On December 29, 2011, Jessica Larabee filed a human rights complaint alleging that the YWCA Sudbury discriminated against her.
Jessica Larabee has decided to drop the human rights complaint against the YWCA Sudbury.
Jessica Larabee said she is confident she would win, but she doesn't want taxpayers to foot the bill for a victory at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
She says Her first priority was for the YWCA Sudbury to change its policy and her second priority was to receive financial compensation for pain and suffering and general damages.
Jessica Larabee said that the YWCA Sudbury has changed the policy and is currently allowing transgender people into the shelter. Jessica said she believes she achieved her goal.
“I hope this shelter will be a model for how things should be,” Larabee said.
Jessica Larabee believes it would take several years to prevail, and she doesn't think it's fair for her lawyer to keep working on the case pro bono.
Instead of fighting over financial compensation requests, Jessica Larabee said she wants to focus on the future and other social advocacy goals.
IMPORTANT YWCA SUDBURY POLICY:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
It will take six months to a year for city staff to come back with a solution for establishing homeless shelters in Sudbury, the community services committee heard Monday evening.
ReplyDeleteA presentation by members of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) urged the city to get a permanent shelter up and running sooner rather than later.
“It has been a cold winter so far, and for people trying to survive outside the situation is desperate,” said S-CAP member Anna Harbulik. “For people excluded from the existing shelters ... there have been nights when the (Elgin Street) Mission has been open since the city has declared a cold weather emergency ... but others when it has not been.”
The group suggested churches or Tom Davies Square could be used for a permanent shelter as replacement for the Mission, which last fall announced it would no longer operate as an emergency warming shelter throughout the winter months.
The Mission now opens its doors during extreme cold weather alerts (when the temperature is below -15 C, or -20 C with the windchill).
Also crucial, it told the committee and staff, is changing Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) funding to be more like that of the defunct Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB).
Last January, the Liberal government cut CSUMB, which was a benefit for people on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program that enabled them to move and set up a household.
The new city discretionary benefits policy gives smaller amounts to buy beds and washers, but doesn't typically include cash for things like dryers or cookware.
S-CAP proposed providing up to $800 every two years for low income single people or couples without children, and $1,500 for families that have to relocate.
“It makes no sense. In a city like Sudbury where you have cold winters and you do have a family, how are you supposed to do laundry if you don't have a dryer?” Coun. Frances Caldarelli asked, requesting staff look into that part of its policy.
“ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and our programs are municipal programs. Homelessness is a responsibility of the federal government that they are not fulfilling,” she continued, a comment that drew some gasps and jeers from the crowd.
“(We) have to start lobbying again to try and get them to take up part of the issue that is theirs.”
Staff said they'll have information in time for next month's community services meeting on wet shelters, extending the Mission's hours in the winter, increasing the scope of the city's discretionary benefits program and the provincial and federal role in homelessness.
laura.stricker@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @LauraStricker
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/01/20/no-quick-action-on-homeless-shelter-for-sudbury
ReplyDeleteNo quick action on homeless shelter for Sudbury
ReplyDelete"While people are freezing and starving over here,Prime Minister Harper and 12 of his Conservative donors are gone on an all expense paid trip to Israel with a $66 million donation. This would go a long way to house and feed the homeless in Canada!"
ReplyDeleteI think they should really check out these ppl that are staying at the shelter and ask the homeless people if they want to file an Application with the Criminal Injury Compensation Board so they can get help and out of poverty?
ReplyDeleteAnd what about those who don't want to go to a shelter??
ReplyDeleteThese people are more common than you'd think
Sudbury not doing enough to help homeless, coalition says
ReplyDeleteThe Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty has called on city council to do more to help the homeless.
ReplyDeleteAmong other suggestions at a meeting on Monday, the group wants the city to fund an overnight shelter through the winter.
Coalition member Anna Harbulik said some Sudburians are taking in strangers who would otherwise be out on the street.
"The city is not meeting its responsibility to the homeless,” she said.
“The city has downloaded dealing with helping the homeless onto other people living in poverty."
The group is also pushing for permanent funding for a program that helps people pay rent and buy furniture, thereby keeping them off the street.
Some city councillors pointed out that Greater Sudbury already spends more on homelessness than it’s required to, considering that it’s technically a federal responsibility.
However Coun. Claude Berthiaume wondered why only certain city departments are allowed to run over budget.
"Now, why is it when we're dealing with people, with individuals, with people's lives, that we cannot, we don't even accept that we might go over budget on that?"
Staff members are set to report back to council next month on several poverty issues. The report will cover the possibility of an overnight shelter being open all winter, as well as a so-called wet shelter where alcohol is allowed.
I need help. I need the province to help me pay for therapy bills.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-not-doing-enough-to-help-homeless-coalition-says-1.2504745
ReplyDeleteLong term wet shelter for homeless alcoholics needed, advocates say
ReplyDeleteSome homeless advocates are welcoming the opening of a shelter in Sudbury for those under the influence, now that the City and the Salvation Army have come to an agreement to provide a shelter every night until the end of next month.
ReplyDeleteNo one who is intoxicated can be turned away, unless he or she is violent.
The executive director of the Social Planning Council said it's good to have a shelter for the most vulnerable people for these last few weeks of winter.
bc-081209-homeless-1
A wet shelter is one that dispenses small amounts of alcohol to people to manage their addiction. ((CBC))
“We still have to talk about a long term strategy around a wet shelter and how we make this a more permanent fixture,” Janet Gasparini said. “But I am very pleased about this announcement.”
The city is spending $47,000 on the program.
Lise Sénécal, who runs a shelter for teens, said she routinely has to turn away a young person because of intoxication — but now she has somewhere safe to send them.
“At least three or four times a weeks I have to refuse a youth to remain at the shelter because he's under the influence,” she said.
lise senecal
Lise Sénécal, who runs a shelter for teens says she often has to turn away a young person because of intoxication. Now she has somewhere safe to send them — at least until the end of March. (Kate Rutherford/CBC)
“Now, instead of sending him to the detox centre, where they are full to the max, I will be able to send him for the night at that shelter.”
Gasparini said options for a long-term wet shelter need to be kept front and centre. A wet shelter is one that dispenses small amounts of alcohol to people to manage their addiction.
“I do think there is some work to do to look at a place where people are given a limited amount of alcohol in the context of the shelter so that, first of all, they're not becoming so inebriated that they're passing out on the street,” she said. “And so that they're not drinking poisonous substances.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/long-term-wet-shelter-for-homeless-alcoholics-needed-advocates-say-1.2543031
ReplyDeleteCity committee refuses to consider using city hall to let homeless people stay warm at night
ReplyDelete