WEBVTT 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:12.012 In Toronto, some can afford to sleep in condos while others are left to sleep on the sidewalks. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:24.160 The average price of a home in Toronto, from condos to detached houses, is roughly $780,000, 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:30.800 a cost which many cannot afford. A large number of people are living on the edge 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:35.920 and are at risk of losing their homes. The competition for a limited supply of housing 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:40.960 has left people with no choice but to remain as renters. The worst victims 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:44.880 of the housing crisis are those at the bottom of the wealth divide, the poor. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:47.920 I have a roof over my head 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:55.440 but within one paycheck, I can be homeless. 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.640 Whistle Wickham Edwards was homeless for years. She lost her home after 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:05.680 her husband died from diabetes. Because he was the main provider of the family, 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:10.160 she and her two children were forced to leave their condo and find another place to stay. 00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:18.800 In terms of the shift, I went from I guess relaxed to militant, you know I mean? 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:23.600 Now I had to go, go, go and I'm still going. I'm not going to give up. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:30.720 She and her kids shuffled around homes of their friends and family, 00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:35.840 staying for a few weeks to months at a time. With no permanent long-term solution, 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.800 they were stuck in a state of homelessness for five years. 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:53.840 The one place we lived, with the one bedroom apartment, my three kids and five others. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:10.160 Whistle is a school bus driver. She makes roughly $1000 a month, however, 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:14.480 it is still not enough to cover the cost of a one bedroom apartment in Toronto. 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.840 Before her husband's death, she drove the school bus to pass the time 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:25.520 but once he died, it became their only source of income. Paying rent was a constant struggle. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:35.520 We're always, always, always behind. Always behind, always. Not by a $100 or $200 because 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:44.160 at the time when I lived over at the other place, the rent was 12-something with a two-bedroom. 00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:50.720 She turned to welfare and social assistance but didn't receive enough government support. 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:55.760 See that's another thing. When you go on to welfare or social assistance, 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:58.320 you can't come with money. 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:08.640 You can't come with money. "Do the kids have university funds?" or whatnot, I said yeah, 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:13.600 "Well how much?" and I had to go and find all of that out. "Oh, well you still have money here. 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:20.720 Can you take out –" there's like, that's a different... yeah, I've had to do a lot. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:27.200 She recently moved into a new apartment but even now her stay there is not a guarantee. 00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:36.160 Whistle's story is not unique child and family homelessness is on the rise. Families stay in 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:42.240 shelters three times longer than any other group, which is an average of 50 days. More 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:47.920 cases go untold because parents and children often seek temporary shelter with family and friends. 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:54.880 But even they haven't faced the worst of the housing crisis. 00:03:57.600 --> 00:04:03.440 But before, this was a bigger hedge and when you got back in behind there at night time, 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:07.840 nobody could see you, you know. Yeah, we laid out right here. 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:13.840 Derek George has lived on the streets of Toronto for several years. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.080 Right out in the open, just bunk down. 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:24.080 He has moved around from various shelters to warming centers and waited almost a month for 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:32.560 a bed to sleep in. Most shelters in Toronto reach full capacity on any given night, 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:36.320 with an occupancy rate of 96 per cent. 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:43.040 Like I say, there's always a waiting list for, if not all of them, most of them have a waiting list. 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:54.880 But it's very difficult to say "Okay, I'm gonna go and wait at Gateway" for instance. Okay so I go, 00:04:54.880 --> 00:05:00.080 I sit there from morning till night and at night, they tell you "Sorry, there's no bed." 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:06.720 Rita De Biasi has been advocating for the homeless. She was at the 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:11.520 Toronto Homeless Memorial and a march for affordable housing, pushing for change. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:18.000 Anywhere you look in the city, you're going to see there's someone that's vulnerable or 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.960 panhandling or needs help. Those are the ones that I want to look after. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.640 My sister she was homeless just in the summertime with her 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:30.720 boyfriend and she told me, she's like "Wait, I was sleeping on a chair," I'm like "Oh my gosh." 00:05:32.880 --> 00:05:36.560 Like, it's such a sin. The the government needs to do more. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:38.560 They need to look after our vulnerable people. 00:05:39.440 --> 00:05:43.440 We reached out to the City of Toronto's Shelter, Support & Housing Administration 00:05:43.440 --> 00:05:47.120 to ask them why they aren't providing more funding for homeless shelters 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:52.000 but they declined an interview. However, Press Secretary for the Ontario Ministry of 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:57.680 Housing said the province is taking action through their Fair Housing Plan. Even when Rita's sister 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:02.000 and Whistle received government housing, it didn't make their situations much better. 00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:06.400 She got housing and she told me, in Rexdale, the week after she moved, 00:06:06.400 --> 00:06:09.920 there there was a shooting in a building. So I'm like "Oh my gosh." 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:16.400 They actually took us to some apartments, which pisses me off because he saw the one 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:24.400 they took us to, where I'm living now, that's the better one, as compared to what I saw. They "Oh, 00:06:24.400 --> 00:06:28.400 I know" it's because they know the landlord is going to let you in with bad credit. Well, 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:33.840 those landlords that let you in with bad credits are landlords who have bad buildings. 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.040 Wickham Edwards makes roughly $1000 every month, 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:47.840 while the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto is roughly $1800 a month. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:54.720 That money in the hands of someone on social assistance is literally the money 00:06:55.440 --> 00:07:01.440 that means the difference between being housed and being homeless, between sleeping on the floor and 00:07:01.440 --> 00:07:07.040 sleeping on a bed. It's the difference between being in crisis and stability. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.880 Ironically, as a city becomes more prosperous and more affluent 00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:22.640 and even as we see condos and new housing being built all around us, what happens is 00:07:22.640 --> 00:07:28.640 that the housing is only affordable for those who are either well off or extremely well off. 00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:34.320 Stephen Wong is one of the leading experts on homelessness in Toronto. He works at 00:07:34.320 --> 00:07:39.120 St. Michael's Hospital, where he focuses on improving the health of people who are homeless. 00:07:40.400 --> 00:07:46.720 What we're finding is that there's a significant group of people in our cities who are vulnerably 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:52.880 housed, who have much of the same physical and mental health problems that people who 00:07:52.880 --> 00:07:58.000 are homeless are struggling with. They have housing right now, today they're housed, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.160 but they're right on the edge and they are actually at risk of becoming homeless. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:05.920 Derek is still uncertain for what his future holds. 00:08:06.640 --> 00:08:12.960 Yes, they're building better facilities but the people the facilities are supposed to be serving 00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:20.960 aren't getting served. They're not, they're wandering around, nowhere to go, disillusioned, 00:08:20.960 --> 00:08:25.520 they feel hopeless, helpless and alone. I felt hopeless, helpless and alone. 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:32.000 I still, even though I'm housed, yes I can go to St. Stephen's, you know, 00:08:32.800 --> 00:08:39.840 I can go to the corner and drop in, I can talk to people but helpless, hopeless and alone. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:44.880 Despite the challenges Whistle has faced, she's hopeful about change. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:53.760 Is it stronger? I don't even know to stay stronger but we know we can survive anything. 00:08:53.760 --> 00:08:58.320 I think we've just basically been the same way, we have just a different location. 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:03.680 There may be more hope for Derek and Whistle. On November 22, 00:09:03.680 --> 00:09:08.880 the federal government released a $40 billion National Housing Strategy. Its new mandate 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:13.600 is to provide rent support for 300,000 low-income families and to cut chronic 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:19.025 homelessness by half in the next decade. For Ryerson documentary unit, I'm Noella Ovid.