A Very Good Day — Getting Out of the Boat

Though the housing market may have cooled in Hamilton, rental prices continue to climb. The average price for a one bedroom apartment in the city in July is now between $1500 and $1600. For one bedroom!

Meanwhile, the rates for Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) have been the same since 2018. A single person on OW gets $390/month for shelter. That’s a QUARTER of what the average one bedroom costs. I can feel my face heating up as I write this--that’s legislated poverty. Once they combine their shelter allowance with their basic needs allowance (meant for food, clothes, bus fare, etc), they get $733 per month. That’s still less than 1/2 of what they need to rent a one bedroom.

This means that Guests have to cut deep into their basic needs budget to have a shot at affording even a room in someone’s house, and we end up in the position of encouraging people to access food banks and community food fridges to make ends meet. It’s the worst.

Almost every refugee claimant starts out on OW, even if their English is strong, even if they have transferable skills. That’s because they usually need to support the basic documents for their refugee claim within 45 days after beginning their claim, with the support of a lawyer. Details on where they’ve lived, worked, and travelled for the last 10 years, family members, and the full narrative that explains why they’re seeking Canada’s protection. (It used to be 15 days pre-pandemic!) This narrative will be referenced in their refugee hearing, so it’s very important to get it right and Guests visit their lawyers multiple times in those first weeks.

And now that pandemic-related delays and staffing shortages at the Canada Border Services Agency are keeping some people from doing the very first step of the process (called an eligibility hearing) for months, some can’t even get OW at the beginning and it takes months to get a work permit! So some of our friends who run into these delays are having an even harder time finding their long-term apartment.

Don’t worry, I’m getting to the good news.

For all these reasons and more, we’ve been trying to access additional government subsidies for Open Homes Guests. If they come through a city-funded shelter, they are eligible to be referred to various programs that can top up their social assistance so that they can find a safe, reasonably affordable place to stay. But we’re not on that list, so our people haven’t had access to these subsidies yet.

*(STUNNING artwork by* *Nina Schuurman-Drenth* *for our community. She used pictures painted by our community at a recent gathering as the base for her collage.)*

So the other day, with the support of super-volunteer and former City housing staff Bruce, I met with City staff members working in the homelessness prevention and subsidized housing areas. I was ready for us to be underestimated: we are small and still relatively unknown compared to the big players. And I’m a young woman, which does not always play in my favour. So I put on my boss-lady red lipstick and got ready to make our case, with a lot of helpful coaching and planning from Bruce the Saint.

Thankfully, Bruce had them smiling before I even figured out their video call system and entered the virtual room. And they were lovely!

*(Apparently the key to smooth hummus is blending in ice cubes. Who knew?!)*

In 45 short minutes, we got 2 big wins:

One of our Open Homes friends, an elderly Iraqi Kurdish woman, has been on the Access to Housing waitlist for subsidized housing for more than 2 years. This is not unusual--some people wait on that list for almost a decade. Cruel, but true. But this woman has my heart and her landlord recently upped her monthly rent by an illegal $200/month, so I was ready to knock on every door I could find. (Channeling my friend Jess Brand, who always says to leave no stone unturned when searching for housing for marginalized people.) They looked up her file, advised us on adding a certain building to her list, and guessed that she would receive a call in the next few months. (!!!!!) I was over the moon, and still am. When my coworker Noha told her the news, this elderly woman with a hunched back and really difficult varicose veins jumped up and said “Alhamdulillah” over and over again. (That’s “praise God” in Arabic.) She is so dear to us, and I am crying again thinking of how happy she was.
They also agreed to connect us to the gatekeeper for The List. (That’s the Coordinated Access System, the gateway to subsidies for our Guests.) It’s far from a done deal, because resources are scarce and larger, more entrenched organizations already have their pieces of the pie, but we have a shot at being at the table. Pray with me that they see how refugee claimant-supporting organizations like us and Micah House fit into the puzzle of the city shelter system. After all, we receive referrals weekly from other organizations that are on The List, and relieve pressure on their organizations and on the whole system by welcoming refugee claimants into supportive environments.

*(The Kurdish prescription for pregnant women: eggs, yogurt, bread, cheese. I can live with this.)*

It was a very good day.

In other news, Dan and I are planning to welcome our own little houseguest for a long-term stay of 20+ years in January. I’ve been learning about pregnancy foods from all over the world! Nigerians recommend spice, my Kurdish habibti recommends milk products (we are very much on the same page), and my Yemeni friend made me samosas and hummus. Oh, and there was a Colombian soup called ajiaco that a friend made for me as well, but I’m not sure that was pregnancy-related. Just delicious.