Category Archives: society

From Homelessness to Renting: How to Find Rental Housing without References

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Homeless
The solace of silence is sometimes the only vocal support one gets without friends and family references.

There is no point in sugar-coating the fact that transitioning from homelessness to renting can be quite difficult for an individual, especially in cities like Toronto or Vancouver. From a landlord’s perspective, these markets are full of eligible and desirable tenants, so why would they lend their property to someone without any reference and an unstable (or non-existing) rental history.

This is a challenge most homeless people face, even when they have found a stable job and have enough money for a deposit. Finding rental housing without references can be tough but not impossible. There are a few things you can do:

1. Seek out your regional Housing First* program. It’s designed to help homeless people find stable homes. You’d need to contribute a portion of your income (ideally 30% or more) while the rest would be covered by rent subsidies. It also helps you establish a rent history that can open up more rental housing options for you.

2. Provide potential landlord proof of stable income. If you’ve been working for a while, bring your last three payslips and, preferably, a letter from your employer stating your good behavior (and that they don’t have any plans to let you go in the foreseeable future).

3. If you have a stable income and money for monthly rent but not the deposit, charities like Canadian Red Cross and Salvation Army might assist you (financially). With a decent deposit amount (say three-months rent), you might be able to convince potential landlords to rent to you, even if you don’t have references.

4. Don’t fake a reference history. It is a huge red flag, and if you get caught, it might disrupt your chances of renting with other landlords as well.

5. Talk to the people who are running emergency shelters. They might be able to guide you to individuals who might be inclined to rent to you without references, just to pull you out of homelessness. If not, they might be able to put you in touch with local housing assistance programs you might not be aware of.

Be honest, talk to the people helping homeless individuals in your community, try to save as much money as you can for rent and deposit, find a co-signer if you can, and make sure your employer puts in a good word for you.

*https://www.bchousing.org/projects-partners/funding-opportunities/RHFP

Boggles Brown – The Blurb

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-From “Boggles Brown – My Cartoon Life in the Land Of Schizophrenia” inner sleeve. – 2010

Boggles Brown is broke, except for the “People With Disabilities Allowance” he gets once a month. This month, he lives in a run-down motel – he manages to buy an old beat-up Toyota which is unreliable but reliable if you know what I mean. Somtimes he thinks his car may be bi-polar.

He wonders whether he should be using one of those fancy-named gasoline additives like “Engine-X,” I imagine “Engine-X” to be somewhat like Olanzapine, only for cars.

Boggles Brown struggled through college. He graduated,worked for a while and then became bonkers. It was not worth the ecstacy or all the raves in the world to lose his mind – he knows that now. But it is his life, what to do?

Boggles Brown is not how I see myself so much, as how I think others see me. My mom has read some of my cartoons and scratched her head. I imagine a lot of people will do the same. But that’s not the point – is it? Am I Canada’s Andy Warhol? I think not.

I hope you like Boggles, and if you don’t, I hope you keep it to yourself because the point is that it gave me something to do.

These are all hand-drawn on whatever paper I could find.

– Boggles Brown; “BJAF” 2010

“Genes” – Boggles Brown; Urban Survival Media 2009

Exclusive Boggles Brown T-Shirts Online

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Browse and bedazzle when you wear the words of our talkative transient.

Greetings Readers,

Now, like never before, we have been waiting for a marketing breakthrough to gain that glimmer of interactivity on it’s way to your wardrobe. This time, we hired Social Media Management Company UK to help us in our branding and marketing our new product. It’s here – Boggles Brown multi-colour T-Shirts where you get to write the dialogue for our lovable but lunatic street-sage.

https://www.slated.com/films/736655

Drop by and donate to give the My Name Is Brad docudrama the funding it needs and order a Boggles Brown exclusive hand drawn T-Shirt by local artist Brad James.

Stay Safe and Think of B. Brown When You’re Feeling Down.

– The Crew At The Urban Survivor and My Name Is Brad

Cheektowaga-Omni Launch Fundraiser for Debut Socio-Cultural Movie “My Name Is Brad”

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January 11, 2021: Cheektowaga-Omni, a production, media, and marketing company has today announced its foray into film making with the production of a socially conscious movie, “My Name is Brad”. The company hopes to engage the public and has started fundraising, soliciting support from keen donors and people who value movies with a cultural and socially significant theme.

The prevailing atmosphere in the USA makes it ripe for movies like My Name is Brad to be an eye-opener for a public swayed by bigotry and misinformation. Moreover, homelessness is a growing issue that is affecting many people.

“My Name is Brad” narrates the story of a young middle class suburban white man who struggles through University, only to end up deluded, and living on the streets. He watches his promise die, like so many North American youth today.

Cheektowaga-Omni is a production and media marketing company that was established as a tie up between Cheektowaga Music and Omni creative group Cheektowaga Music was formed by prolific musician, music, entertainment producer and, performer “Little” Herbert in 1986. Cheektowaga-Omni is in the process of reactivating a dormant Analogue TV station in Northern Washington State. This initiative reflects their commitment to blending traditional media with modern technology, offering diverse content ranging from music production to online piano lessons and beyond.

The movie My Name is Brad being produced by Cheektowaga-Omni is in memory of Kelly Thomas, who was killed by members of the Fullerton police dept in 2011. Cheektowaga-Omni has launched fundraising efforts to support the movie and plans are afoot to launch a kick-starter and a web page in support of My name is Brad. Additionally, they are exploring event ticketing options to enhance the film’s reach and impact.

Cheektowaga – Omni media is based in Kelowna BC, with studios located in Abbotsford BC and Vancouver BC.

For more information: See our position on Slated.

Media contact

Dale Corrigan

Cheektowaga – Omni Creative Group

Email:

Website:

Homelessness During COVID – Disaster Amplified

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Homeless individual

In any given year, there are about 235,000 Canadians that suffer from homelessness. That’s about 0.625% of the total population, a statistically “small” minority, which is, unfortunately, seeing its woes compounded due to winter and COVID.  

Homeless people rely on shelters to provide them a place to sleep and stay, especially during the cold winter nights when staying outside or in a makeshift shelter can be deadly disastrous. So it’s only logical that the shelters try to accommodate as many people as possible.

But that’s impossible due to COVID cases spreading. To mitigate the probability of transmission, shelters have reduced the number of people they take in. Needless to say, this is a significant blow to the homeless population of the country because during the second wave, more and more people are seeking shelter and less space is available. The lifting of the eviction ban has also added fuel to the fire.

To make matters worse, some shelter homes are being forced to close down or have been working at reduced capacity because the staff and residents have contracted the virus.

People are aware of the problem and are doing what little they can to remediate the situation like staging protests and urging the government to ramp up support. And shelters are using glass dividers in between beds to reduce the probability of transmission in close confines.

This Is Not Racist?

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If this picture is offensive to you, donate 1$.  If a billion dollar a year company can produce top notch commercials to present their product to the public, that same company should put as much emphasis on it’s personnel’s education.

Said company is quite good at educating mass populations into their stores with the promise of a better life.  The reality is harsh.

This is an experiment to assess how many people still find this image unsettling.  And along with your dollar, please leave a comment as to why this image is offensive.

 

 

A WalMart employee celebrating Hallowe’en in Blackface.

Hello Out There

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You wonder sometimes if there is really anybody out there? Do you ever get that feeling that there is, I know I do – and in these days and times it seems not even God is enough or rather faith in God. Are we alone in this vast Universe have we turned our backs on God or has God turned it’s back on us. Mankind professes to know so much, The Big Bang , went from a “theory” to a factoid even-though there is no real way to prove or disprove that theory.

So here we are in 2018 staring down an unknown but a seemingly apocalyptic future, man wants to be the creator of his own Universe. There is no insurance policy that protects this Earth in case of destruction. There is only faith, you either have it or you don’t, if you don’t have faith there is a certain emptiness that pervades your every waking moment.

If I had known what I know now then would I have chosen the same path? Was a life of unrighteousness worth the pain of the memory of so much gone wrong and spoiled bad and rotten. Losing ones faith to mediocrity and popular-ism seeking fame and fortune leads to the same 6 foot hole that a nameless vagrant lies in with no headstone.

We humans are so smart we can demand that it be as we say or we will make it so, and like Children arguing with a parent we think we get our way until we realize that we don’t. It was a smart creator that put the things in the Universes so far out of reach – when God thinks mankind is ready we will be free of the bonds of Earth, free to roam the stars and with Gods blessing.

 

B.C. man not guilty of welfare fraud

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Vanderhoof – A man accused of stealing $50,000 in welfare money may have been living as “buddies with benefits” with another man, but a BC judge has ruled there was no proof that the two men were living in a common-law relationship.

The finding was key to provincial court Judge Darrell O’Byrne’s decision to throw out a fraud charge against Gordon Street of Vanderhoof.

Street was charged over accusations he received too much social assistance money, with the Crown arguing he failed to disclose he was in a common-law relationship with another man.

Street collected $50,000 over a period of five years beginning in 2001.

In September 2001, Street said he was single and never married on his assistance review, although he claimed to be living with someone at least twice while making claims for financial help.