Please take 5 Minutes on Monday June 6 to Help a Family Get Beds and Furniture!

Submitted by ocap on Sun, 06/05/2016 - 03:15.

Phone/Email/Tweet Action

Laura Bardeau and her two young sons all have disabilities and are living on social assistance. After a long struggle with bed bugs, they had to get rid of all of their furniture

While the City has a Housing Stabilization Fund to help people in this
exact situation buy furniture, they are refusing to help this family. The City says that Laura’s “combined ODSP and Child Tax income is in excess and precludes eligibility for HSF.” The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty can’t understand how a person whose sole sources of income are ODSP and Child Tax Benefit has income “in excess.” In excess of what? People on disability social assistance (ODSP) live well below the poverty line and frequently struggle to meet their basic needs including food and shelter.

Currently Laura is sleeping with one son on a mattress on the floor (where they also eat their meals) and the other son is sleeping on a separate mattress on the floor but the City won’t help.

The City has a new HSF policy and they are keeping the criteria secret. We think it is discriminatory against disabled people and parents.

Take action and help make the city give the family what they are entitled to!

Contact officials to help the Bardeau’s get basic, necessary furniture

Tell them:

1. To issue the maximum HSF amount to Laura Bardeau

2. Don’t discriminate against parents and disabled people for the HSF

3. To make the HSF application review process public and transparent immediately

Patricia Walcott, General Manager of Toronto Employment & Social Dervices: 416-392-8952, pwalcot@toronto.ca

Mayor John Tory: 416-397-2489, mayor_tory@toronto.ca @JohnTory

City Councillor James Pasternak, Chair, Community Development and
Recreation Committee: 416-392-1371, councillor_pasternak@toronto.ca, @JamesPasternak

Please cc ocap@tao.ca on your emails

If you are getting this email later in the week, please still contact the people above.

Please tweet Monday and all week: #HSFJustice #BedsForKids

OCAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We mount campaigns against regressive government policies as they affect poor and working people. In addition, we provide direct-action advocacy for individuals against welfare and ODSP, public housing and others who deny poor people what they are entitled to. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves.

We believe in the power of resistance.

Short History of OCAP

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ocap@tao.ca
Phone: 416-925-6939
Fax: 1855-714-0566
Address: 157 Carlton St #201, Toronto, ON, M5A 2K3

Our office is located on a 2nd floor and not wheelchair accessible. We are happy to make appointments in accessible locations. All of our meetings are held in wheelchair accessible locations.

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