I visited Toronto yesterday
memories rumble still:
urine garbage smells
worn faces
young, old
waiting, hustling.
Pavement, traffic
bicycles spinning
on green painted strips.
Last summer,
a doctor died
nobody called her patients
“Inspired Care”.
A woman in a wheelchair
waits
to be pushed
back up a hospital ramp—
staff rush by, ignore her pleas
“she shouldn’t smoke”.
A stone angel shudders.
∼
As my poem reports, I was in downtown Toronto yesterday near an inner city hospital. Stepping out of my rural retreat, a brush with urban poverty and homelessness is bleak, depressing. I wrote this poem in today’s aftermath. While musing and surfing I stumbled on a recent report and article on homelessness . Canada did have a federal housing program until 1993 when it was eliminated. Since then, construction of affordable housing has dropped and homelessness has increased each year. The estimated annual number of homeless Canadians is 235,000. Statistics are impersonal and beyond comprehension. Even 1000 people without homes is unacceptable.
On a more positive note, major cities (Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver) have adopted 10-year plans to reduce homelessness. Unfortunately a recent study indicates that these plans are doomed to fail if the federal government doesn’t step in with national funding and coordination. City mayors are asking for $12.6 billion over the next 10 years to pay for new affordable housing. I certainly will back this whenever I have the opportunity.
©2016, ontheland.wordpress.com
Ontheland 
I had my eyes opened in Ottawa to poverty/street begging/homelessness. Your last line says it all. The lack of will to help those in need in this country is a disgrace to all those with the power to do so. 😦
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I hope your government does follow through to help. We have the same problem here and I am sure in many other countries. It is an atrocity and still it continues.
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I feel sorry for these homeless people, which are increasing everywhere and so is the world poverty,I think the governments should find a solution to it, but countries like mine ( India) with huge population I dont think a near possibility of it.
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Bleak poem, Janice. It’s an easy cop out to blame poverty on the poor—sick people are sick because they brought it upon themselves, if only the poor didn’t waste their money etc etc.
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That’s so true…it could be us given the right wrong circumstances, but many people wouldn’t want to look at that.
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So sad. It sounds like US cities.
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Yes probably all over the world in cities — although there are probably some that have achieved solutions.
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A very strong poem Janice calling up emotional understandings , your politicians could learn from reading this.
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Thanks Denis. Hopefully they listen to city mayors.
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Beautiful.
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Beautiful poem. I volunteer at a homeless shelter in Windsor every Monday. There are other homeless too that people don’t see or know about. They “couch surf” from one relative to another, one friend’s place to another until no one wants to help them out anymore. The unseen homeless. Thanks for posting.
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Thank you for your comment 🙂 yes there are many people in poverty who are not seen.
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