As I suspected, you couldn't name any of these supposedly locally funded social services that were not available to the locals.
I earlier cited an example of my friend who drove an abused woman to a community funded shelter last summer, but found it filled with “homeless” people from a youth shelter. There were no beds left for actually abused woman but all the kids were having a great time partying.
People who are categorized as
chronically homeless consume about half of the shelter beds in Toronto. This includes, but is not limited to, those who are not Toronto natives but who end up here from all over the country and internationally.
Many of the people who are thus unable to use these shelters are Toronto natives. This is a real problem without any quick solution, and it is only getting worse.
On a related note; food banks are facing terrible shortages every year as more homeless migrate to the city and need to draw on their limited resources. Local funding, charity work, and city sponsored donation-matches are not enough to combat the tide.
I have no idea which part of Toronto you live in, but I can fucking well guarantee you that the city is not being swarmed with hundreds and thousands of aggressive homeless people. I know that the Toronto that I know, is just not like that at all. Period. So you're either lying for effect, or you are hyper-sensitive to the 'Stranger' around you and only see ugliness where others see need.
Toronto is one of the largest cities on earth. There are 5.5 million people in the GTA, and 2.5 million people in Toronto.
I did not suggest all homeless people were aggressive. I have, however, experienced a high level of aggressive and confrontational behaviour from homeless people this past summer.
Should I pretend these incidents did not happen to help promote a façade that all homeless are just ‘friends you haven’t met’?
You obviously have neither understanding or compassion for the issues of the homeless. Until you do, it is useless discussing the situation with you. You have progressed in your argument from the problem of there not being enough services available for the 'true' citizens of Toronto, to whining that any solutions mean that someone has to get paid.
I have attempted to define the difference, as I see it, between actual homeless people who need and deserve social assistance, and summer-time “homeless” people who parasitically migrate from city to city, making full use of social service programs before moving on.
I’ve also touched on the real fact that government funded programs, such as many you earlier outlined,
cost money. I’ve intentionally avoided mentioning charitable organizations, because they are already tax-exempt and largely work through volunteers.
However, even charitable organizations rake in profits. Here are a few figures I pulled from a report about the salaries of people who work for charitable organizations (current as of 2010):
* Gail McGovern, CEO of the
American Red Cross, receives an annual salary of
$500,000 (plus a signing bonus of $65,000 in 2008).
* Brian Gallagher is President and CEO of
United Way, and currently earns
$1,037,140 a year, according to a December 2010 report from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
*
UNICEF's Executive Director, Anthony Lake, earns
$201,351 a year, according to a 2010 communique from the organization.
*Dave Toycen, the President of
World Vision Canada, earns
$184,000 per year plus a "moderate vehicle allowance," according to that organization's annual report to the Canada Revenue Agency.
And the
Salvation Army’s “National Commander”?
* Israel L. Gaither is paid somewhere between
$79,389 and $243,248 annually for his services. (Since the Salvation Army, as a religious organization, doesn't report its expenses to the IRS, the only available figures for executive salaries are estimates, which vary greatly from source to source.)
Even charities get paid, RareBoy. Now couple this fact with the government’s tendency to double and triple-dip, and imagine what goes on behind the closed doors of City Hall.
As I noted for you, it is not the City residents who fund the social services that support these people.
Toronto’s
Peter St. Shelter, the 11.5 Million Dollar 40-bed “luxury” shelter (complete with a million-dollar smoking lounge on the roof) in the heart of downtown Toronto, was funded with $4.7 million directly from the City of Toronto and our public tax dollars.
Just one quick example.
The programs are funded through the provincial and federal ministries in recognition that it would be an onerous imposition on any one single community to deal with this problem using only local resources.
Where exactly do you think provincial funding comes from?
Our tax dollars.
More programs funded through the government, local (as earlier cited) or provincial, is paid for by
us.
What we find is that even when provincial funding is cut, the people keep pouring into the city.
The well is running dangerously low, RareBoy, yet you advocate, and if I may quote, “I actually don't give a shit whether some person was actually born in the city or not when it comes to providing support and care.”
Personally, I feel smaller communities should receive better funding to handle their own homeless issues instead of forcing them to urban areas. We’ve seen the effects and we are continuing to see the effects in an ever greater number, especially in this economy.
But yours is exactly the kind of thinking that led to the idea that ultimately, the best solution for the mentally ill and the indigent was 'Arbeit Macht Frei'. And we know how that went for the homos as well.
As my Grade 10 debate teacher said, “If you have to bring up WWII you’ve already lost.”
