Empowered Narratives: Submission #9
November 29, 2024
National Housing Day – from homelessness to advocacy
By: Elizabeth Tremblay
Last Thursday, November 21st, was National Housing Day, and I was invited to Queens Park to speak with MPs and MPPs by the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network. We were promoting the importance of dedicated funds for cooperative, safe and deeply affordable housing for women in Toronto. Five years ago, I exited the shelter system. This year - for the first year - I was well enough to represent the struggling voice of women who were still where I had been. I was coming prepared with communication to advocate that day hoping to move funding to help my Peers have the opportunity to be safe, heal, and re-build in the city of Toronto - a centre of wealth, culture, business and healthcare.
I left my own peaceful, warm space that day and headed out with the purposeful morning workforce. My neighbourhood is the Esplanade near the city core. It is a happy, diverse area of schools and green spaces with all of life’s conveniences nearby. Also nearby, I pass my other neighbours. The one sleeping on the bench outside the condominium, several more under the highway in tents and up early pan-handling, one in my bus shelter which was their make-shift home last night. I was heading to represent their story to advocate for change, for them to heal and find purpose as I had, and yet I wondered where was the understanding support for them? Where was the connection for them to move forward?
I had chosen stairwells, not outdoor living. Stairwells were warm for fitful sleep until someone came. Constant fear of authorities stopped that. The Drop in, however, with 40 other women on floor mats was safer. But I remember being spoken to like animals. The shelter was harder. Behind closed doors mental health at night went unchecked. Three of the eight women I slept with in the room were very, very unwell. I could never have survived the summer in the encampments - like hundreds did when I was a Peer Supporter during Covid-19 there. The relentless bug bites, the long heatwaves, and the scenes of horrible human trafficking and drug poisonings. It was inhuman there, despite being the one community Peers often chose over others.
5 years of recovery. The anger I had at systems slowly subsided, but even a year ago I could be re-activated by what was lacking in supportive housing where I now worked, or in the legal system. I was so lucky to have the determination it takes to recover! I had made so many mistakes. I too had become very, very unwell. I was lucky to be able to reach out, to seek help, and work on change within myself - once I hit rock bottom that is.
I think about that recovery ‘work’ today. It didn’t stop for 5 years. All of the resources, finding the natural remedies, personal medicine, and right medication that me helped me learn how to build new habits; the many service organizations I connected with, and mostly the constant re-educating. I trained to become well. I learned what PeerWorks teaches as the foundation of Peer Support: Self-responsibility, self-care, self-awareness and self-supports. These became my foundation for healing, and then I began work to help another.
Today I would use my other training as an Advocate. Advocating is about personally connecting. It’s absolutely about relationship. A common bond that today my MP and I have beyond my vote. I would thank my MP for the work being done in my riding, recognizing their accomplishments. I would mention my organizations accomplishments, and then some things that could help them build in opportunities for the homeless -- because MPs and MPPs don’t actually know how stop ongoing homelessness. It is work that we do together from stories.
So, I have a very short story to tell my MP today - and a favour to ask them. And I’m very curious how my MP accomplished a recent success they had, because I have a pilot project I’d like to partner with them on that would build on that. It’s just a bite sized ask. How do you eat an elephant you say? One bite at a time, I say: They could come to this public space, where we are working in Peer Support. There would be a podium. They could have their photo taken. It would be great for social media – and it’s an easy thing for my MP to do that could make headlines about what I am passionate about.
Relationships begin with making people feel - feel a connection. It’s not only the staggering statistics of how much we need Peer employment, and good Peer Support training to make that happen in Toronto. And how that has huge financial impact. What motivates my MPP, I wonder? Going for a ride, and walk, showing up at their hockey game. It’s how I engage them over time, and how to become a trusted advisor for them. Influential relationships definitely include Queens Park staff, researchers, school trustees Sometimes they become MPPs….
Right now, everyone is writing platforms leading up to the next election. It’s a good time to meet on National Housing Day. But how do headlines get written into policy? We want to meet to find a solution. They want to hear my story and who I represent. I want to give them something to hold on to and bring it back to other decision makers. I’ll tell them the problem I am trying to solve - and a solution to fix it.
Now at Queens Park, a group of us gather together with our one-pagers about our organization and our work to end ongoing homelessness. Our goal is to meet with our MP’s in relationship once again, and workshop with them.
Systems work is slow and ‘swimming upstream.’ Working within the system, working to understand it and also advocate within the broken systems of housing environments – especially in Peer Support - is also hard work. The key to success to be change-makers has been our training to work collaboratively in relationships. And that is the thought I go into Queens Park with on Thursday. Here we all are, organization representatives wanting change for the women and people we support experiencing homelessness, and much worse.
It’s been a journey of 5 years to become well enough to sustain myself in Toronto and do my work of systems change. In my darkest days, what keeps me going is the one story that moves me. A story of a Peers’ success, their resiliency, and their empowerment that shines brightly on this November day.
Elizabeth Tremblay is the founder of Mentor/Mentee Canada, implements Peer employment opportunities in Toronto housing training Peer Support, and is a proud member of the Board of Directors of PeerWorks.