Britain’s Prince William spent a night sleeping on the freezing streets of London to draw attention to the plight of homeless people, a charity said Tuesday...
But the reality is:
'I'm not going to beg' Disabled man living in a car behind Scarborough strip mall needs -- and deserves -- our help
By JOE WARMINGTON
An abandoned Honda Civic has been this disabled man's home since August.
"Right now, it is actually colder inside it but it does keep the wind off me," Chris McLafferty said last night.
This is not a sob story at Christmas. It's a real story happening this Christmas right in our very city.
For veteran photographer Dave Thomas and I, it seemed unfathomable that a man in such horrible physical condition could be sleeping each night inside a car in sub-zero temperatures tucked behind a Scarborough strip mall.
"The worst part is, now that you tell it in the paper, I might not be able to stay here anymore," said McLafferty, 54. "I have been kicked out of everywhere, so I guess this will be no different."
Now, I know what you are thinking? Why doesn't he go into a homeless shelter?
We asked and found out that with McLafferty there are a lot of understandable grey areas, reasons, problems, excuses, fears and stubborn values.
WE LIKED HIM
We liked him right away -- and risk taking him at face value with the goal in mind of finding him safe and permanent housing.
"That is all I want," he insists. "I just want to get my own place."
Sounds simple enough. There is nothing simple about McLafferty or his journey.
The problem he has with shelters is he does not feel safe in one.
"With the kind of prescriptions for pain I have, it's like a lamb walking into the lion's den," he said. "I have to keep my medication locked in a mall locker because I have been darn near beaten to death."
To think there was a time when he was reasonably happy. Had a wife and a daughter, his health and future.
His future now is to hope to wake up and find a mall in which to hang out.
He says it all started in 2000. Gainfully employed, with a roof over his head, he was hurt while at work when accidentally crushed by a truck in the parking lot of his factory.
"I have had 27 operations," he said, showing us the scars, fractures and rotting flesh on his ravaged body. "I actually could have more operations."
You ever hear of trench foot?
It's the kind of thing First World War infantry soldiers suffered from. First the feet and toes turn red, then blue and then black. Soon comes gangrene and then amputation.
"I am worried about toes dropping off," he said, adding he hasn't taken his boots off in 10 days for fear of what he may find.
You can see the black stains on them from the blood seeping through.
The last time he had a shower?
"Sept. 30."
The last time he changed his clothes?
"Second week of October."
He can't eat properly because of "broken teeth" and can't keep much down anyway. He thinks he's lost 30 pounds in the past few months.
So what gives? It's not like the system doesn't know about him. It does but, for a variety of reasons, he does not seem to have any success playing the bureaucratic game of navigating through the processes that could lead him out of this. Some of it, he admits, is his own distrust.
There are no clear-cut bad guys in his institutional dance but perhaps the system is too rigid for guys like McLafferty.
"There is a social safety net but I have fallen through it," he says.
The crux of it is he receives $520 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program and that just doesn't cut it.
"I was receiving $1,020, but it got cut in half after I left my last apartment," he said.
He felt he was in danger and it snowballed from there. Now, with his medical problems, he can't get another apartment and he doesn't have the money for first and last month's rent anyway.
I spoke with the ODSP people and they are aware of the problems.
Same goes for the City of Toronto's caring and effective Streets to Homes program, which will send out an assessment worker.
The problem is McLafferty will resist help.
INDEPENDENT, PROUD
"I am not going to beg."
In fact, Thomas had to beg him to take his winter coat, hat and mitts.
My view is Chris falls into a category of someone you have to think out of the box with. You can't go home at 4 p.m. on this case. It will take some extra effort because he is independent, complicated, contradictory and proud.
We need some curve ball hitters inside the city and province to tackle this one and no matter what has transpired previously with him, I issue this challenge: Take him immediately into a secure and private shelter, clean him up, get those feet heeled up, lock up his medication, fix his teeth, find him a permanent apartment, pay the first and last month's rent for him and arrange to have his allowance directly deposited for future rent.
That's what the system is for and that's why we pay all of these taxes.
We can do all of that for less than first-class airline tickets for a rich province that has its premier fly regularly to China and a city that had its mayor dash off to Copenhagen. We spent billions on computer programs and for international sporting games so there must be a little left over to help this guy.
Or we can just let him die in that car, forget about it and enjoy our Christmas.
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