HOMELESSNESS-TORONTO

SUPPORT YEN TANG:

Here's a communique and a request for solidarity from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto.

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Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing‏
Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing

Picket TCH Head Office,

931 Yonge Street,

Thursday, March 11, 11.30 AM

Yen Tang reported serious threats from a male neighbour to the police. The Catholic Childrens' Aid Society took the matter seriously enough that they wrote a letter saying that the children should not be living where they were. TCH staff told Yen that she would be placed on an emergency transfer list, a home in another part of the City was suggested and she was told that it would be ready within three months.

Not able to stay in the place while she waited for the transfer, Yen and her kids moved in temporarily with some friends in another TCH community. However, local staff informed the friend that her rental subsidy would be taken away if Yen continued to stay there. She and her children have now had to move into a place that is far from their school. They are having to double up in a situation that is not sustainable for anyone involved.

After three months, Yen visited the unit she had been promised and saw no signs of work having been carried out on it. She checked in and was told that the male neighbour was denying the threats and the transfer was now on hold. An OCAP delegation went to TCH to deal with this. We explained that the issue was not to decide anyone's guilt beyond reasonable doubt but to act decently and reasonably in the face of a very likely threat to the safety of a family. Yen was put back on the transfer list, with the usual pretense that the decision to remove her was a miscommunication.

Yen and her kids have been waiting much longer than the promised three months and a recent letter to TCH asking when the matter would be resolved has gone unanswered. This family has suffered enough and faced enough disruption. They have a right to a decent and safe home.

Please support our action to win this basic right for Yen Tang and her children.