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Good evening everyone. My name is Phillip Dufresne and I used to live on the street. I have now lived in supportive housing at Houselink Community Homes for the last 18 years and have been a member of the Dream Team for the last 10 years, advocating for more supportive housing and for the empowerment of people who have experienced homelessness and who live with mental illness.
Supportive housing is safe, secure and affordable housing for people who have experienced homelessness due to mental illness. Each each of us is assigned a support worker.
All 22 members of the Dream Team have been impacted by homelessness and mental illness and have seen the life-altering effects of supportive housing. 21 of us have lived in supportive housing and one has a family member who does.
The purpose of the Dream Team is to make people more aware of the need for supportive housing. We believe that housing is the most basic of all human rights. None of us would be alive without it.
That is why we advocate for more supportive housing by making presentations to politicians from the 3 levels of government, faith groups and high school and university students and to different community groups. We are also involved in research and advocacy and participate in initiatives that will lead to the creation of more supportive housing.
The 2008 City of Toronto staff report, “Cost Savings Analysis of the Enhanced Streets to Homes Program, Appendix A”, states that a hospital acute inpatient bed costs the Province $1048/day, a psychiatric inpatient bed costs $665/day, incarceration costs $143/day and an emergency shelter costs $69/day. It costs the Province only $55/day to house someone who has experienced homelessness or mental illness in supportive housing.
Supportive housing is the most humane and most cost efficient way of helping people who have experienced homelessness and mental illness. When people who have experienced homelessness and mental illness have stable housing, they are healthier and spend less time in hospitals. They are also able to make meaningful contributions to society like everyone else. Nobody can contribute to society if they don’t have a place to live.
Much of the work the Dream Team has conducted over the last year has been possible thanks to the support of our administrative partner, Houselink Community Homes and by funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Toronto-Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), and the Metcalf Foundation
We have also been fortunate enough to receive grants from other sources in the past.
In 2007 the Wellesley Institute gave the Dream Team a grant to develop a research project on the “social impact supportive housing has on the surrounding communities”
The research was completed in May, 2008 and was released in the final report “We are Neighbours”.
Neighbours are often afraid that supportive housing will lower property values and increase the crime rate. Our study indicated that property values had actually gone up and there was no impact on crime at all. Many neighbours didn’t even know that supportive housing was in the neighbourhood, which indicates that after a while, it blends into the neighbourhood.
The report was so successful that an article exploring the intersections of community based research and mental health recovery was published in the Fall 2009 edition of the Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. The author based her research reflecting on the process of developing “We are Neighbours”
We have copies of the article and the report here tonight if anyone is interested and they can also be found on our website www.thedreamteam.ca.
The Dream Team received another grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario to do research, education and outreach on the impact of restrictive provisions in municipal policies and zoning bylaws on people with mental illness.
In partnership with Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) and HomeComing Community Choice Coalition, the Dream Team conducted public education with local consumer groups and service provider and politicians in several Ontario communities.
This project, which we call the Road Show, has taken us to Kitchener/Waterloo, Ottawa, Smith Falls, Thunder Bay and Sarnia.
Based on our experience with the Road Show, we launched a human rights complaint against four municipalities, Toronto, Kitchener, Sarnia and Smith Falls. We have asked the Human Rights Tribunal to look at zoning practices in these municipalities and determine whether they engage in discrimination when they place distancing requirements for group homes and other forms of supportive housing for people with mental and/or physical disabilities.
We are thankful to the Human Rights Legal Support Centre(HRLSC) for providing legal representation in this case.
The complaint was launched in February. Sarnia and Smith Falls have already indicated that they will change at least some of their bylaws. The Dream Team is hoping that Toronto and Kitchener will do the same.
On the topic of human rights, the Dream Team is also involved with the Right to Housing Coalition. This is a group of legal clinics, housing advocates and other community groups who are developing a constitutional challenge against the federal and/or provincial governments for failing to provide decent, affordable housing for people who have experienced homelessness. The coalition intends to launch its case to the media next month.
Last year members of the Dream Team were involved in two key provincial policy reform initiatives, the long term Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, with the Ontario Ministry of Health, and the Ten Year Affordable Housing strategy, with the Ministry of municipal affairs and housing.
In both cases we were involved in community consultations, deputations, made written submissions and participated in different panels providing the expertise of people with lived experience.
We are waiting for both policies to be released this summer and we are hoping they will both bring positive changes for consumer survivors.
This yea our members have also been involved with two initiatives of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. One member is involved with Toronto Consumer Caucus of the At Home research project. And the Dream Team is also one of the 28 groups selected at the national level to participate in the development of a “Opening Minds” national anti stigma study.
The word of the Dream Team continues to be acknowledged and recognized by the community. Two of our members had the honour of receiving awards in the past year.
Founding Dream Team member, Linda Chamberlain, received the Edward W.H. Tremain Award for Excellence. This award is given to Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) staff who exemplify integrity, leadership and passion in their work.
Esther Mwangi, received the Transforming Lives Award from CAMH, which honours extraordinary people who have overcome the challenges of living with mental illness and/or addictions and now serve as models of hope and inspiration to others.
I am also happy to announce that on May 7th the Dream Team will be honored with the “Community
Champion Award”, given by the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario.
In the past year, we have made presentations to numerous high school and university classes. The Dream Team has developed and presented a new workshop on Stigma to front-line staff and Occupational Therapy masters students. We also presented to the Local Health Integration Network Board and made presentations at the AGMs of many non-profit groups which are represented here tonight.
The Dream Team is an organization that continues to grow and experiment with different organizational models. This year five members of the Dream Team have been hired as part time peer advocacy workers. This has been done in order to ensure that members are more involved in the administrative aspects of the organization and to continue to develop leadership skills. Also funding has just been confirmed for to hire an administrative assistant, we are hoping to hire a member for this position.
The reason we call ourselves the Dream Team is because to us, supportive housing is truly a dream come true. We want our dream for safe, secure housing to be a reality for everybody.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone here for their support over the years because we would not have been able to accomplish all the things we have done without you. Thank you.
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