- More people released from jail face homelessness: Report, By Jim Rankin, August 10, 2010, Toronto Star: “On a sticky day in June, Eric Cromwell changed into the clothes he’d worn when he was arrested two months earlier on an assault charge and walked out of the Toronto West Detention Centre on Disco Rd. He was given a TTC token but possessed little else. He did have a bachelor apartment where his rent is automatically deducted from his welfare cheque, but that’s where the latest trouble had occurred. There’d been an incident with a neighbour and conditions placed on him forbid him from going anywhere near home. He’d been in and out of jail a number of times, and on this occasion, as had been the case before, he had no home to go to. But he knew where to go. He took public transit to the Maxwell Meighen shelter at Queen and Sherbourne Sts. ‘Down here, to me, it’s like home,’ says Cromwell, 32. ‘I know where to go. I know where to get food. I know how to survive.’ Each year, more people – mostly men – are leaving Toronto jails with nowhere to call home and no plan or supports to keep them from heading back to jail, according to a report by the John Howard Society of Toronto…”
- Inmates stuck in cycle of jail and homelessness, By Joe Friesen, August 9, 2010, The Globe and Mail: “The path to prison often begins in homelessness, and the path back to freedom tends to leave former inmates homeless once again. It’s a vicious cycle of failed reintegration that leads to recidivism, according to a new report from the John Howard Society of Toronto. The report found that more than one in five inmates in the Toronto area were homeless when they were arrested. And there was little sign their prospects for integration were smoothed by their time in jail. One-third of inmates said they planned on living in a homeless shelter when they were released, and a further 12 per cent said they had no idea where they would go. The report, Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless, based on interviews with 363 people in jail, highlights the difficulties many former prisoners face when they are returned to the community. It concludes that current incarceration policies are adding to the problem of homelessness in Toronto…”
Day: August 10, 2010
Housing Program for the Homeless – New York City
City program for homeless is criticized, By Javier C. Hernandez, August 8, 2010, New York Times: “It was envisioned as a way to help more homeless families leave shelters behind for good. But a signature anti-poverty program of the Bloomberg administration is stumbling because of lax oversight, according to an audit by the city comptroller, John C. Liu. The report, to be released Monday, criticizes the Department of Homeless Services for its management of Advantage, a program that provides housing subsidies to homeless people who find stable jobs and leave shelters. Under the department’s watch, the report said, landlords have pressured tenants into illegal side deals, with some residents paying up to $400 extra a month. In addition, the audit charged, the department did not adequately investigate the quality of apartments, potentially placing some families in buildings where leaks, faulty wiring and rodents were prevalent…”