www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\nDuring last week\u2019s hour-long lecture in Westmount\u2019s Atwater Library, Matthew Pearce once again reminded his audience why charity must be more than \u201c…just a soup kitchen and a bed.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cShelters were originally conceived as an emergency option and not as permanent housing for the destitute,\u201d said Pearce. \u201cSo our goal is not to warehouse people but to help as many as we can to re-integrate back into society. Our ultimate mission is to end homelessness as we know it.\u201d <\/p>\n
As both the president and the chief executive officer of Montreal\u2019s Old Brewery Mission, Pearce told his audience that he is determined to properly define what it really means to be homeless on the streets of this city. Even if it\u2019s been 125 years after Mary Finley and Mina Douglas first welcomed their clients to the Old Brewery Mission, Pearce told his audience that his board, his staff and over a 100 other assorted organizations are still working hard to help people who call the city\u2019s subway, its parks or some quiet corner in a downtown apartment building\u2019s garage \u2018home\u2019. <\/p>\n
Following a brief description of the Mission\u2019s history over the past century, Pearce told his audience that its vocation has changed and that it is no longer and that \u201c…we\u2019re not there just to soothe the problems of the homeless as much as it\u2019s up to us to solve the problems that lead to people being homeless.\u201d <\/p>\n
While using a powerpoint demonstration, Pearce stressed the point that \u201c…doing good is just not good enough.\u201d Even as the Mission is busy providing what is sometimes a life-saving service (especially in the winter), Pearce is determined to reform and expand its facilities in order to help people break out of the cycle of poverty that inevitably leads to the street. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe must have reliable data,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to get a good idea as to how many people are actually out there on the street.\u201d <\/p>\n
To that end, and for the first time in the city\u2019s history, staff and volunteers from all of the city\u2019s major street-level charities will hit the streets over a single day (and night) in order to do an elementary census of the city\u2019s homeless population. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose numbers will provide with a statistical tool by which we can evaluate the success (or failure) of all of our various programs,\u201d said Pearce. <\/p>\n
Once they have the numbers, Pearce believes all of the city\u2019s poverty activists can begin to work out the coherent and comprehensive approach they will need in order to help fight, and finally solve the front-line problems that occur when you\u2019re both poor and homeless in the city. Priorities include putting an end to the endless multiplication of assorted programs and initiatives that inevitably delete the resources people need to help deal with the extreme street-level poverty in this city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must knit all of the federal, provincial and municipal programs into one coherent and comprehensive approach,\u201d said the veteran activist as he described the massive duplication of effort and resources on the part of all three levels of government. <\/p>\n
As a street-wise activist, Pearce remains an optimist because, according to him, most of the city\u2019s homeless are going through what usually ends up as being a brief slough of bad times after which the Mission\u2019s records indicate that only five percent of their clients can be defined as \u2018chronically homeless\u2019. While there are many reasons why some men (and women) may prefer the streets to having any other kind of home, Pearce said mental illness has a lot to do with such decisions and there\u2019s a lot that can be done to help these people. While immediate measures such as rent banks, on-site medical and psychiatric care along with a good, nutritious meal when you need one, Pearce continues to believe that affordable housing for the poor will always be the ultimate weapon by which society can help the homeless. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs of now,\u201d said Pearce,\u201d… we\u2019re doing everything we can to turn the Old Brewery Mission into a gateway people can use to get off the street.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Doing good is just not good enough!” By P.A. S\u00e9vignywww.thesuburban.com During last week\u2019s hour-long lecture in Westmount\u2019s Atwater Library, Matthew Pearce once again reminded his audience why charity must be more than \u201c…just a soup kitchen and a bed.\u201d \u201cShelters were originally conceived as an emergency option and not as permanent housing for the destitute,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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