity.
I didn’t know what the future would bring. I accidentally slammed my mouth into the back of the truck one cold morning – and managed to lose two of my front teeth. I am in Chicago and there is no dental coverage for someone without a job or home. That day I just wandered the streets and ended up spending money on tattoos – yes, it was a dumb decision – and now have two on my neck.
Finally at the end of November I found a very small trailer in a trailer park. I now have a roof over my head again. She is a real gift to me. A few days later the restaurant hired me back as a janitor. The same week I met a woman in the same park – a woman, for the first time since the divorce. She is a waitress. So things have turned around for now, again.
I didn’t tell her any of my story at first; I didn’t know how she would react. One day she came across a photo I had forgot to throw out with a pile of my old stuff:
It is a 9 x 12 inch framed photograph taken at a formal banquet in 2003. I am standing next to my ex-wife and my ex-boss and holding an award given for my ex-job: Financial Executive of the Year. Yes – it’s ironic. I was once named Financial Executive of the Year!
She stared at the photo and asked who the people were and why I would keep a farmed photo of strangers. I told her. And she didn’t believe me. She really didn’t believe me!
I couldn’t blame her. We looked at the former ‘me’, the man who no longer exists: – fifty pounds thinner, a dazzling, confident smile with all of my nice white teeth intact, no tattoos, clean-shaven, perfect corporate haircut with a razor-sharp part, immaculate white tie and tails that I had once owned – never rented! -, manicured hands, gold watch, patent leather pumps on my feet, proudly holding up the award in triumph.
She then looked at the man I am now: a bearded, overweight, gap-toothed, pony-tailed, barefoot, dirty-fingernailed, tee-shirted, tattooed part-time janitor.
How can life change that much? How can one man change and transform so completely?
Finally she started to see the likeness in the face and was very slowly convinced. She insisted on knowing the story.

I told her everything - and she didn’t reject me or laugh or put me down. I told her everything in that photo was gone and explained what I have already written in other posts here.
I had not seen my ex-wife or ex-boss for over a year. That award had been thrown away. The white tie formal outfit and the wristwatch had been bought by someone I didn’t know.
She laughed at the ribbons on the fancy pumps I had on in the photo. I told her they had been sold and the silk socks on my feet along with them. She realized that expensive shoes had always been the symbol of my former life for me, and encouraged me not to be ashamed ever again of my new status in life – and to go barefoot as often as possible, to break with the false image – even to learn to drive my pickup in my bare feet on warm days. That’s a world away from the days when I pressed my mirror-shined Ferragamo wingtips on the pedal of my Porsche. If anyone had told me than that this would happen, I would not believe it.
I don’t know why shoes were the symbol for me. Everyone has something that means ‘success’ to them, and for me it was very expensive business shoes. Selling my shoes to others was harder than it should have been! Now I see again h ow shallow that was. Hearing her laugh was great.
She then told me she preferred me the way I am now. Was she lying? I don’t know. But it felt good. She said I would never have looked at her in my former life (I am ashamed to admit she is right) and SHE would never have looked at me! She told me she never liked “suits” and I was definitely a “suit” back then. She also told me she would only leave me if I shaved off the beard (which is now long) or cut my ponytail!
She also gave me the new name I now go by: My first name is Trevor, and I have always used it. She laughed and told me that had to change. It’s too upper class. Fine for an executive. Not for a janitor or a trailer park. So she took my middle name, Henry (still too classy) and turned it into Hank. So after a lifetime of being Trevor, I am now Hank to her – and to the new people I meet.
And that’s the update. I have written a lot more than you pro bably want to know! But as you say, I am more free now and I am STILL surviving.
Now I will take your advice and start volunteering to help at a food pantry. I have so little myself – but at least I have a place to sleep again and maybe I can encourage others as you have encouraged me.

Hank

Stories submitted to us  

Added Nov 15

Ildiko’s Story

I was born in Hungary ten years after the revolution of 1956. I grew up in a traumatized society, witnessing miserable lives; suicide, depression, alcoholism, abuse and racism.

When I left my homeland and lived in Germany the authorities treated me according to the colonial law, kept us away from social life and local people hated refugees.

Obviously, I came to Canada with the hope for a better life. However, I ultimately realized that none of my previous studies, work experiences ever counted. I stayed under-employed, with low wage, hard, physical labour and a permanent spine condition. My library technician certificate has never been recognized, neither my economical studies.

I found myself in the vicious circle of “no Canadian experience”.

My family started to fall apart due to my (ex) husband’s mental illness. I lived in fear due to his unpredictable, violent behaviour. I could not force him to go for treatment for about nine years. He lost his job, our financial situation worsened and eviction became a real threat. I supported my whole family with my minimum wage job and kept searching for a solution.

Eventually I had to escape with my son. We stayed in a homeless shelter for five months, waiting for subsidized housing. The atmosphere in the shelter/ motel was traumatizing and discouraging, it was hard to stay motivated. Prostitution, violence and drug use were very common.  We had one “communal kitchen” right beside the washers and dryers. Understandably, nobody claimed it in terms of cleaning. The standards of healthy eating dropped in the community.

Life got better after my son and I moved to the subsidized unit. I had my first decent job. I worked at the communication department of Cassels Brock and Blackwell (law firm). Eventually we had to pay full market price for the apartment and after that decided to live separately.

When the bank found me responsible for my ex-husband’s bankruptcy, I lost everything again. Due to this recession I lost my job in January. I can’t see the light in the tunnel how to pay back my loans and debts. I needed treatment for my anxiety at the Crisis Prevention Program at East York General Hospital. Just recently, my landlord threatened me with eviction. My Employment Insurance money is not harmonized with the day when the rent is due. I asked the Housing Connections to renew my application, based on the fact that my previous application stopped within a year. They put my case at the very end of the waiting list, it looks hopeless.

Visual art and photography are my passion. I am a self-taught artist, I work with different media.  I won second prize at the Frankly Bob Award in 2009. I had an exhibition in Toronto and another in Budapest (Hungary) this summer.

Furthermore, on the bright side I am a fighter. I have courage and refuse to be destined to abuse and mistreatment. As a Second Career client (I deserve it) I study Community Worker Program at George Brown College. I want to help others because I’ve seen devastation. My studies are way beyond textbooks. Problems what “other people have” are problems for all of us as a society.

I volunteered for many organizations; Sketch Studio, Street Needs Assessment, elementary school art classes, Peregrine Falcon Association, City Roots Festival and now, Recession Relief Coalition. I am going to work at St Simon The Apostle Church for my school placement (field study). I am negotiating with The Roma Community Centre to offer translations for newcomers.

There is always a lot to do; activism is a never ending but rewarding effort to achieve positive changes and to help especially those who are left out.

Newcomers to Canada rarely are allowed to work at the careers for which they have been trained. Instead we force them into menial low paid employment, far beneath their abilities. This is a serious problem in Canada. We have doctors driving taxi cabs while people linger on waiting lists for a doctor that will take new patients. Recognition of a new immigrant’s qualifications would go a long way in reducing poverty in that area and at the same time provide better services to the community as a whole.

Once an applicant is finally provided with assisted housing, usually after many long years on a waiting list, there is a strong disincentive to strive for improvement, for once employment at a sustainable income level is acquired, they are forced to pay market rent and have to go back to the end of the waiting list to regain the subsidy if they lose their job and their income disappears. This is a major flaw in our system. It actively penalizes people for trying to get ahead and makes people refuse to take work that would eliminate their benefits for fear of losing the job and being unable to pay market rent.

Ronzig

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