A St. John’s man on the brink of homelessness is facing the possibility of losing his son due to a lack of housing options for people with kids.
Tristen Keats, who turns 27 this month, lives with his mother and his three-year-old son, Jacoby, in a small basement apartment that is advertised for only one person.
“Here we are now with people living on the side of the street in tents,” Keats said. “Me and him are just about there now, right? We got a couple months.”
They are running out of time, as his mother’s landlord has given them a few months to find a new place.
He and his son are among the many people caught in the housing crisis that is sweeping across the country and hitting Newfoundland and Labrador. Social housing and emergency shelters are in high demand, leading many people to take the only home they’ve known for months — a tent — and station themselves in public spaces around St. John’s.
And if facing homelessness is tough, when children are involved, the struggle can be worse.
Meanwhile, government budgets millions to support, finance, assist or prop up mega corporations and companies in the name of the public interest.
The government should be able to afford to help people like this … you know why? … because they won’t be able to afford dealing with the aftermath of what will happen to these people and their children if they are not taken care of. Just look to the future and see how a former drug addict or alcoholic with no options will turn out … now imagine what will happen to their child. The sad lives they will be forced to endure will cause the government to spend tens of thousands of dollars on them in law enforcement, treatment, medical, incarceration, legal system, child care system and emergency treatment.
Government should just help people in these desperate situations no matter what … because its far cheaper to fund them now, then it is to pay for the services to deal with them later. It doesn’t matter if you are Liberal or Conservative, left or right … it’s an economic question … do you want to pay a little to help this person out now? … or pay the same amount or more later when their lives fall apart?
We do have welfare bums and social service scalpers in this country … and they are the millionaires and the companies and corporations that government constantly gives money to in the vain hope that these leeches will give back that money which they never do. They’ll hole up their wealth in a foreign offshore tax haven and not pay for anything. Meanwhile, people that actually need the help are ignored and cast off as unworthy of any support because we are all taught that it isn’t worth it.
Give them guaranteed income, give them housing, give them education, give them health care, give them supports … it’s investing in the country’s future. If you don’t, you are investing in the country’s degradation. Help people now and they and their families will grow to help future generations and more individuals later.
Unfortunately politics works counter to economics. You can bankrupt an entire country, yet if you can convince people that it was someone else’s fault, you’ll still get reelected and get a nice fat 7 figures while everything around you burns to the ground.
There is no incentive to make things better beyond pure patriotism, which we all know is pretty damn short in supply in the first place (and always has been at the top). The only incentive for the leaders is how to gain and keep all the benefits of the rich and powerful as they enjoy 5 star accommodations everywhere they go while receiving kickbacks from all the political favours they do to the corporations that helped them get to where they are.
We only get band-aid solutions because they know they can get away with just that. Because all they have to do is yell loud enough that they’re trying really hard to solve the problem, and together with billions spent on propaganda campaigns, enough people are convinced that the system is somewhat working that serious change never happens.
All the while, we’re dealing with a mental health and homeless crisis that you’d more expect from somewhere like Somalia or Myanmar.