# 2018-04-10
:round_pushpin: Location: [Secret Location](https://www.meetup.com/Civic-Tech-Toronto/events/248419961/)
:family: Attendance:
* Zach
* Andrew
* Bill

This week we spoke with a fellow named Bill who was kind enough to give us his thoughts on his experience with Toronto's shelter system.

# Bill feedback
[Bill's Twitter](https://twitter.com/xiamann)
Bill's pick of investgative journalisim: [Lincoln's Bible](https://twitter.com/LincolnsBible)
+ some shelters have regiments that are required or, after a time delay, you loose your bed
## I stay at gateway
+ you show up at 9am
- you say i want to "keep my number"
- this is a number you've gotten the night before
- the number is a priority listing
- this is how you get a bed????

+ they do a bedcount at 10pm
+ if you miss bedcount you are liable to loose your bed
## The data is delayed
+ people wait around until late for the priority listing to be used up
+ by the time they get a confirmation of a bed the shelter is nearly filled

## Dixon Hall
+ They were running all the OOTC, but a lot of them were assholes
+ a person will go from location to location and use each location in a chain
- so people move as a migratory pattern day to day
+ you get one ttc tolken when you are discharged at 7am
+ at out of the cold, sometimes, you'll have to come in early (say at 4pm) and get a ticket, so that you can get in and get a bed at 6pm
- now people have to hang around in that neighborhood for 2 hours
> Dixon hall is unaudited. The City has given Dixon Hall all operational responsibility and the paychecks. Poverty is an industrial complex. They show favoritisim. They have ways of blocking you out. Even old timers that are experienced complain about Dixon Hall
> They are exploiting the power of their paychecks.
> I've seen cop cars parked outside of St. Felix the abuse in there is so bad.

## Some dropins only do meals
+ some people will come in when the program opens (say at 4pm) and wait around for the meal for hours (say at 6pm)
> In my opinion this is a waste of potential. There could be educational programming during this time

## Some food banks are used by people who have their own houses
+ Many people do not have food security, and use foodbanks and dropins to cut costs.
> The chinese are infamous for this

## The culture using the shelters is mixed
+ disabilities
+ psychoseese
+ addiction
+ sub-culture
+ people looking for fights

## Its important to understand the difference in how beds are managed
+ there are different tiers
- temp beds
- permanent beds
> lets say they did bed count at dinner time. For example, the good shepard did their bedcount at 7. There is no guaruntee that, after dinner, someone would leave, get high, and not come back for the evening.
+ we're not tracking how long it takes for a person to get into line, then how long to get a bed
> My phone got stolen at good shepard. Tobacco too
> I now have a trunk I keep under my bed
## The most important thing when you're homeless is getting a place to store your kit

## Is SMIS being Used always?
+ yes, or a similar counting system
+ I don't think that any given shelter knows what the capacity of other shelters are. So the staff can't do referrals
> say I loose my bed. now i have to go over to peter street. and i have to wait for them to find me a bed. and beds are filling up.

## Socialized housing is often far from resoureces
+ Permanent shelter and Socialized housing is often on the fringes of the City, and sometimes they don't provide tokens

> Seaton House is known to have a terrible reputation

> the chronic homeless are a facinating population. No one knows where they stay. maybe they have phobias, or they don't like the shelter system

> I studied Immersive Sociology at University of Chicago

# Chalmers cards
+ an opportunity to write their own stuff would be great
+ foodbanks: location is secondary to time and day
## City of Toronto HomelessHelp Webapp
- most people want to go to the map because it's visual
- color the pins by day and time