When We Are Hurting — Who Is Helped First? 💔🏠
There is something I’ve been struggling to put into words for a long time, because it feels dangerous to say out loud. Not because it isn’t true — but because truth has become uncomfortable.
Canada is hurting. 😔
People are unhoused. People are couch surfing, living out of suitcases, staying where they are “allowed” but not welcome. People who worked, paid taxes, raised children, and did what they were told are now invisible in their own country.
And yet, when the war in Ukraine began, help moved quickly. 🇺🇦💸
I watched as Ukrainians arrived in Canada and were housed — some immediately placed in Airbnbs after COVID, while locals were being told there was “nothing available.” I watched emergency supports appear overnight. I watched compassion mobilized with speed and efficiency I had never experienced myself.
And I need to say this clearly:
This is not resentment toward Ukrainians.
This is grief — and confusion — about priorities. 😞
The Question We’re Not Allowed to Ask ❓
Why was housing suddenly possible? 🏡
For years, we were told:
- There is a housing shortage 🏚️
- There is no funding 💸
- There are long waitlists ⏳
- There are “complex cases” 📄
Then suddenly, units appeared.
Airbnbs that had displaced locals during the pandemic were now available. Temporary housing became immediate housing. Emergency funds flowed without the months (or years) of assessments, rejections, and silence so many Canadians experience.
So the question becomes unavoidable:
If housing was possible then — why wasn’t it possible before? ❗
And why isn’t it possible now? ❗
Compassion Should Not Be a Competition 💛
We are constantly pushed into false binaries:
- Care about Ukrainians or care about Canadians
- Support refugees or support the unhoused
- Be compassionate or be critical
But compassion is not finite. 💖
What is finite is political will. ⚡
It is possible to believe:
- Ukrainians fleeing war deserve safety and dignity
and
- Canadians should not be left without shelter, support, or hope 🏠❤️
When we fail one group to help another, something has gone very wrong with the system — not with the people.
Context Matters — Even When It’s Uncomfortable 🌍
The war in Ukraine did not emerge from a vacuum. Tensions had been building for years — political, economic, military. NATO expansion, regional power struggles, historical grievances — these things don’t excuse violence, but they do explain how the world arrived here.
Yet nuance disappears once bombs fall. 💣
War becomes “good versus evil.”
Spending becomes “necessary.”
Questions become “disloyal.”
Meanwhile, at home, suffering is normalized. 😢
What It Feels Like From the Inside 👁️🗨️
When you are unhoused or housing-insecure, this isn’t theoretical.
It feels like:
- Watching money move effortlessly — just not for you 💵
- Being told your situation is “unfortunate” but permanent 🏚️
- Seeing urgency applied everywhere except where you stand 🛑
It feels like being a citizen only on paper. 📄
I didn’t lose my home because of laziness or bad choices. Many people didn’t. We lost it because housing became a commodity, not a right — because policies failed, wages stagnated, and safety nets were quietly dismantled. ⚠️
And when help finally appears — but only for others — the pain deepens. 💔
The Hard Truth 🗣️
Canada has the resources. 💰
What it lacks is the courage to:
- Treat housing as infrastructure, not investment 🏗️
- Admit decades of policy failure 🕰️
- Extend emergency-level compassion to its own people 💛
War spending is fast because war is politically useful. 🪖
Housing the poor is slow because poverty is inconvenient. ⚠️
That is the contradiction we are living inside. 😞
A Call for Shared Humanity — Not Silence ✨
This is not a call to turn inward or shut doors. 🚪❌
It is a call to open them wider — and stop deciding who deserves dignity based on headlines, geopolitics, or optics. 🌏❤️
If we can house people fleeing bombs,
we can house people freezing on sidewalks. 🏠❄️
If we can move billions overnight,
we can move systems that have been stuck for decades. ⏳💪
And if asking these questions makes people uncomfortable —
maybe that discomfort is overdue. ⚡
