Re: Budget bridges tricky $91M gap, Feb. 8
Budget bridges tricky $91M gap, Feb. 8
John Tory and the gang have deemed the 2017 budget sufficient for the needs that allow for the steps to a return to the days of increasing poverty.
Having experienced the shelter system first-hand in younger days, it can be said unequivocally that to remove staff, who are essential bridges to the homeless community at the shelter level, is to fail in the overall poverty reduction strategy currently in place.
Electing to cut 12 front-line staff at city shelters, by lessening the hands-on capabilities they possess to aid clients find affordable housing, seek employment and get appropriate care if necessary, clients will potentially begin to retreat further into a shell.
Although there may be more beds available, there will be less help from interactive staff, which will invariably lead to a greater sense of hopelessness. This is a decision that could only have been made by someone who has never spent a single night, let alone a year or a lifetime, hoping to have somewhere to sleep. Someone to help.
Everybody gets to be a little more impoverished with this budget. Poverty reduction means people have more, not less. Look at the upside — everyone at city council gets a raise.
Troy J. Young, Toronto
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