Today's letters: Helsinki ended homelessness. Why can't Ottawa?

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Convert shelters into self-contained homes

Re: Homeless shouldn’t be on the rise in Ottawa, Aug. 10

It is hard to disagree with the reader who recently wrote to say that homelessness in Ottawa is shameful. More concerning is the city’s failure to take corrective action when there are solutions that work.

In this respect Helsinki, about the size of Ottawa, has become a world leader. It has learned that shelters are costly institutions that rob clients of dignity, and are also ineffective when it comes to rehabilitation. So at the turn of the century Helsinki stopped funding shelters, after giving due notice. Instead, it encouraged and assisted the management of shelters, such as the Salvation Army, to convert them into self-contained homes, or flats as they are known. Through a non-profit organization, the Y-Foundation, Helsinki has built and operated these flats for the benefit and well being of the formerly homeless.

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Some may argue that the above approach would not work here because Canada is not a socialist country. Nor is Finland. The homeless, for example, are not provided with a new home free of charge. They are expected to pay a small rent, according to their means. As in Ottawa, most of them already receive some form of social assistance.

What is the extent of Helsinki’s success? So far it has reduced the number of homeless by approximately 80 per cent and aims to come close to 100 per cent by 2030. Astonishingly, it calculates that its approach saves the city euros. This is partly because the demand for emergency services, such as policing and first aid, has been substantially curtailed. On the humanitarian side the formerly homeless are now the beneficiaries of an organized system of medical and social work support. Thus they are not left to cope on their own in their new homes. Many of them, about 40 per cent, have become integrated into regular society and have less need, if any, for government assistance.

What is Ottawa waiting for?

Andrew Lumsden, Ottawa

Medicine Hat ended homelessness

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Re: Homeless shouldn’t be on the rise in Ottawa, Aug. 10

Homelessness, or more technically, sleeping-in-public, has recently become illegal in the United States. Now California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is using the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to flush out the ragged scraps of shelter and those who occupy them from the bleak, industrial streets of major cities in his state.

Never mind old American standards like Cole Porter’s Don’t Fence Me In (1934). In America these days, if you want to ‘gaze at the moon till you lose your senses’, you can be arrested, fined, harassed, jailed or moved on.

In places like San Francisco, CA or Grant’s Pass, OR, such harassment is not only possible, it’s likely. U.S. Supreme Court Justices describe the very limited class to whom this decision applies writing: “It makes no difference whether the charged defendant is…a person experiencing homelessness, a backpacker…, or a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building.” Apparently nobody has the right to sleep outside in the U.S., especially the poor.

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Ordinarily Canadians read about these events in U.S. with shocked indignation, but the homeless in Canada are genuinely as disenfranchised as our American cousins. There is no protection for them under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights. Various provincial “safe street acts” give police the power to roust Canadians from temporary urban shelters, All this is happening while our domestic real estate crisis makes shelter unaffordable and inaccessible to more and more Canadians. In 2023-2024, while poorer Canadians made hard choices between paying rent or eating, there was a surge of homelessness across Canada.

But let’s face it. The problem of homelessness in Canada, is a lot more visceral than it is in much of the United States. Surviving five months of brutal winter is more challenging for those sleeping rough in the true north. Worldwide, hypothermia is a greater killer than its opposite hyperthermia, but both combine to cause five per cent of Canadian deaths during any given period according to recent research published in The Lancet. Climate change only makes things worse.

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Usually 22 people die of cold exposure every year in Canada, but in the B.C. cold snap of 2024, 36 people died. It’s for this reason that housing should be a right for all Canadians regardless of race, creed, colour or drug-addicted status.

Medicine Hat’s decision in 2009 to end homelessness in their community met substantial success. After the first six year of its “put housing first” policy, Medicine Hat achieved functional zero homelessness (meaning only three people at most) are ever without housing. Oddly, as the program progresses and the homeless are able to right themselves, there is now less and less demand in Medicine Hat for the specially constructed housing they used to help people get off the streets and into safety.

Homelessness, clearly, is an economic bone-crusher and an ongoing contributor to other problematic issue like drug addiction, affordable/safe nutrition,, employment, and petty criminal behaviour.

The good news is there are models for how to address it successfully and at least one such solution has already worked here in Canada.

Giles Slade, Brockville

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A pointless order

Re: Back to the office, Aug. 15.

I’m a retired federal public servant. A former manager of mine was a practical engineer. He once said that I was not being paid to keep a chair warm during set hours, but to produce and meet deadlines. He didn’t care when I did so. If he was still my manager, I imagine he would say that he also didn’t care where I did so.

What many people are missing in the discussion about federal workers being told to return to the office is not that they should do so, but that they have yet to hear any good reason why they should do so. If there is no good reason, then let them work where they wish. Why is it still assumed that an information worker is more productive in an office? Does Treasury Board have any idea what an information worker actually does?

The letter writer gave the old argument that “if they are not happy, then quit and find work elsewhere.” What many do not seem to realize is that the best and brightest have been doing exactly this for many years. The public circus may offer good benefits and retirement packages, but many are scared away because of pointless regulations such as being forced to work in an office.

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Jim Grose, Edwards

Pride wrong to wade into politics

Re: Pride’s pro-Palestinian messaging alarms Ottawa’s Jewish community, Aug. 8.

Every comment made by Pride and its supporters states that its efforts are all about unity, solidarity, inclusion. Through this mantra, they have garnered the ever-increasing understanding and support of millions.

But for no reason other than an antisemitic view, organizers have decided to leap into world politics, extending meaningless support to enablers of terrorists sworn to exterminate Israel and Jews as well as members of the gay community worldwide.

If the organizers choose to position Pride Week in a political situation completely removed from its mission, its charitable status should be reviewed and public funding denied.

Evelyn Greenberg, Ottawa

Humanitarian concerns are valid

Re: Jewish Federation of Ottawa pulls out of Pride parade, Aug. 14.

The Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s indignation at Capital Pride’s statement of concern for Gaza puts me in mind of Stephen Harper’s incredible statement to the Knesset a number of years ago that any criticism of Israel is antisemitism. This at a time when much criticism of the Israeli government was coming from within Israel. Much the same as now. It was a ridiculous statement then and it remains so now.

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Capital Pride is not unwelcoming of Jewish participation in the Pride Parade. That would be antisemitic, and it hasn’t happened. In fact the opposite has been made explicit.

You know what does lead to antisemitism? Jewish condemnation of anyone’s humanitarian concerns for Palestinians. The Jewish Federation of Ottawa should be careful what it wishes for.

They want to combat antisemitism? Join the parade.

L.J. Ridgeway, Ottawa

Overspending while Rome burns

Re: Fun, if you have money to burn, Aug. 12.

I expect many Ottawa Citizen subscribers will save and sacrifice to enjoy a special occasion every now and then. Perhaps it’s a dinner at a restaurant, an annual family vacation or cinema tickets with pop and popcorn, purchased at eye-popping prices.

But how many of us are so awash in a surplus of cash that we have “money to burn” at places like Med Supper Club? And isn’t the very concept patently obscene, particularly in light of the cost-of-living crisis and the growing pressures faced by our city’s food banks?

Christopher Adam, Ottawa

Coverage was thrilling

A loud thank-you to the Ottawa Citizen for its beautiful spread of photographs depicting the trials, tribulations and successes of Olympic athletes from here and from other countries. Well done!

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Another loud thank-you to CBC/Radio-Canada and its wonderful coverage of the Olympics. I found each and every sport I wanted to watch, when I wanted to watch, in either language. Great job!

I was thrilled by it all. More than ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hélène Masson, Russell

Give CBC credit for covering Games

Re: Improve Olympic coverage, Aug. 10.

​Funny, my reaction to CBC’s Olympics coverage is diametrically opposite to Mr. Vachon’s. Far from disappointing. I found its coverage to be comprehensive and well-organized. I could watch live or stream as much as I wanted through the Gem service. Navigation was simple. I discovered new sports and could sample everything (or watch the entire nine hours daily of tennis, golf or kayak , for example). How much more could CBC have provided?

It’s true that some commentary was tiresome. But that’s a feature of sports coverage in general. The CBC has acquitted itself well in handling the Olympics. Yes, it has a lot of problems at the moment. But when it has a success, as with the Olympics, let’s give the CBC some credit. The Gem streaming service deserved its name!

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Catherine Read, Ottawa

Create a vision, Mr. Mayor

Re: Ottawa in financial crisis, says mayor, blaming federal, provincial governments, Aug. 9.

Mark Sutcliffe has to realize that he’s Mayor of Ottawa, not Premier of Ontario, or even Prime Minister, for that matter. Playing the blame game is shirking responsibility.

He’s responsible for the city and although Ottawa is Canada’s capital, it‘s also a city which must grow and imagine itself outside of the capital tag and government stigma. Being Mayor of Ottawa is probably akin to living in your parent’s house, and when things go wrong you depend on their money.

A successful mayor should create and revitalise a vision for the city outside of the federal government. Paris is the capital of France, but it is also much more than simply a government town. Ottawa built the LRT system (which still doesn’t function properly after five years) around government workers who no longer depend on it. That wasn’t under Sutcliffe’s watch, but Ottawa can be so much more than just be a staid government town. If it wasn’t the country’s capital, people probably wouldn’t visit here. There’s the government face of the town, but there should also be another side to it. Ottawa has to think outside of the government box, and create its own identity and its own fascination.

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In other words, Ottawa has to find itself. Vision it and they will come.

Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

Choose higher taxes or fewer services

Re: Deachman: Sutcliffe can also blame himself for financial crisis, Aug. 8.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s strategy to fiscal responsibility is rather ingenious — blame someone else for the problem and do nothing about it. Then again, this has been the Ottawa way for a while now. The municipal government would rather do anything than raise taxes — up to and including blaming other levels of government for the city’s precarious financial position. Imagine if you could blame your financial position on the people around you. You’d rightfully be called juvenile.

Ottawans have always loved the idea of swimming without getting wet; we’ve always acted like we could somehow have a low-density city with low taxes and lots of well-functioning city services. Unfortunately, the reality is that we can only have two of those three things. So if we want low taxes and city services, we need to densify. We haven’t done that, so we have to choose between higher taxes or fewer services.

Mr. Deachman rightly points out that other cities have higher tax rates, because that’s the cost of having a city government that can actually do things and have ambitious budgets. Instead, we have a city all geared up for a nice day at the pool only to dive in and be outraged at how wet the water is.

Gabriel Arrigo, Kanata

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