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This is a email I attempted to send a Windsor news article person in the hopes of it being seen so the people from the fire in my building didn't suffer in silence and possibly got proper help we all needed at the time during the fire when we were all homeless. That was my only goal. I just wanted someone to listen, and hopefully have it make the housing, and city people more transparent and actually help us like they liked to claim to (but didn't).

I didn't go any further because the person I sent it to said they were assuming I wanted to be on video. I said no I just wanted it to be known in a newspaper article. I could've gotten other tenants, but they said no right away when I didn't want to do a video. I could've asked someone else if they truly wanted someone on video, but they never gave me that chance.

Here is what I wrote end of September, 2024, after a month of being homeless with no help from the city (better spaced):

 

It seems a lot of the negative aspects of how the city is treating us (the victims) has been missed in the news.

I don't know if like the rest of the Chatham-Kent citizens, you weren't aware, but we (especially me) have been

mistreated and not treated equally.

 

In the first few weeks citizens thought we were receiving their donations, but we weren't, in fact none of us had

any clue that those kind-hearted folks were doing that for us. We were literally wearing whatever we had worn

when we escaped the fire for several days. Some of us were able to go to places like Salvation army to get a couple

clothes to change into, but we didn't have access to laundry so again we were stuck in those same clothes. The only

way I found out we were meant to get any was other tenants who had access to social media at the time and said so.

But we didn't get any of that.

 

For food, again many weren't getting the cards that the city was giving to only a few tenants (mostly when they were

displaced to the Wallaceburg hotels in the beginning). I only knew that because my friend was in a Wallaceburg hotel

and was getting meals and cards, and clothes and the people at the Holiday Inn (and then later when we got displaced again)

weren't getting those things.

 

Apparently the St Angus School was deemed unlivable so they had to re-locate everyone who went there again and put them

up in hotels until sept 30. However the day they closed down the school that was a shelter, was the day the city stopped

paying for my hotel. I asked if they could make it like everyone else's and extend it until Sept 30 so I would have a fighting

chance to make my insurance last at least until the beginning of December. The city said it would be several months,

roughly 6 months before we could go back so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't end up street homeless. But they still

refused.

 

My assigned housing worker for this fire told me there would be a fund of $1,000 that we could use on top of our max

shelter allowance (for say ODSP, or OW), so we could find a short term rental and have that as a top up until our place

was fixed. Landlords left and right turned me down for anything under 1 year. I did manage to find just 1 person willing to

do 3 months minimum and then do month to month until my unit is fixed. However I couldn't reach my worker for weeks

and because of that the place I found said they were no longer willing to do 3 months. I suddenly I got a call from a new 

assigned worker, and was informed that the fund no longer existed. I was extremely upset, and found it unfair as I did

find a place and if they had've gotten back to me sooner I wouldn't be homeless.

 

Recently I was given the paperwork for Dresden at Park Place which use to be a retirement home under bad conditions.

It will be $1,290 and claims to only be 75% of our cheque but that's not at all correct even with the max ODSP shelter

allowance of $582. 1 single person doesn't even get $1,000 a month for basic needs. It's more of 90% where what's

left is $100-$200 if you are lucky. They know this and have said it's either that or nothing. Even when I had told them

that is not at all affordable for me, they said "well that is your decision then." And have countlessly said it's not in

their budget for anything else.

 

Worst of all is they want our insurance to pay for the city's half on top of the $1,290, because originally the total cost

was in the $2,000's but they made a deal with the owner to have it as $1,290 if they subsidized the other half. So they

want us to pay twice. Our insurance is meant for us so we aren't struggling through this crisis, but they want it (this is

a direct quote) because "these are tax dollars not meant to go towards this, it is meant to be used elsewhere so we need

the money back," and to make that money back they are making us, the current homeless and traumatized victims, pay

for it with our insurance. Our insurance isn't meant for the city. But they absolutely do no care, and are refusing to help

in any shape or form for another solution even though they have helped others secure housing that they are having

it subsidized to have it so they are paying the same amount as they would if they were in 99 McNaughton.

 

My friend would be in a literal tent right now if his friend who is in the Holiday Inn hotel hadn't offered for him to be

hotel roommates, because they city had kicked him out of the Wallaceburg hotel with many others, and didn't find

anywhere for him to go and his worker never bothered doing her job to reach out to him. Thankfully he got someone else

last week and has secured shelter for when they get kicked out again on the 30th.

 

I am not so lucky. The city keeps saying because I have insurance (literally everyone at that building has insurance, it

is a legal requirement before even signing the lease), that they will not do anything for me, absolutely nothing for me

until all of it is gone, including all of the insurance funds meant to replace the stuff I lost due to damages. It's just not

right. And others have gotten the new startup funds (which my worker never told me about) that is meant to help get

a new mattress, microwave, cookware, blankets, etc up to a certain amount, but my worker told me no because I was

one of the ones who isn't in section A or B so I don't need it. However my friend got it and they will be literally the first

allowed back in. They had absolutely no issue getting their startup funds or emergency funds. But they keep saying no

to me and claiming it's due to insurance and stuff that doesn't make sense, they just don't want to treat us equal.

When I had told the head guy of that (I cannot remember if he said he was Trevor Jones, or if it was Josh Myeres) but

they had said that "we are not here to treat everyone equally," when I said I wasn't being treated equally and getting

help or the same things others were getting.

 

Half of my insurance for accommodations is already used up to keep a roof over my head. It will not last past next month.

One worker in housing (her math was not mathing) tried to say my insurance would last a year. Absolutely no it would not.

I told her even my insurance guy had said "tell them that is not enough to secure you," but she refused to listen like so

many others. It really is unfortunately all about the money for them, and people like me, are just being left to fend for

ourselves and hope we don't end up in tent city in the middle of winter.

 

My assigned worker didn't even arrange a car (because family service kent requires it be done through your worker) so I

could go back to the donation centre they had opened so I could get a few things, because I didn't think of needs for when

the weather is much colder and the pants I selected ended up being too small and showing too much of my legs that would

make me freeze if I wore them not in summer. So I was not able to go back (I'm not the only one), and they shut down the

centre so I can't even attempt to get a bus out there now. Many of us still needed donations, we just weren't being allowed

or able to go. Some citizens have told me they wanted to donate but were refused. And some were scared to donate

because they didn't think it would go directly to us, and unfortunately they were very right, it wasn't.

I have tried left, right, and centre to get anyone in the city or housing to help me or be reasonable, but they refuse. I literally

have no other options. They also know that, it's why they can be so callous and say things like it's my choice to not be able

to go to a place that I cannot afford. I don't get why my insurance has to cover their half instead of only my half. It doesn't

even have internet which is vital for meetings and keeping up to date with everything going on. Just a mini fridge and a

mattress. They say $700+ worth of food will be provided as prepped meal plans, but there are people like me who have

dietary restrictions (yes they know, again they don't care), and cannot eat 90% of what they have on there. Which means

I would need to buy food for myself, which I wouldn't be able to because $200 can't last a whole month. I tried asking if

they could just remove the $700+ meal plan so it would be more affordable, since I don't even spend $700 worth of

groceries on my ODSP income anyways, but they refused, they claimed no it's part of the package.

 

On top of that everything is located in Chatham, and those buses would be too expensive to go into town and back,

on top of in city buses. Dresden doesn't even have a walmart or pet store. And a lot of us have pet needs.

 

I tried begging my ODSP worker to help me in any way, if there was absolutely anything they could do, she literally said,

"No we just send the cheques." I asked, "even in this extreme emergency?" and again she rather coldly said, "no, we

only send the cheques." I asked if she could do a Loads of Love voucher for me in case I was able to find a short term

place willing to do under 6 months if I had insurance left, and she said, "No others need it more than you." I literally

need it ... I don't understand. I told her I could keep any pots and pans in the hotel with me until I find out if this

one place accepts in a few weeks, but she told me no that it's not meant for me to just hold on to and that others

need it. Then she un-empathetically told me she has 400 other clients she deals with. And then she ended the convo.

It was ... a very bad bad day for me to say the least. It's all piled up. Very hard when you are treated like garbage

especially when you are begging for anyone to help you. I'm not the only one being treated bad .. but, I don't

know what to do when the people meant to help refuse to help, and the kind ones (citizens) who want to help can't help ...

 

I just wanted someone to know how ugly things truly are behind the scenes. Those assigned workers are just for show,

to make it seem like we are being helped when there are so so many who aren't. One had it so bad she apparently wasn't

even offered a hotel and had to live in a tent for many weeks.

I don't know if you will consider doing a piece that's less heartfelt ... but that is all I have to say right now.

Thanks for reading.