Why I support Salvation Army shelter plan
The marginalized need a way forward, says Colin Alexander.
I strongly favour the Salvation Army’s proposed complex on Montreal Road in Vanier. But it must do real problem-solving for its clients. Currently, it provides only Band-Aid support, necessary as that is.
Many people need help that works, and aren’t getting it. They also need help where they are, and they’re largely in Vanier. That’s why the Wabano Health Centre and the Inuit drop-in centre are there.
As is the case elsewhere in Canada, Ottawa has a burgeoning underclass of multi-generational welfare recipients, largely, but by no means exclusively, Indigenous. And it’s doubling every 20 years. Few in the privileged middle class can even imagine the misery of dependency and degradation these people endure. Too many of the marginalized go through a revolving door at the hellhole jail at Innes Road, costing taxpayers $213 per inmate a day. But almost every adult in need or in trouble was once a child who got left behind or fell between the cracks.
The Indigenous-run non-profit agency in Vancouver, Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society (ACCESS), provides a template for enabling the marginalized. Native CEO John Webster says most clients are in bad shape on arrival. Providing round-theclock assistance, the centre assesses all needs and makes a plan that may start with finding a place to live. Clients with addictions go into treatment. Ones needing basic training go into an eight-week classroom program that teaches essential skills for work, learning and everyday life. On graduation from the initial program, clients can go into an apprenticeship program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, which they rarely fail. Thousands of graduates have gone on to work in construction, food retail, the police and other occupations. And employers are asking for more.
Why don’t Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Indigenous Affairs ministers replicate this program nationwide?
With support from the three levels of government, the Salvation Army could start implementing the prime minister’s commitment to help citizens most in need, and do so effectively.
Societal challenges include the circumstances leading women to disappear or to become murder victims — like Inuit women Annie Pootoogook and Mary Papatsie in Ottawa. Challenges include the proliferation of both the demand and the supply side of the drug trade. This is increasingly a problem for the middle class too, so they should support action for remediation. Rob Boyd at the Sandy Hill Community Centre says programs for addictions are fragmented, underfunded and ineffectual. I know an Ojibwa woman who got herself off needles on her own initiative. But she still soaks alcohol and crack. She says she wouldn’t need that if she had somewhere to go and something to do each day.
Schools for marginalized youth are also part of the problem, with their lack of exercise classes, organized sports, learn-to-swim programs, supervised homework and effective mentoring. I know of a woman advised to move her daughter to another school. “We have so many Somali students,” the teacher said, “that we have to teach to a much lower standard.” Why in blazes isn’t there remedial support for them? The Vanier centre could help with that too.
Most reasonable people should welcome a centre in Vanier operating like the YM/YWCA on Argyle Avenue or like Vancouver’s ACCESS. The Y provides accommodation for the needy, along with a restaurant and sports facilities. It also provides comprehensive and effective mentoring for immigrants.
I submit that the human cost of failing to provide adequately for our marginalized people is unconscionable, and that the financial cost to taxpayers is increasingly unsustainable. The Vanier centre could help turn that around.
Most reasonable people should welcome a centre in Vanier operating like the YM/ YWCA on Argyle Avenue.