Photo by Whitehorse Star
Mike Gau
City receives FCM grant to fight homelessness
The city has received a gift of $46,000 from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to support its effort to reduce homelessness.
The city has received a gift of $46,000 from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to support its effort to reduce homelessness.
City council voted at its meeting Monday to grant the gift to the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition, which administers funds on behalf of the city-wide Safe at Home plan.
Whitehorse is one of 73 Canadian cities chosen by the national federation to receive funding provided by a gift to the federation from the Canadian Medical Association Foundation, council was told at its meeting.
Mike Gau, the city’s director of development services, explained the city was chosen because of its involvement with the Safe at Home plan.
“In September 2017, the city endorsed the Safe at Home plan along with the Government of Yukon (YG), Kwanlin Dun First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, creating a community-based action plan to end and prevent homelessness in Whitehorse,” council was told.
Gau said the city sits on the Community Advisory Board (CAB) that provides recommendations to the community entity that administers the federal funding for implementation of the Safe at Home plan. The anti-poverty coalition administers the funding for the implementation manager.
As a requirement to receive federal funding, the advisory board adopted the Safe at Home plan as its community plan earlier this year, council was told.
“Administration has asked CAB for a recommendation to provide to council on how to spend the gift,” Gau told council.
“CAB responded with a proposal that the gift be used to fund development and roll-out of a ‘100 Homes Campaign’ working with landlords to accept more people at risk of homelessness or to prevent evictions and therefore prevent homelessness.”
The 100 Homes Campaign falls under the umbrella of the Safe at Home plan, council was told.
Kate Mecham, the implementation manager for the Safe at Home plan, told council the $46,000 will be used to engage landlords in the community.
Engagement of landlords is essential in the 100 Homes Campaign, she said.
“We are working to develop the idea, and receiving the gift is an opportunity to develop the idea.”
Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu told her colleagues she remembers that just a few years ago, the city’s involvement in the battle against homelessness was just an idea.
There was some doubt about whether the city’s involvement would ever amount to anything other just another meeting or conference, she said.
“It is just so great to see the momentum pick up,” she said. “Our community has really embraced the plan. The gift is an acknowledgment of that work.”
Curteanu said the city’s involvement in the Safe at Home plan is one of the best things she’s seen in her eight years on council.
Several members of council applauded the work of the Safe at Home plan and the city’s involvement in that work.
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Comments (15)
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Oh Please on Aug 3, 2020 at 11:53 pm
@Klaus
So I guess you have never lived in any other city in Canada huh? Since you are so hard done by living here with some of the lowest taxes in the country lol. What you likely have is a household budget problem, not a tax problem.
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Klaus G. on Aug 2, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Hey how can I get a check cut for myself to avoid homelessness? If the city keeps raising taxes and continues with it's wanton spending I'll be right in with this group in order to improve my standard of living.
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Moose on Aug 2, 2020 at 5:58 pm
@Think not
Well that was entertaining. You have tried to flip reality in some form of projection. Your diatribe is full of contradictions. Perhaps you should try some self reflection next time before responding.
You say that Liberals are leftists, which to you means socialist, but in the next breath you say that Liberalism is an "individualistic doctrinaire". Sorry bud but it can't be both. Socialism very briefly, is about people working together and sharing resources, literally the opposite of an individualist belief. Conservatives are the ones all about the individual instead of the greater good, this is especially self evident in their tax policies. If you really want proof of it, look at Alberta right now where the conservatives have cut public health and education while giving out tax breaks.
Next you say "So - Feck your perceptions and feck your feelings. Let’s get real."
Followed by "Yes addiction is a choice!" which is the opposite of "getting real". This is the old right wing caveman belief which exists in a world where there is only Black and White - no pesky, complicated gray area! Ironically, this is you giving an emotional (anger) response, the kind of thing which you accuse others of. The only way for you to be correct in your assumption is if all people are born with the same physical brain - same portions of endorphin producing centres, same electrical wiring, same amount of hormone production etc. It would also require everyone to have had the same experiences from childhood on.
Do you really think growing up being physically, verbally or sexually abused would not affect one's susceptibility to become addicted to a mind altering substance? How about people who return from war with PTSD, or experience other trauma resulting in PTSD, do you not think they are more susceptible to substance abuse and suicide? Your black and white beliefs are very childish. There are mountains of research for you to look at if you so desired. But I suspect you are happy in your conservative beliefs of black/white..... good/bad....right/wrong. After all, those beliefs are very easy to live by. Everything is so cut and dry.
"It pisses me off that we cannot have an intelligent and evidence based discussion about things at this time because of the Liberal doctrinaire"
Well isn't it ironic that you provided no evidence for your last argument. Here we are, no one stopping you from providing an intelligent and evidence based argument. No one censoring you, so let's have it. Post some scholarly links to reliable sources supporting your position. Then I will do the same.
"Education used to mean the free exchange of ideas and discourse to improve society. Now it is absolutely dangerous personally, professionally and politically to do so because the mob will rip you off the latter and beat the crap out of you."
Education still means the same thing it always did. Conservative types like yourself have started this narrative that there is no longer an exchange of ideas but you can never point to real examples of being censored. This victimhood narrative seems to have arisen because your beliefs and ideas have mostly crumbled in the face of professional and academic critique. Rather than change your (the larger your, not you personally) beliefs or even re-examine where you have gone wrong, you instead choose to burn down the house by claiming all universities and places of higher learning are just liberal brainwashing centers. It's much easier to say that all of the experts are biased and wrong, no?
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“Think Not?”, said the realist. “No”, said Libby, “I think, not!” “Of course”, said the realist. on Aug 1, 2020 at 10:06 pm
Dear Moose - Education is wasted on truly Liberal minds and even more so on those who fall further to left on the scale of socialism, Leftists. This is because Liberalism is an individualistic doctrinaire whose logical regression divides societies into rights competing groups. These perspectives are antithetical to the purpose of education in society and it is sickening to have to be on the sidelines and watch “You People” tear and claw at one another on the basis of your feelings about your perceptions - This is animalism.
So - Feck your perceptions and feck your feelings. Let’s get real.
There should be expectations that every person will contribute according to their ability rather than the expectation that society redistribute according to one’s chosen disability. Yes - Addiction is a choice! There is no literal compulsion to use substances. People are not automatons slavishly controlled by an external will to self-destruction. This is a selfish idea. It is selfish for the so-called “addicted” individual and it is selfish for the person who excuses such behaviour whether it be for personal, professional or, dog forbid, political - The worst form of rationalization. It is fiction and it is delusional.
It pisses me off that we cannot have an intelligent and evidence based discussion about things at this time because of the Liberal doctrinaire that beats on reality like a cave-person trying to escape the gnashing teeth of a Sabre tooth tiger.
Education used to mean the free exchange of ideas and discourse to improve society. Now it is absolutely dangerous personally, professionally and politically to do so because the mob will rip you off the latter and beat the crap out of you. Intelligence in this brave new world is disadvantaged.
We have become the equivalent of the 5 monkeys experiment:
A researcher puts five monkeys in a cage. There’s a bunch of bananas hanging from a string, with a ladder leading to the bananas. When the first monkey goes for the bananas, the researcher sprays all five monkeys with freezing water for five minutes. Some time later, when a second monkey inevitably tries to go for the bananas, the researcher once again sprays all five monkeys with the cold water for five minutes. The researcher then puts the hose away and never touches it again. But, when a third monkey tries to go for the bananas, the other four attack him to prevent him from climbing that ladder. They are afraid of the punishment that may come.
Then, the researcher replaces one of the monkeys with a new monkey who wasn’t part of the original experiment and was never sprayed with water. And, as soon as he touches the ladder to go for the bananas, the other four monkeys attack him to keep him from doing so. If he tries again, they attack him again. Thus, the new monkey learns not to go after the bananas because he’ll get attacked if he does.
Thanks to people like you...
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Moose on Jul 31, 2020 at 9:50 pm
@JC Enough with your ignorance about just giving the homeless a job. There are ample opportunities for anybody in Yukon who wants a job. That isn't the issue here. It is primarily about addictions and mental health issues. You can't expect someone to go off and be a normal productive worker while they are still dealing with these. Perhaps you've never known anyone with a serious alcohol or drug addiction. Perhaps you have never known anyone with serious trauma or PTSD. Whatever the case may be, please stop spouting your right wing ignorance about just "finding these people jobs". Perhaps you could also read an introductory text book on the psychology of addiction or how it affects modern society. Though I'm guessing you probably spurn higher learning as just liberal brainwashing.
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Politico on Jul 30, 2020 at 12:47 pm
@ TMYK So I take it you haven't asked to see the books? At the shelter, when I was there, wages were broken down by type of work. May I suggest asking before raising a stink!
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JC on Jul 29, 2020 at 8:08 pm
Mathew: What jobs? The jobs the Government is bringing thousands of immigrants in to fill? Maybe the government should hire some of the immigrants to teach our homeless how to work. If they can live on the low pay they're getting and survive, they must know something. It's time some of those homeless were made to work. I agree it may be too late for some because of their age, but there is a younger generation that should not be on the dole. And the governments should not be encouraging them to just spend their lives wandering around aimlessly. Governments should be spending tax money to educate them for the labour force instead of developing ways to turn them into useless vegetables.
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TMYK on Jul 29, 2020 at 6:20 pm
@politico. You mean how Raven recycling has one line in their returns labelled “wages”. You don’t actually know how much individuals in the organization are making. NGO’s in the Yukon have been using tricks like this for years to escape public oversight yet they rely on government funding(tax dollars) to exist.
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Politico on Jul 29, 2020 at 2:53 pm
@ TMYK The Anti Poverty coalition is a registered NGO. They file yearly public documentation regarding their finances. Either the coalition of the Territorial Government should be able to provide you with a copy. Why make it seem like a conspiracy unless your comment is just meant as a drive by smear?
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TMYK on Jul 29, 2020 at 9:49 am
I would be very interested to see how much money the Any Poverty Coalition gets annually and a dollar breakdown on what it is used for. There are some people and organizations making a lot of money off of poverty.
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Hopeless on Jul 29, 2020 at 8:05 am
JC - wholeheartedly agree, but the torpor and endemic apathy that characterizes the city will always win through .
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Molly Whopper on Jul 28, 2020 at 9:14 pm
Sorry JC - The jobs are not there. Besides that would cost $47,000 and they only received $46,000. By the time they administrate the funds there will be enough left over to pay for the subscription to the Star for another year... They want to be able read about how awesome they are!
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Matthew on Jul 28, 2020 at 5:42 pm
Hey @JC,
What jobs? Homelessness WILL rise sharply in Canada, when banks and landlords start kicking out people who don't/can't afford to have a roof..
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Matthew on Jul 28, 2020 at 5:41 pm
Oh... they want to end homelessness but they're spending $30M on a new city hall!? Oh the irony! Clearly their swanky new office is more important..
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JC on Jul 28, 2020 at 4:23 pm
Wouldn't it be more practical to just find these people jobs? And teach them how to support themselves.