#Mentoo - York Region's Forgotten Homeless

Sam Orrico has struggled years now with housing

Christmas came and went, then New Year's and for most of Canada life carried on as it had previously, with most of us convinced we'd done our part during the festive season giving to our loved ones and to the "poor".

But for some, there is no back to normal. For some a life of misery, at least for the foreseeable future, remains. Like the now senior farmer who tires from fighting just to have land to "farm" and now lives alone in a trailer with off the grid heat.

But so too do some youth struggle to survive in this often unforgiving society that seems to more easily accept a sentence of homelessness to males.

In a sort of reverse way our system often seems to, unwittingly perhaps through past patriarchal thinking, give less treatment and attention to men's and boys issues. One needs look only at the programs and services available. For example, there is no "men's centre" - yet a long established women's centre - and shelter beds available to women outnumber the men over 3 to 1 yet men and males make up the bulk of the actual street homeless.There are also 0 transitional houses for men yet we have units for women.

In fact, a 2017 Toronto / York Region United Way survey found a full 100% of York Region's street homeless without any supports whatsoever were male. Compile that with studies showing males commit  suicide in 80% of all cases and one wonders why a crisis has not been declared and political champions not speaking out outraged? #Mentoo ?

Our outdated social safety net system seems to regard these men as expendable? Indeed they are from my experience often simply given bus tickets to take them somewhere else, like Toronto, where last year over 70 men - over 90% - were found to have died (decades) early as a result of having lived on the streets, as of only November. No inquiry? And we cannot be so naive as to think York Region men aren't part of those death statistics when our lone full time York Region's men's shelter of 26 beds is full 100% of the time. Ditto its 12 bed youth shelter in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.

So, as we all continue on and pat each other on the back about what a great job we're doing, maybe just stop a minute and take a good look, and if in conscience you can say we are, then so be it. More men will simply die. Are these men deserving of programs and homes? You decide.

Pictured is a sample of "thank-yous" sent out after a donation for presents to a York Region male youth shelter over Christmas of 2017 and donated by a local business, Stellar Car Wash.

Editors note: One person had never had an Xmas present before. 

Decoration Day Newmarket True Vet @ 69

I am a bit ashamed to say I never, before Sunday past, really understood the significance of Decoration Day nor why it was separate from the more well known Remembrance Day which I've attended and covered much of in the past, and in fact even produced a one-off old variety style radio show live to the troops one year which featured many local talents including Sean Stephens (now CEO of Tree Frog Interactive), Hurricane Mike Thompson, and as I recall an excellent capela youth group sent from the now passed Merlene Samuel - Cephas' Spotlight Theatre school grads who sang more than O Canada live to the troops via our radio show!

More recently I was involved in produce/directing a series of taped video interviews featuring prominent voices from Newmarket's history who have lived here for so many years, often with family who helped sjape the area including the daughter of the areas first police chief. But it was 93 year old Reg Harrison who stood out most to me, his face striking me as one that held so many experiences only someone going through the war from that era could know. Reg proudly came out to share with us in that interview with aid of a walker and enjoyed it too I think. So it was a great to see him once again as he took a spot to attend the 69th edition of the Newmarket's hosting of Decoration Day hosted by the Newmarket Vets Association.

I had attended Decoration Day last year but still was unclear about it's true meaning until this year when asked if I would assist in laying a wreath in recognition of fallen and homeless soldiers, in solidarity with the local Inn From The Cold Shelter. Although I have no official connection to the Inn, I appreciated the inclusion, I guess having been recognized as a person who has worked towards making changes locally in areas that afflict the homeless and was honoured regardless to be asked to be part of such a tribute day.

Ironically I have been actively working with the owner of a property just north of Green Lane in Sharon, Ontario to develop it into a unique, supportive home with built-in community and mental health supports and to that end have approached the Ontario office that assists adjusting and homeless veterans find suitable / affordable housing and supports to see if there would be a need - and indeed there is. Now using the working name of, the House of Hope, the property owner plans to be a hands-on operator and is excited at the prospect of it becoming a supportive home as its interior fixes come closer to being completed. Let's hope. Click here to follow its progress on Face Book.

Canadian Decoration Day

Originally started on June 2 1890, Decoration Day was started as sort of a protest in order to have fallen and wounded soldiers and their families recognized by the federal government of the times. In fact they were the very first Canadian led brigades to fight a foe, battling in Fort Erie repelling the Fenian raids which were made up of a mixture of anti-British Irish and American soldiers which included the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866.

The hardships endured by those maimed and killed and then their families suddenly devoid of the breadwinner as well can only be imagined and was started by other soldiers themselves, dropping flowers at the Canadian Volunteers Monument at Queens Park, and has been kept up in recognition since - for the past 69 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada where in 2017 the special guest speaker was the Ontario Housing Minister as well as homelessness fixer designate no less, Chris Ballard, who spoke in reminder of its meaning and asked us to imagine being their families. It was suitable an Ontario representative spoke as Ontario did give some recognition / support to those soldiers whereas the feds did not.

MPP Chris Ballard

Interesting to see the young up and comers taking part but there's a world of difference today and one can only imagine the horrors guys like Reggie Harrison saw fighting to keep us safe and enabling the very lives we too often take for granted today. I caught Reggie once again as he and his son exited the Vets Hall, the Mayor holding the door for me as he exited and I prepared to enter. Reggie's son was carrying a street sign called Harrison Trail and with Mayor Van Bynen having just left it didn't take a rocket scientist. For once I agree with a street naming by a politician wholeheartedly.

" Geez Reg I missed it! I said, " I didn't know they were doing this or I'd have come right way. I didn't get a pic!"

" We can get one outside", his proud son replied.

And we did! You can catch Reg Harrison's full History Hound interview here as produced by TPE.

We now add forevermore Randy Leaman's name to the crosses on Decoration Day

Vet Decoration Day organizer / host Wes Playter is congratulated  by Mayor Van Bynen on a good job

Spot the diff!?

Until next time!

TP out!

Homeless York Region Family gets full treatment

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well let's hope they don't mean that literally. That was the worry of a York Region family to be, young mom pregnant with child and concerned dad to be trying his best to find a solution to them being homeless while retaining control of their and their baby to come's lives.

He'd come 'home" from working out west with good intentions, getting his Georgina girlfriend pregnant was a byproduct but just one his fathers spouse was not willing to also take on, so the couple and their cat found themselves suddenly homeless with her pregnant and them unable to stay anywhere but a forest after being turned away from a shelter. That's where I found them "arguing". In a location a stones throw from a busy plaza.

At first I couldn't make out the yelling I was hearing as I couldn't see who was talking but the brunt seemed being flung towards a 'homeless looking' from someone up the forest area and by the look at the guy's face his girlfriend. The guy stood half in and out of the tree grove while another woman stood half in and out of her car, standing in silence between outbursts from the forest and as I overheard a bit more, I offered that maybe I could be of assistance and told him a little about my self at which point the semi-standing lady, now fully out of her car, was addressing me,

"Are you Tom Pearson? I'm Jane Haslam".

 Jane, of course, the Homelessness Prevention worker for the Salvation Army, central York Region.

" Oh, you're Jane. Hi!", I replied. Or something to that effect. The situation suddenly making sense.

 " No way!" I heard from the forest, " I'm not going anywhere where they'll take my baby. And what about my cat. Nobody will take my cat!"

Cat rescue puts mom and dad to be at rest

So with the nod of approval from 'dad' I waded in past a sign declaring " Hobo community. Hobos only!

" She made that", the young man offered, half reading my mind.

Then, in a subsequent discussing on the situation with the distraught mom to be and after I mentioned they would be eligible for emergency funds for food even if her spouse was waiting for a paycheque so they could eat....and which Ms. Haslam offered up she just happened to know exactly where the person from the Region who is the field worker to arrange this and where she was! So the plan became was she was going to go find her while I stayed and allayed and put out some calls for help.

The temporary homeless compound they'd set up was complete with tent in a spot long used for those in the know, once the 'home" to a former gold glove boxing champ, John Fletcher who died an alcoholic and homeless in Newmarket in June of 2011. That little patch in the grove of trees had been his home for a number of years. going inside to couch surf or into a shelter when it got really cold.Surely we've learned lessons from john and others' deaths? This family to be deserved a better fate, two weeks in tropic-like hot temperatures with no shower access was plenty enough.

I let her know we'd find a place to take her cat temporarily - which Jane arranged as well - and that we'd get them into a shelter together today. Which was done - even a cab there, and all handled with dignity. As for the young man involved, I was very impressed by his resolve to be with her and stay by her side despite being ostracized by his own family for doing so. He also seemed resilient, although perhaps hungry.

The community workers hadn't been aware of this spot, although truth be known its seems more a stopover spot mostly these days, another on the fringe type guy showing up after their cab had left, his spot in the shade reserved for sipping his drink of choice in the hiddens of the foliage den.


Ironically I'd only wandered back there to kill time while awaiting a meeting to find new landlords for a home that assists those with addictions or mental health that was just up the street. When I returned from said meeting with ice caps, Elizabeth Pepin, Outreach worker for York Region, and Jane Haslam were also arriving - all the arrangements all ready wrapped up in a neat, dignified bow.

The cat sanctuary lady also showed up as it all went down and we thanked her for her efforts including getting free shots for the family feline.


Even a family of what appeared to be ground hogs, babies too, were wondering about in the compound, almost too close, perhaps used to being fed by humans. Whatever the case, the human ones have a much better chance now, and having been homeless, do indeed move up somewhat on the waiting list for assisted housing.

And so there it is the happy ending. ( Insert happy faces and hearts here) Back pats to all.... 

But wait!

Always a but with me isn't there?

Here's my but. What happens in 6 weeks after their stay time in the shelter is up and they don't find a place they can yet afford? It's not like Y.R. is ripe full of rental housing, with one of the lowest per capita stock in the entire country. Does C.A.S. move in at that point and make a liar out of me, starting a "file' before the baby is even born to these two victims of circumstance?
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But you said earlier it moved them up in priority on the waiting list for housing!

Yes I did, but moving up can mean going from 8 years to 4 years...who knows?

Is there anything that can be done about getting the Homeless in York region a higher priority on this waiting list?

This location is currently vacant and ideal for housing 15 residents

Yes! Aside from the obvious of actually building more affordable housing, I believe actually it can be done simply through changing a YR housing policy which does not need governmental approval. York Region was once bound by a trade-off agreement with Toronto for some social services pooling dollars which we fought successfully to have returned. Remnants of that deal, which is accepting of G.T.A. residents awaiting housing or shelters on the same priority list as those who live in Y.R. and no priority to local residents.

This means that a person or family in Scarborough or even Ottawa can be ahead of a mother who lives or even grew up in YR yet we do not have the sane exchange of residents being placed into Toronto housing stock. There was a time when York Region housing was obligated to offer this, as funding had been tied to it, but with that no longer being the case, I see no benefit to York Region residents to continue such a system - and especially those who have lived and paid taxes and supported the communities for many years, hoping against hope, that one day they can live without fear of homelessness. All the housing help centres in the world won't help us if we have no where to place them into afterward.

"Shelters are not homes. They are part of the recycling system"

Tom Pearson

Inn From The Cold passes dignity test

I stopped into a public building with restrooms recently on my travels and while there it sounded like a meeting or gathering was happening inside...but when a guy has to go he has to go. The distinct odour of alcohol could be smelled in the air (jeepers I'm sounding like a cop!) as the foursome chatted, quieting to respectful tones upon seeing me enter.

I used the stall even though I didn't have to go number two and almost immediately the chatter came back up a level, the one semi-level headed guy in the group shushing them, as I envisioned him motioning to his lips whilst nodding towards the stall I occupied. He stopped still another guy from lighting up a smoke inside the warm confines of the public bathroom. I'd ascertained by then the group was likely homeless, their clothes and disposition helping somewhat in that assumption.


As I walked outside, the four stood smoking, one in a cast, all ranging in ages from 20,s to fifty. They were a ragtag group that watched out for one another while staying at the Inn from the Cold where they emphasized the volunteers there are great. They didn't like staying there or having to, but that those that man the place, treated them with dignity and respect - not so at Porter House (York Region's only full time men's shelter) though they almost angrily declared in unison. And at least one had camped near it when refused a spot there.

They were less than thrilled with the treatment they receive at Porter and the 'clientele" described as often abusing drugs, stealing their stuff or trying to rob them...and so they formed a little clique while now staying over at the Inn From the Cold shelter and challenged the evening before when someone tried to make off with their back packs in the pouring rain whilst taking shelter from it at the bridge, one breaking his hand in the ensuing chase while retrieving his dropped bundle.

" If I was you guys, I'd come out here to smoke otherwise what they'll do is clamp down on you. If you always come outside they won't bother you" I offered as I walked up to them.

" It's warm in there. We just go in there to get warm during the day sometimes, "Jim", said, " we wouldn't light up in there" forgetting likely I was inside when they almost did.

"I hear ya", I replied, " But that's just it, some people will just smell the smoke, not know who it was, and they'll start closing it up or stop you from using it. This way they won't ever bother you."

And it went from there as I chatted with them for some time whilst my order of fish and chips at nearby malt & chips shop where I'd ordered for my mom, awaited me.


Within no time these guys trusted me and were sharing personal stories. One who's mother'd died, which he really hadn't dealt with - you could feel as he spoke about it -  and had come to Newmarket to be near his father, two others who'd been raised in children's aid and who'd been abused...another I suspected had more mental health than addictions issues and much older than the others. The four amigos watching out for themselves, because they have no homes. And when Inn From The Cold closes for the season they will again be out in the cold at night.

I mentioned a documentary crew was nearby doing a piece on addictions and that I myself had done a documentary style series on a homeless father and son in Newmarket that had a happy ending and had generated a story about them in the papers that saw many show they wanted to help. The 2011 article generated more reaction than any in history I was told and in fact they revisited the article again in a discussion piece written in August 2015.

The guys went on to also tell me how, for example one being from Brampton, how they felt the people were special here as well as the town'

" When I came here (Newmarket) people actually say hi to you as you're walking down the street. I thought that was just great. The people are great here."

The 36 year old had worked 10 years for one company and worked up to forklift supervisor before things fell apart. when his mom died he seems he never recovered. another gave me his now tattered business card, holding out hope of restarting again.

They were very interested in what I had to say and engaging me, seeming to sense that I believed in these guys without judging them.And these guys all had good hearts, make no mistake. Semi-drunk or not. sure, they'd fallen perhaps, and far even but they need help - and not just for alcohol but for the abuse they've suffered and the other to get through losing his mom, possibly alone through it all but before ANY of that, they need a home, otherwise this desperate cycle of shelter to street to shelter to streets will surely, slowly, be killing them.

The contractor walked with me to the fish and chips place offering up himself if I needed a story to focus on these issues or for the newspaper, but I always take these offers at face value and wait and see if in their totally sober moments they still feel the same, as it's not an easy thing to have your face put to a homeless problem and I like to make sure they know that. also the newspapers don't always have their best interests in mind but rather the story. They don't often care about them but they care about a story.

This 30ish man just wants help is my thought and has no idea where to get it. I hope he hasn't pinned his hopes on me and the one happy ending I'd shared with him.

They're men. People. Human beings. And I swear to you they are salvageable, good people. Just like you! Click here to see TP's docu-piece on a homeless father and son.

TP out