Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Union Gospel Mission Steps Up! THANK YOU!!

Soooooooo HAPPY!!

I like to think I made this happen with my tweets this morning!!

Crying tears of Joy!



Thank you Union Gospel Mission and everyone who stood up and reached out!! Now that's humanity!!

And Christy Clark if that was the case they wouldn't be f----ing homeless would they!!
Gee your are real rocket scientist aren't you? (Sorry I don't mean to insult Rocket Scientists! )

"B.C. Premier Christy Clark said she hopes the men get the care they need.  “We’re Canadian. We should be doing that,” she said."




Two homeless Saskatchewan men who were given one-way bus tickets to British Columbia received a warm welcome in Vancouver after a 20-hour bus ride from North Battleford.
Workers at Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission picked up 21-year-old Jeremy Roy and 23-year-old Charles Neil Curly Wednesday night amid a crowd of media.
Jeremy Hunka, who works at the mission, said the two men were hungry and tired, but in good spirits and shocked by the amount of attention their story had attracted.
“We’ll give them anything they need in terms of food and any medical issues will be taken care of,” Hunka said.


Charles Neil Curly, left, and Jeremy Roy were greeted at the terminal by Vancouver City Councillor Kerry Jang. Rob Kruyt / Vancouver Sun

“I just put myself in those guys’ shoes and I just said, ‘Oh my God.’ If I had mental health issues, no money, no nothing, no supports, put on the bus into the great abyss. Wow. That’s just inhumane.”
People in Vancouver hearing the story reacted compassion, not anger, Jang said.

Province launches review after homeless men bused to B.C.

http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/province-launches-review-after-homeless-men-bussed-to-b-c











Media talk to Jeremy Roy and Charles Neil Curly, two homeless men from Saskatchewan outside the Vancouver railway station and bus depot Wednesday, March 9, 2016. They were taken in in Vancouver by the Union Gospel Mission, which runs programs and a shelter for homeless people on the Downtown Eastside. Rob Kruyt / Vancouver Sun
Andrea Hill, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
More from Andrea Hill, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/province-launches-review-after-homeless-men-bussed-to-b-c

Jang said the plight of the Roy and Curly highlights the “antiquated and ancient” system Saskatchewan uses to fund its emergency shelters. Shelters receive the bulk of their funding through emergency shelter per diems, which the Ministry of Social Services pays to the shelters for every night eligible people stay there.


" Neither Roy nor Curly were eligible for emergency shelter per diems; they were staying at the North Battlefords Lighthouse without funding. The shelter could close this spring because of a recent reduction in the number of people the province funds to stay there."

http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/north-battleford-lighthouse-stunned-by-govts-purchase-of-one-way-bus-tickets-for-local-homeless


Both Roy and 23-year-old Charles Neil Curly — the Victoria-bound man Roy overheard, who’s been homeless since losing his job delivering furniture in North Battleford last fall — said they plan to live in homeless shelters when they arrive at their final destinations. 

Curly, who hails from the Mosquito First Nation, said he was so frustrated by Social Services not funding him that he wanted to leave the province. If he has to be homeless, he might as well be homeless by a beach, he said.

“I’ll keep my head up and just keep on trucking,” he said. “Nothing to be scared about, right? Got to get out into the world and see new sights.”

Caitlin Glencross, manager of the Lighthouse shelter in North Battleford, said the news of her clients’ departures “threw (her) for a loop.” 

Roy, who has “significant” mental health concerns, doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on and doesn’t know where he’ll get his medication once he leaves North Battleford, she said.
“I just don’t understand the rhyme or reason of it,” Glencross said. “I’m obviously concerned about these individuals. They’re going to go somewhere now that they have no supports because they couldn’t get supports in our province.”

DeeAnn Mercier, who works at the Lighthouse homeless shelter’s Saskatoon location, said if Roy and Curly don’t already have social services files set up in other provinces, it’s “appalling” that the provincial government would pay to ship them out of Saskatchewan.  Glencross and the two men told her their social services files are in Saskatchewan


NDP leader Cam Broten said the ministry’s two one-way tickets to British Columbia appear to be an example of recent “short-sighted” cuts to emergency shelters in Saskatchewan.

“You don’t just send someone who is desperate, with no supports, on a Greyhound to Vancouver where they have no supports or are on the streets and can’t get the help that they need there,” he said. “Instead of having a housing first approach, the Sask Party has a Greyhound first approach.”

Read More Here http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/north-battleford-lighthouse-stunned-by-govts-purchase-of-one-way-bus-tickets-for-local-homeless



Union Gospel Mission 


@ugm

http://www.ugm.ca

 If you are in a position to do so, show your thanks!

YOU can HELP with a donation! https://www.ugm.ca/donate 

Transforming communities by overcoming poverty, homelessness, and addiction—one life at a time.

Those two men could have run into terrible problems, the DTES is so close to bus depot and so many people there face incredibly difficult challenges.

Living in Vancouver I pass homeless people all the time. It's very hard. I am always polite and try to look them in the eye and say have a nice day or greet them back when they try to ask for money, but I can't help right now. Sometimes we try to give the regulars a loonie or toonie...if I have been blessed with a little extra, but lately I don't have it. 

It feels horrible. I see people ...binners living under the bridge. On Christmas I took them tuna sandwichs. It's all I could do. Like they said the shelters are full. Not only that there are bedbugs and all sorts of issues. They worry about their things being stolen and many just don't want to live in this kind of situation.

Where is the HUMANITY??? Anyways, today I am GRATEFUL!! So grateful that UGM came through!! Thank you for reaching out. If you are grateful too and in a position to do so you can make donations here.

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