50 Fresh Starts and Counting

Life-altering transformations take place here. A former rooming house, Cool Aid Society's Next Steps Transitional Shelter provides the opportunity for 15 emergency shelter clients to access the resources they need to make the transition from a state of homelessness to stabilized housing.

Funded by BC Housing and the United Way of Greater Victoria, and fully supported by the community through a Good Neighbour Agreement, Next Steps is fundamentally different than most shelters. While emergency shelters such as Streetlink and Sandy Merriman House meet the basic needs of temporary shelter, hygiene services and meals, Next Steps provides a vital bridge between these much-needed emergency shelters and permanent housing. Residents find a longer-term, more stable home at Next Steps, staying between 30 and 90 days. This is in contrast to emergency stays at Streetlink that are usually a result of short-term crises.

During their stay at Next Steps, the three unique core elements of the transition program are actively developed: income, long-term housing, and the development of community within the shelter. At present, four of the residents work, while two volunteer at the Mustard Seed and the Immigration Centre. Employment services that are available include assistance in preparing resumes and covering letters, online job searches facilitated by Project Literacy, and mock interviews. Training in Foodsafe is available on-site, while WHMIS and Industrial First Aid training is available through the John Howard Society. The REES network also provides a pool of prospective employers.

The majority of Next Steps clients move into housing provided by Pacifica and BC Housing. In instances where only market-based housing is available, the United Way provides vital top-up. According to one of the client services workers, “independent living is preferable, as sharing can be destabilizing if one person decides to leave.”

Promoting a sense of community, responsibility and interaction with others is an integral part of this program. Various rotating chores (cooking, cleaning, and landscaping), movie and pizza nights, a survival cooking program and an art group develop these important life skills. The “ambiance of a home setting fosters personal ingenuity and creativity,” while the one-on-one counselling allows the individuals the get “more in touch with their personal needs.”

In addition to the three core elements, Next Steps also provides medical and dental services, follow-ups every 3 to 6 months after departure, the opportunity to reconnect with family, assertiveness training, and relaxation exercises.

Next Steps focuses on supporting individuals who have elected to move forward in their lives after a crisis. In this smaller community setting of only 15 residents, there is a much greater emphasis on individual growth and how they interact with others, something that is not possible in an emergency shelter of 95 beds. Making the transition to a more promising future is a complex process that requires not only commitment by client services and outreach workers, but by each individual who takes ownership of the process by constructing a personal action plan.

After only one year of operation, fifty individuals have moved through this program and are now living independently.

JUNE 16 2009

THE FIRST ANNUAL JAMES JOYCE BAY DAY!

((this is James Bay Culture Blog #10))

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead,
bearing a bowl of lather...

These words are the classic opening line from James Joyce's acclaimed universal masterpiece -- the novel "Ulysses." Universal? Wow - that's pretty big. You just can't argue with something THAT big. So I guess we have no choice but to leap onto this bandwagon. Let's get into the Spirit by celebrating James Joyce Bay!

Hip communities around this world have been celebrating June 16th as "Bloomsday" for decades. The events of the novel Ulysses all take place on a single glorious day which is commemorated globally (especially in Joyce's Dublin). Public readings from the book, high spirits, literary excitement and busy pubs typical Bloomsday festivities. Surely we can manage that!

Read more

A U R A L

P L E A S U R E S

The Ogden Point Cafe (just follow the beach -- you'll find it) is now featuring regular live music 530-7pm every Wed-Sat.

Sorry about the title of this piece. I took "oral pleasure" (appropriate for a cafe, no?) and fused it with "aural" to indicate musical appreciation. I assure you there is absolutely no subliminal perverse content in this title. It could be misleading. I know. I'm sorry. But, heck, at least it's a short title. NEW OGDEN POINT LIVE MUSIC EVENINGS was just too much for me to get my mouth around. ()

I stopped in a few nights ago to hear pianist Diane Taylor. She provided a marvelous, cozy backdrop for a warm drink and a pleasant conversation at the ocean's edge.

Drop by and check it out.

(And do try to put some money in the musician's tip jar.)

Yours,
me.

PS - Stay tuned to this blog in the weeks to come for a full-length Ogden Point story -- "WHO IS DICK DANGER?"

Wednesday, November 26 2008
The First of the New Weekly Spoken-Word Nights
@ the James Bay Coffee House & Bookshop

My reading was the first of the evening. I gave a profanity-laced diatribe against Stephen Hawking and the general presumptions of 20th Century physics. What the heck was I thinking??? Those few who could even follow my high-speed spew of bizarrely juxtaposed phraseology still had no idea why I would be ranting contemptuously against a brilliant professor dying of ALS.

Fortunately, the night moved on. Other people gave wonderful performances showcasing the wide variety of interpretations of "poetry." The latter half of the evening was devoted to Adam... a cyborg. His eye-sight failing slowly, this accidental photographer and inadvertent poet gave a very personal and, at times, quite insightful reading from his pamphlet-book: JAMES BAY IS A WARM BLANKET.

I'm an arch-enemy of poetry but even my cold heart was touched... a little.

(NOTE - These evening have been deactivated for the Holidays. Look for their triumphant return in early January.)

The fact that a rental crunch exists in Victoria is not news. At a vacancy rate of approximately 0.3% we have earned the dubious distinction of having the tightest rental market in Canada. According to CMHC, and excluding vacancies in secondary suites, the CRD’s rental stock as of April 2008 stands at 23,367 units. In the Saturday, October 25, 2008 edition of the Times Colonist, there were 66 unfurnished apartment vacancies advertised (0.28%): of these, 45 (68%) specifically prohibited pets; 7 (11%) would consider a small pet; 14 (21%) did not specify whether or not pets were accepted. It is an unfortunate reality that in a virtually stagnant rental market, apartment seekers who happen to be pet guardians are differentially impacted.

According to the BCSPCA, 450 cats and dogs arrive annually at the Victoria SPCA shelter as a direct result of “no pets” clauses incorporated into standard leases. In BC, “more than 2,500 companion pets have, to date, been surrendered as a result of their guardians being unable to find housing that allows pets.”

A poll conducted for the BCSPCA by McIntyre and Mustel Research in 2002 found that 79% of BC residents are in favour of legislation that allows pet guardians the right to keep companion animals. Legislated approaches have been implemented in Ontario and New York City, where blanket “no pets” policies have been quashed. However, Individual landlords in Ontario still retain the right to restrict tenancy on the basis of pets. Of the 800,000 annual landlord-tenant disputes in Ontario after the “Fluffy Law” was passed in 1990, for example, only 1% of them were pet related.

Prior to 2004, the Residential Tenancy Act in BC (RTA) was much more flexible, allowing landlords the option to specify pet-related terms in their leases. However, when the RTA was amended in 2004 to allow pet deposits as a means to encourage more landlords to accept pets, it also, and perhaps inadvertently, clarified a landlord’s right to deny pets in rental units.

A number of non-legislated approaches have been successful, including the San Francisco SPCA Open Door program which educates landlords and tenants, provides mediation, and guarantees up to $5,000 against pet damage caused by a pet adopted from the SPCA. During the program’s many years of operation, no landlord has made a claim against the fund, and the percentage of “pet friendly” apartments has increased to 57% from 11%.

Pet insurance is also an option. In addition to the pet damage deposit of up to 50% of the monthly rent, additional third party property damage insurance is available, usually providing an additional $700 of coverage for $14.95 per month. It may also be possible to establish a third party escrow account. Pet resumes are a must.

The benefits of sharing one’s home with a companion pet are numerous and well documented. These benefits include reduced anxiety and depression among seniors, assisting children with the development of language skills, responsibility and self-esteem, and reduced health care costs. And according to the BCSPCA, tenants in pet-friendly units stay longer, averaging 46 months compared to 18 months for those in units that don’t allow pets.

Balancing the wants of responsible pet guardians seeking rental accommodation with the rights of property owners, those suffering from allergies, and those who for any other reason do not want to live in an apartment that accepts pets, is an extremely difficult task.

Property owners have a number of very legitimate concerns that include excrement management, destruction of property, noise, policing and enforcement, odours, aggressive behaviour, fleas and allergens. The issue of allergens, proteins that can trigger an allergic reaction that stimulates the production of histamine, is particularly difficult to address, since containing allergens to a specific suite in a multi-unit residential dwelling is impossible due to cross-migration associated with the ventilation of suites and common areas. Cat dander, which is typically 0.1 microns in size, can remain in the air, on furniture and in carpets for up to six months after the cat is removed. The only effective way to combat this is by using an air purification system that has an ionizer and HEPA filter combined.

Some of the blame for our current rental housing crisis can be directed at the federal government, who has been reluctant to amend changes to the Income Tax Act (1972) which effectively capped construction of new rental stock by categorizing apartment buildings as “passive” businesses, as they usually have fewer than five employees. By doing so, Revenue Canada has removed any incentive to reinvest in new projects, as property owners are required to take an immediate tax hit on the appreciation of their property value when they sell, while condominium and hotel developers, on the other hand, can rollover capital gains. There are a host of other factors that stifle construction such as no GST rebate for builders, inflated labour and construction costs, rent controls, and lack of “tax holidays” for apartment builders: The bottom line is that until it becomes economically feasible to build a rental apartment, it won’t happen any time soon.

In the James Bay and local area, pet-friendly apartments are located at:

121 Menzies Street
417 Superior Street
1233 Fairfield Road
Swiftsure Apartments, Rithet Street
101, 103, 105 Menzies Street

References
BCSPCA: http://www.spca.bc.ca
Pet Care Insurance: http://www.petcareinsurance.com
CMHC: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/
The Tyee: http://www.thetyee.ca
Youmens, Jason. Nowhere to Go http://mondaymag.com/articles/entry/nowhere-to-go/