Social Planning Toronto

Service cuts affect low-income areas most (The Star)

Posted on 08. Dec, 2011 by Jeremy.

Anita Li
Staff Reporter, The Toronto Star

A map created by Social Planning Toronto reveals that the proposed cuts and closures in the city’s 2012 budget are “disproportionately” located in low-income neighbourhoods.

Forty-two of the 75 location-specific cuts — or 56 per cent — are in impoverished areas, according to the organization.

“(There’s) really great concern about creating a city that is a less equitable city, a less just city, a less compassionate city,” said senior researcher Beth Wilson. “I don’t think anyone voted for that.”

Wilson compiled statistics for the map using information from city budget documents and economic data from its most recent 2006 report on low income. The location-specific cuts do not represent all the proposed service cuts.

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Toronto budget meeting begins with pleas to scrap land transfer tax, save men’s shelter (Globe & Mail)

Posted on 07. Dec, 2011 by Jeremy.

Pool closings, transit cuts, reduced library and arena hours – Toronto residents have a chance to have their three-minute say on the city’s money-saving plans over the next two days at city hall.

A total of 348 residents have signed up to speak over the course of the two-day budget meeting, many from organizations such as daycare centres, school nutrition programs, arts groups and non-profits that will be directly affected by the proposed reductions to funding.

The proposed budget – released last week – aims to reduce the city’s total spending for the first time since amalgamation and would require major layoffs of up to 1,190 city workers and a 10-per-cent reduction in most departments. It also recommends a 2.5-per-cent increase in residential taxes.

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Hardship Fund on the chopping block (The Toronto Star)

Posted on 24. Nov, 2011 by Jeremy.

by Laurie Monsebraaten, Social Justice Reporter

Shirley Schillinger has been confined to a lumpy, cockroach-infested bed since June.

But this week, the gregarious 69-year-old pensioner, who is in chronic pain from multiple neck and back surgeries, is resting a little easier.

Thanks to Toronto’s Hardship Fund, Schillinger received a hospital bed with a special air mattress that prevents bedsores. It also has an electric lift that allows her to raise and lower her head and feet with the flick of a switch.

It means she can now sit up to watch TV and snack on bread and cheese from her bedside table during the long days she spends alone between morning and evening visits from a home-care nurse.

More crucially, the $3,500 bed allows Schillinger to remain in her downtown Toronto apartment with her beloved cat, Benson. And it will reduce the risk that she will end up in hospital at $1,000 a day or be forced to move into a $150-a-day nursing home.

Schillinger is one of about 1,300 low-income Toronto seniors and disabled people with serious medical needs who benefit from the $900,000 city fund every year. But city council voted 23-22 last month to consider axing the fund as part of its efforts to shave $360 million from next year’s budget.

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Balancing a budget on the sick and disabled (Toronto Star Editorial)

Posted on 11. Nov, 2011 by Mary.

by Laurie Monsebraaten, Social Justice Reporter

Here’s what Mayor Rob Ford considers bureaucratic gravy: a program helping the poor and disabled receive basic medical aid so they can stay out of a hospital. It’s called the Hardship Fund and it serves 1,300 people in Toronto yearly — people like Shirley Schillinger.

Although suffering from chronic pain after repeated surgeries, she’s now well-positioned to remain in the apartment where she’s lived for the past 38 years thanks to a new $3,500 bed with a special mattress and a $1,800 electric lift. It arrived a few days ago, courtesy of the Hardship Fund, reports the Star’s Laurie Monsebraaten. Schillinger, 69, would never have been able to afford it on her meager pension.

According to Toronto city council, however, that’s not money well spent. In a disgraceful abandonment of the poor, it recommended by a vote of 23 to 22 that city staff consider killing the fund to save on next year’s budget. Now a determined effort is underway to save it, spearheaded by Social Planning Toronto.

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SPT Executive Director awarded the MCC Hope & Freedom Award in Toronto

Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by admin.

Written by: KJ Mullins
Published in Digital Journal on October 23, 2011

“Before Pride Parades, Will and Grace and the It Gets Better Campaign a man named John was working to make changes for queer youth facing bullying while at a school in Toronto.

John Campey became a trustee assistant in 1985 for the Toronto Board of Education and then as a Trustee for the Downtown Ward in 1992.

Campey used his leadership role with the school board to draft the first resource document challenging homophobia and repealed a ban on queer speakers in schools. He also saw a problem in the school setting, queer youth were being bullied and dropping out. He knew something had to be done about that. In 1992 he inaugurated an official Board Consultative Committee on the Education of Lesbian and Gay Students. The results from their work resulted in an alternative school for queer students. The Triangle Program is now 16 years old. It is still the only ‘gay’ school in Canada, a safe haven for students who can’t cope with the barriers that they face in other public schools.”

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