Calgary, Friday, January 18, 2008

Each of us carries the seeds for a rich and full life.

Sometimes, all it takes is a helping hand or a kind and gentle word for those seeds to begin to germinate, when once they were thought dead, and for the harvest to be abundant.

Every word counts, every action matters. This very place, where we have gathered today, stands as proof of this: the Mustard Seed Street Ministry.

I would like to take this opportunity to salute Pat Nixon, a civic-minded individual, who founded this centre. And I was very touched to hear that Pat was once one of those errant souls who are sometimes regarded with disdain and indifference.

What is the Seed today?

It is eighty-two full-time staff and more than six thousand volunteers whose dedication I applaud today.

I understand that it is also a bond of fellowship extending to hundreds of churches and thousands of businesses here in Calgary and throughout the rest of Alberta.

A bond of fellowship through which hundreds of women and men living on the street can find refuge, comfort and support and, quite possibly, regain control over their lives and reclaim their rights, their voice, their citizenship.

The issue of housing has never been far from my mind, not since the time I spent working to build shelters for families in crisis—women and children who had been the victims of violence—and subsequently throughout my career as a journalist.

Today, the issue is on everyone’s minds. The Canadian women and men I have met since my appointment as governor general tell me of a crisis. They tell me of the highly competitive rental and housing markets in neighbourhoods where once housing could be found that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. They tell me of a shortage of safe and affordable housing as the last refuge against homelessness.

Those of you here today are among those who are sounding the alarm, going so far as to label this situation a disaster.

It is a crisis that is pushing to the street not just a few, drug addicts, alcoholics and the mentally ill, as the most widespread and tenacious prejudices would have us believe, but thousands of people and many families.

Take a look at today’s urban landscape across the country. Look as far as the outlying areas and regions. See society’s discarded citizens wandering the streets, begging at the entrances to shopping malls, sleeping on park benches, huddling under bridges.

If you look closely, you will see an increasing number of women and children who have traded domestic violence for the uncertainty of emergency shelters and the street.

Young people who are adrift or sinking, who feel increasingly marginalized.

Aboriginal people living in extreme poverty, lost, cut off from themselves and their roots, roots that run so deeply in this country.

Immigrants who have fled from misery, only to find it once again on our shores.

Entire families, most often single-parent families, who just can’t make ends meet.

Working women or men who, despite having an income, cannot find decent and affordable housing.

The United Nations refers to homelessness in Canada and other industrialized countries as anguish in the heart of abundance.

It is not simply anguish in the sense of destitution or the loss of one’s possessions; it is a deeper kind of anguish, one born out of a feeling of powerlessness and solitude, a feeling of invisibility and worthlessness.

Homelessness is the last step in a long process of exclusion that takes away a person’s place in society—no home, no decent living conditions—and leaves him or her increasingly vulnerable, physically and psychologically broken, ever more dispossessed of their citizenship.

I would add that it is a double exclusion in the sense that the street further stigmatizes people who are already extremely fragile.

To be homeless is to be penniless, without resources, family, a future, but worse still, without a voice. It is to rely on survival strategies in a jungle where the law of the land is the survival of the fittest.

And in that jungle, there are many predators who know exactly how to take advantage of the chaos. Predators who profit from the situation by offering crime, street gangs, prostitution, and drugs as the only possible options.

In short, homelessness is a mirror reflecting all of our social frailties. Frailties that are critical issues to those seeking solutions.

But how do people wind up on the street?

Remember that every single homeless person has a story. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to get caught up in the cycle of misery, unable to break free: a factory that closes its doors, a hospital that closes its beds, a family that closes its heart.

The paths that lead to the street are varied but are almost always paved with indifference, prejudice and misunderstanding. Not to mention violence and abuse. So many stories, so many lives turned upside down. We cannot become impassive.

We here today can count ourselves among society’s more fortunate citizens, but such fortune does not come without responsibility. We have a responsibility to create opportunities for those who need them most, ideally before they end up on the street.

Your willingness to offer decent and affordable housing to those most in need is one way to meet that responsibility. Once our bodies and dignity have been sheltered, be it in an apartment or a house, it is then possible to take control and plan for the future.

But it doesn’t stop there. A home is just the first step in a healthy life. But it is not enough. You can still be alone and destitute with a roof over your head.

We must look beyond mere bricks and mortar to envision other ways of living together.

Ways that are more just.

Ways that are more equitable.

Ways that are, dare we say it, more human.

In Africa, they say it takes a village. Here in Canada, we like to think that say it takes a community.

Across the country, an astounding number of women and men are forging new paths by working tirelessly to improve the lives of their fellow citizens and to loosen the bondage of prejudice.

I am delighted to see such commendable initiatives as I meet with civic associations, where women and men are moving heaven and earth to help those who are most vulnerable and most in need.

Women and men like Pat Nixon and his team.

And Pat Nixon again is living proof that a hand extended to another can make miracles happen and that those miracles happen every day.

As an adolescent, he turned to the street. Today, he uses his personal experience to help others break the cycle of misery and homelessness. And this, with the support of thousands of volunteers and a team of employees determined to change things.

Homelessness and the fight against poverty imply working together.

Those of you who work on the street, on the front lines, know this more than most. Those of you who work for the City and in law enforcement know this, too, and your presence here today is as a hand reaching out, a promise of hope.

It starts with a home. And what is a home if not the space of our dignity, of our physical and psychological integrity? And what is a home if not an identity defined by our belonging to a family, a neighbourhood, a community?

This is why efforts to end poverty and homelessness must be rooted in an ideal of human and sustainable development. An ideal that calls on each of us, from the average citizen to society’s decision makers, from businesses to support organizations. An ideal of compassion, openness to others and solidarity. Togetherness.

You share an ambitious goal: to make homelessness a thing of the past, to ensure that everyone benefits from the economic boom that presently your city and province are experiencing.

I can’t wait to hear your solutions to this urgent challenge, a challenge that all Canadians must face.

Your commitment to the homeless and those most in need has truly touches my heart.

Thank you for proposing new roads and new ways of living together. And thank you on behalf of all those families, the women, men and children who, through your efforts, are finding their way out of darkness.