Dane Record is frustrated, bordering on angry.
Following a recent debate of Peterborough mayoral candidates hosted by the United Way of Peterborough & District at All Saints’ Anglican Church, the executive director of PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network took to the organization’s Facebook page to urge municipal election candidates to “listen to the people” leading up to the October 24th vote.
The October 5th debate that focused on homelessness and issues connected to that challenge was “a fine display of candidate dodgeball,” according to Record’s Facebook post.
“The discussion on homelessness exposed an ongoing sampling of drug-related and HIV-related stigma that 30-plus years later, we are still confronting,” wrote Record, noting PARN’s mission to provide support and health promotion for people HIV-infected and HIV-affected as well as harm reduction. “Not all homeless people use drugs. Not all people who use drugs are homeless. Listen to the people and influence the changes necessary from the seats you hope to occupy for the next four years.”
kawarthaNOW spoke to Record about the reasons behind his Facebook post.
“When candidates are faced with these questions (around homelessness and substance use) and are really put on the spot to give a response, unless they’ve done their homework, they don’t know how to respond,” Record explains. “I can understand that to a point. Candidates may or may not have their own lived experience, if they wish to share it, but for those that don’t, it becomes evident in the conversations and what comes out of their mouths. It’s maddening. It’s upsetting really.”
“Are they (candidates) listening to the people who they can count on for votes, or are they just saying ‘Well, we’ve gone and spoken to everybody but they’re not going to vote for us, so who cares?’ Candidates need to take the time to hear everybody. Take the time to read the (City of Peterborough’s) Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. A number of organizations took time to put that together over the last year and a bit, providing detailed notes and examples, videos, and such. I know that wasn’t read by folks that really should have read it.”
At our core, PARN is a community based agency providing support and health promotion for people HIV-infected and…
Posted by PARN-Your Community AIDS Resource Network on Thursday, October 6, 2022
From what he’s hearing, Record adds, voters are asking “the right questions.” The problem, he says, is candidates “aren’t hearing all of the questions or suggestions.”
“People are offering some really good opportunities to do things differently and, ultimately, do things right, but does it get distilled at the end? Is somebody who’s looking for the votes of the affluent really going to listen to somebody who can’t even keep a phone? If we’re being real about it, that’s what it boils down to.”
Before any serious progress can be made by city and county governments on the provision of affordable housing, Record says “they’ve got to look at housing in general. There’s none. When we look at who has purchasing power, it’s not the folks that candidates get on the spot about. It’s the voters. The folks who don’t have a strong voice at the table, the strong advocates, are being continually missed. It’s not cool.”
As for his Facebook rebuke, Record’s hope is that “not only elected officials but also voters and folks that don’t vote” read it, or hear of it, and “take some action.” Further, he hopes people with living or lived experience are provided a seat at “decision-making tables.”
“Spend municipal money on repurposing unused and underused stock and turn it into housing, or hand that off to organizations and agencies that can do the housing bit. We’ve got the CMHA. We’ve got Fourcast. We’ve got One City. We have a number of buildings that, if they were re-sourced, we would see those numbers decrease in the next Point In Time Homelessness Count. That would be some positive change.”
Record noted in his Facebook post that Peterborough’s Consumption and Treatment Site — which provides a safe environment for people to use their own substances — came to fruition not only as a result of the advocacy efforts of various agencies, but also because people with lived and living substance use experience greatly contributed to the conversation.
Asked if his executive director colleagues with other local agencies have an obligation to speak out more regularly and forcefully on pressing social issues such as homelessness, Record has a guarded response.
“There are some folks in lead positions who have to protect their funding, us included, but I’m also young and dumb, so what do I know?” he says, adding “PARN isn’t a housing agency but we know our place in the discussion about housing security.”
Of note is the United Way Peterborough & District’s release on October 11 (World Homeless Day) of its 17th annual Housing is Fundamental report, whose author Paul Armstrong had some strong words about the state of the housing market, including the statement that “There is both an injustice and immorality when the well-being of so many people is left to the manipulation of the private marketplace.”
“In playing the game, there are different ways to do so,” Record says. “As one executive director, if I can support another executive director or folks doing the work on the ground, whether it be by blasting out their message, or supporting some of the bids they’re doing, or ditch dig or bulldoze so folks get a path to the right answer or at least to the door that has the right answer, that’s my contribution. That’s something that other leaders, if they’re not already doing that, have the ability to do so. You’ve just got to have the will.”
The cloud that hangs over the homelessness challenge, and remains a serious roadblock to any sustainable progress, remains stigma, says Record.
“Go for a walk. Peterborough has one of the largest urban Indigenous populations in Ontario. We have an over-representation of Indigenous folks who are living rough, sleeping rough, and in conflict with the law. Stigma continues to perpetuate by continuing to go after the same people who do not look like me.”
Politicians who make decisions about issues affecting people who aren’t represented in the decision-making process will not result in meaningful progress, according to Record.
“Until everybody has an opportunity to provide their voices and everybody has the opportunity to be heard, we’re going to have this same conversation in a year when the federal (election) comes, in two years if the federal (election) goes again, and definitely in four years when provincial and municipal (elections) go.”
