Comments on The Burd Report: Monday

Indigent men? Sure! Abused men? Indeed! But, guys,...

2009-05-28T00:11:35.016-04:00

Indigent men? Sure! Abused men? Indeed! But, guys, these are not reasons for us to do anything other than rejoice that SSH has come to Northumberland.

Beyond that, we need to suck it up and move on, doing whatever will move the human rights agenda forward--and that does not include whining about SSH.

Perhaps we need some "manly grace" as described in this excerpt from a 1997 column by Bill Gallo in the New York Daily News:

"Remember how Willie Mays would make an over-the-head catch, turn and throw all in one motion? Well, that's ballet, folks. And how about Willie Pep's artistic triumph over Sandy Saddler in 15 rounds? Or Joe Di stretching for a ball hit to deep left-center? Well, that was ballet.

"I know this because it's what [Edward] Villella once told me.... Not only was Villella an accomplished dancer but he, indeed, was an athlete to boot. He spoke with added authority having lettered in boxing and baseball at the New York State Maritime Academy.

"The dancer-fighter grew up in Bayside and because he was pretty good with his dukes, other kids never kidded him about his dancing.... The male dancer, he said should possess "virility, and at the same time, grace but a manly grace . . . not overly athletic and not overly poetic."

So, guys, with a little muscle and a little poetry, we can do it: we can raise a glass to NSW and say, "Well done." Manly grace.

I don't for a minute believe there are as many abu...

2009-05-27T22:00:53.639-04:00

I don't for a minute believe there are as many abused male spouses as females, but there's no denying it happens and they deserve a safe haven as much as anyone.

Hopefully the currently available shelter system can offer that without the creation of an entire new shelter system just for abused men.

Heaven knows the last thing we need is another "create a victim" movement to emotionally abuse male victims of violence the way female ones have been brainwashed over the last few years. By the time the current crop of support workers is finished with some of them they are incapable of any productive activity for life. Sad.
DJO

I don't recall the crowds at Loyalist College when...

2009-05-25T21:03:16.634-04:00

I don't recall the crowds at Loyalist College when I attended as a mature student 1970-72 in Communications Arts. I used both buildings. It was one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

I guess there is no such creature as an "abused man" so there is no need for any affordable housing for that gender.

A close friend of mine of many years works finding affordable housing for the indigent, and finds it easier to find it for women than for men. There are 900 shelters for women in Canada (and I am glad that they exist) and virtually none for men, even though Stats Can indicates that men experience almost equivalent levels of abuse from their partners.

It may be nitpicking and probably is, BUT secondst...

2009-05-25T15:23:42.212-04:00

It may be nitpicking and probably is, BUT secondstage housing should be funded from a source other than "affordable housing money" even though we know that abused women will be low income. I keep coming back to those 14 people on the list who read that there are 14 more low income houses on the market, but in order to use them they must be "abused"

Employment Insurance changes are just tinkering, a...

2009-05-25T15:02:44.843-04:00

Employment Insurance changes are just tinkering, as usual. Ben recounts the hordes of unemployed trained to work on computers in the 80's, while I can recall a similar push in 1970-71 that filled Ontario's brand new community college system with the unemployed learning all kinds of new skills.

I was a regular, albeit mature student at Loyalist College at that time and we hardly had room to walk down the halls, there were so many of these unemployed older students. They seemed to all like playing euchre between classes, and the second building at the college, brand new at the time, was almost completely devoted to them and their particular programs.

One thing it did well: eliminating all of them from the unemployment rolls. Now that they were students they were no longer considered unemployed. I expect the con will work the same way now.

As to the PSWs, I agree that they do work most of us would be loathe to tackle. The sad part of that story is that many of them were low income single parents on the old Mother's Allowance program, killed by the tories in phase 1 of the Common Senseless revolution.

Forced into PSW training or else cut off their only source of income, they all dutifully learned to change diapers and were sent into the various work places, where they quickly learned they never really got enough hours to entirely get off welfare.

In Northumberland County, where the welfare workers are quick to hit the "terminate file" button, that means being constantly harassed to look for more work, more hours, more money, or be cut off. Whether this is any better for the women and their children is not for me to know, but the stress levels of coping both with these miserable jobs AND the demands of the welfare office must be tremendous.

Given that the EI system is entirely financed by workers and employers, why does the government get to control it anyway I wonder.
DJO

If they are low income abused women do they not qu...

2009-05-25T14:45:48.376-04:00

If they are low income abused women do they not qualify for what you are calling affordable housing? If they are low income seniors? How about low income people with developmental disabilities? Do they not all qualify for rent geared to income housing?

Am trying to understand the objection raised here but it seems like nit picking - who cares what category of poor person the tenant falls into? The object of building the housing is to house them, whoever they are.

Because the Province now requires that housing waiting lists be operated entirely chronologically with no priority status for anybody, that has meant that abused women get stuck in the shelter system with no affordable housing to move on to. The result is that many return to their abuser, only to start the cycle all over again.

Granted, in some cases the partners, with counselling and support, learn to solve their problems without violence, but often they do not.

One of the categories most neglected is that of single low income individuals, especially those with mental health issues. While they are being integrated into the County Housing units meant for seniors, the two age groups often clash, and there are lots of arguments and even evictions as a result.

On this we can likely agree: the real issue here is the lack of low income housing, a problem that only worsens every year.
DJO

Nobody said that "second stage housing" was not a ...

2009-05-25T11:53:59.488-04:00

Nobody said that "second stage housing" was not a need or that it was hidden and just snuck in, it is not affordable housing but "second stage" housing - completely different. It is a desperate need (SSH) but to use affordable housing money to build it is a perversion (and I stick by that word) of affordable housing. It's like saying "we have built affordable housing but you need to be abused to get it: - another laudable goal. But to advocates and users of affordable housing it is a con.

Hi Ben. The second-stage housing hasn't been done ...

2009-05-25T09:58:20.749-04:00

Hi Ben. The second-stage housing hasn't been done under cover. Northumberland News has been covering it since August, 2007. Here's some links (there are more stories than this on northumberlandnews.com, if you do a search):

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/article/77998

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/article/111563

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/article/122238

- Dwight