By Kendall Worth!
Zed is a welfare recipient, who I had been in touch with between September 2022 and March 2023. We lost contact for a period of time after he expressed interest in February 2023 in having me address his story on my blog. Then, he got in touch with me just within the past 3 weeks. I was happy to hear from him because I, along with other first voice persons in my community, who know Zed, had concerns about his mental health, especially after 4 months and half months went by and no no one saw him at any of the usual places like Souls Harbour, his food bank etc. Now that he is in touch I found out why he has not been showing up at those places.
Within these past 3 weeks Zed and I has messaged each other on social media and just last night, after he expressed interest in still wanting to give me his story for my blog, I spent some time talking to him on the phone.
I found out that the reason why he was not been seen around Halifax since March 2023 is because concerned family members stepped in and moved him out of Halifax, to Cape Breton. I will explain throughout this BLOG post how, what, and why this was brought on.
His life in Halifax became difficult. First, he got notice in December 2022 that he was getting evicted from his Fairview apartment. I want to be clear on the fact that I saw the eviction notice in January when it first came. He asked me, however, to hold off from covering his story “until further notice.” He asked me to wait because he was going through tenancy hearings and wanted to wait and see what unfolded from those hearings before allowing me to publish his story. Just to be clear he was not in rent arrears but did lose at the tenancy hearings and that would leave him without housing.
Zed is working on someday getting himself moved back to Halifax, the sooner the better.
To help illustrate Zed’s story I want to bring up my recent post https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/07/these-days-it-just-seems-like-one-thing.html where I touched on how sometimes we all have no choice but to have to make tough decisions in life, especially when there are things happening that is making life hard for all of us. Also, I used climate change as an example. These days you could even say it is the environment that is causing problems, as well as the government's refusal to raise the income assistance rates and/or introduce new packages of financial help for low income people to off-set ever increasing costs. Two other stories I previously wrote, in the NSAdvocate, also illustrate Zed’s current situation. https://nsadvocate.org/2019/04/11/kendall-worth-why-many-income-assistance-recipients-in-halifax-want-to-forget-their-rural-past/ where I illustrate why it is not a good idea for Income Assistance recipients to be living in rural Nova Scotia instead of HRM. Even now, this story here https://nsadvocate.org/2020/04/02/kendall-worth-for-many-on-social-assistance-moving-back-to-rural-nova-scotia-right-now-is-a-bad-idea/ published around the start of COVID, still relates to Zed’s current situation, even without COVID restrictions. His family actually stepped in after he found that all apartments he could find, were starting at $200 TO $400 a month above and beyond the most he could ever afford. As a result his only option was to move out of his apartment to go live in a tent or a crisis shelter. Family members decided they did not want this for Zed. In January Zed got himself on the waiting list for Metro Housing but they told him It will take 5 to 7 years for him to get in.
Zed did not want to tell me either what he was paying for rent here in Halifax or what he is currently paying for rent in Cape Breton. He did however point out that while in Halifax, between September 2022 and when he got his eviction notice in December he was also getting warnings from his Landlord that they will be raising the rent by $400 a month once the rent cap is lifted. He also pointed out that what he paying in Halifax and now in Cape Breton are within the 950.00 standard house hold rate.
However the differences are:
In Halifax he was receiving the standard $950.00 plus $81.00 for special diet allowance and $40.00 for telephone.
Now, in Cape Breton, once his case was transferred to the Local DCS office, he lost his $40.00 telephone allowance and his $81.00 special diet money.
When he was living in Halifax, he had a part-time job supplementing his Income, where he was allowed to keep the first $350.00 a month. Leaving his job and moving to Cape Breton, meant having to give that up that job and the extra money as well.
From: https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/questions-raised-about-halifax-park-encampment-1.6382498
Many people in Halifax are in the same dire circumstances as Zed. His case is different because his family who are living in Cape Breton actually took, as Zed describes it, Forcible Action to get him moved to Cape Breton. Don’t get me wrong, his family did this because they did not want to see him living in a tent, and it does mean that his family's heart was in the right place. However, taking that action was the worst thing they could have done. As he told me, Zed’s family behaved like they were not willing to listen to him when the Social Worker at the North End Community Health Centre offered Zed options like trying to get him put up in a hotel. Zed is Bi-polar (a mental health diagnosis) and in Cape Breton there is a more serious lack of mental health supports. Back here in Halifax, according to Zed, he has kept in touch with the social worker at the North End Community Health Clinic since his move. Zed brought to my attention that the Social Worker at the North End Community Health Centre, along with 2 MLA’s offices, are working with him to make sure his name stays on the list for Metro Housing. He does hope that something will work out and he can move back to Halifax soon. Even though Zed is not currently getting the telephone special needs allowance, thankfully a family member is letting him have access to their phone and their social media so he can keep in touch with his mental health supports here in Halifax. This is also how he was able to contact me recently.
Turns out, Zed is also in a fight to get Community Services to pay for his once a month trips back to Halifax to see his mental health supports. He has accommodation and just need transportation help. He has an appeal hearing coming up with Community Services. The social worker at the North End Community Health Centre is planning to join this appeal hearing VIA phone, and, from what Zed tells me she, has a really good argument prepared.
I wish Zed the best of luck with this hearing, and hopefully all works out.
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