Toronto woman's troubles turned around by unique housing program

A woman once trapped in an abusive relationship talks about the unique housing program that helped turn her life around.

 

Martha, not her real name, opens the curtains in a market rate apartment she rents. She was in a program run by Interval House, that gave her subsidized housing for a year. This allowed her the financial breathing room to establish herself, live independently and plan for her future. This year, she was able to bring her two children from Botswana to Canada following six years of separation.

Martha, not her real name, opens the curtains in a market rate apartment she rents. She was in a program run by Interval House, that gave her subsidized housing for a year. This allowed her the financial breathing room to establish herself, live independently and plan for her future. This year, she was able to bring her two children from Botswana to Canada following six years of separation.

 

This week thousands across the GTA will celebrate Christmas. For one woman — an accountant by trade — who thanks to a unique housing program managed to push poverty away, the season will be like no other.
“Every now and then, when I’m with my daughters I say, ‘I can’t believe that we’re together.’ It’s like I’m still dreaming,” says Martha, sitting in her spacious two-bedroom apartment just south of Eglinton Ave. near the Don Valley Parkway. A large flat-screen TV stands opposite the matching sofa set; shining hardwood floors spread out across to the balcony; a Christmas tree with presents underneath is next to the couch.
 

A few years ago, after arriving in Canada as a refugee, she found herself isolated by an abusive relationship. Martha (not her actual name) was surrounded by the various forces that trap many victims of abuse — high rents, poor job prospects, a lack of support. It all seemed insurmountable to her.

But thanks to an initiative by Interval House called Her Home Housing Project, and the generosity of private sector landlords, Martha escaped that life. The not-for-profit organization began partnering with large property owners in 2004, matching women escaping abusive relationships with apartments offered at rents geared to income.
In 2011 Martha moved into a bachelor apartment next to High Park that rented for $1,050 a month. She only had to pay $300, an amount she could afford with her new administrative job that Interval House helped her find. She was making $1,750 a month, after taxes, and had enough left over to send home to her kids in Botswana.
“One of the biggest barriers to women leaving an abusive situation is poverty,” says Ashleigh Saith, Interval House’s director of development and partnerships. “Many think they can’t pay their own rent or all the other bills.”
Saith explains that women in dangerous situations who are committed to becoming self-sufficient are given rent-geared-to-income units, usually in desirable locations, for one year. After that they transition to market-rate housing.
Weeks after Martha moved into her High Park apartment the emotional scars began to heal. She was able to establish herself, found a financial footing and soon started the process of bringing her daughters here; they arrived this summer after a six-year separation from their mother.
“It was a very positive transition,” she says. “I was very grateful. They had arranged it in a nice area, beautiful. It’s one of the most beautiful neighbourhoods, a five-minute walk to the subway. Being able to be on my own, to save money, to do things for myself, it made me feel — wow. I thought I had lost that in my life, the independence.
She says the setting of the apartment and the location helped her put her life back together. “It wasn’t the type of place that you typically associate with poverty or hardship. I never thought that I could actually live in that neighbourhood.” Shortly after moving in, she began the complex immigration process that allowed Martha to reunite with her kids.
They now live together in a market-rent apartment, and Martha wants to eventually go back to school so she can get her Canadian accounting certification.
Martha’s story brings satisfaction to Scott Andison. He’s the president and CEO of the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario, which represents the private partners that have contributed the units to help victims of abuse. There are now 15 such apartments across the GTA.
“Our members don’t look at it as a handout, it’s a way to help people on their own become self-sufficient.” Andison says tenants in the program typically pay about 30 per cent of market rent, with property owners covering the lost revenue.
“We’re getting interest from landlords in other parts of Ontario,” says Saith. In November, Interval House expanded the program to Ottawa and Hamilton. “We do see this as a model to replicate.”
Martha says she wants to spread the word to other women lost in abusive situations. Asked what it will mean to have her kids with her for their first Canadian Christmas, Martha’s eyes grow wide.
“My kids, the other day they said, ‘Mommy, what am I going to get you,’ and I said, ‘you are my Christmas presents.’ ”

 

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The Ontario Government funds female victims of abuse with billions of dollars with over a billion dollars defrauded from Taxpayers in the Black Hole of the Unaccountable Children's Aid Societies of Ontario who provide unlimited Free Legal Services not just for female victims of abuse but for the larger number of violent women who abuse their children and the fathers of their Children.

You won't read of a single dollar spent by the Ontario Government to end the Ontario Government's Gender Superiority Program that deprives children and fathers of all their legal rights.

A classic example of the criminal use of tax payers funds is that of Marguerite Lewis, a lawyer for the CAS Ottawa who personally fabricates evidence to NOT return children to full time fathers and to illegally place children without a court order, with the most violent of mothers.

The odds of any accountability by a Judges is entirely remote as most of the Judges hearing CAS matters are former lawyers anointed as judges by the Ontario Government's hand picked judicial selection panel.

Ontario spends Billions of dollars to it's Fascist Gender Superiority Program that actively and effectively promotes violence by women towards children and fathers by providing them with Billions of Dollars of Free Unlimited Legal Assistance with Judges guaranteed to rubber stamp anything and everything this Criminal Cartel asks for.

Ottawa Mens Centre

 

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Ontario's Violent Mothers

Recently Ottawa Police Detective Peter Van Der Zander fabricated Evidence NOT to charge a mother. Officers found the father bleeding around the neck with scratch marks around his neck, consistent with an attempt to strangle. After numerous unprovoked assaults, she pulled his head down by the hair on to a couch and tried to strangle him to death.

Detective Van Der Zander also listened to a stereo audio recording of the entire event that was stopped after the police arrived and taken by the police so it could not have been "edited".

His video interview with the mother showed he was concerned that IF he let her go without charges that "next time" she might kill him with a knife" so he released her so she could "call police" next time to be driven home as a victim.

The video interview showed he never asked her IF she pulled his hair and or attempted to choke him. His written report was an utter fabrication and that's normal for Ottawa Police.

He then kept the father incarcerated for a further 16 hours and AFTER he released the mother, he finally interviewed the father, failed to photograph any of his injuries and interrogated him accusing him of being a pedophile without any such allegation or evidence to justify that terrorism.

Several months later she assaulted her new male partner with a Strangle Hold to the neck, "with her hands around his neck and her thumbs intertwined around his neck" saying " My Father was KBG, I know what I am doing". When that male reported the assault to Ottawa Police they did absolutely nothing. When she learned of his statement, she threatened him with false allegations which was in turn reported to the Ottawa Police who did absolutely nothing.

Ottawa Mens Centre
 

Ontario's Female Child Abusers
Recently in Ottawa Marguerite Lewis aka Marguerite Isobel Lewis, a lawyer for the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa,personally fabricated evidence of admissions of the worst kind of child abuse when in fact no admissions were made.

It's getting to be a very common tactic by the Underbelly of Humanity who wish to abuse children by taking children away from their full time fathers simply because it suits their unofficial official agenda of promoting violence towards children and fathers by mothers.

The mother admitted to assaulting both her children and to assaulting the father. Despite scores of pages of medical reports of injuries by the mother, photographs taken by doctors and at Police HQ, and digital audio recordings, it took the Ottawa Police some six months to send it to a Crown Attorney who carefully examined the case and gave the go ahead to have her charged.

Three weeks later, another Crown attorney, Tara Dobec hijacked the case from the other Crown and STAYED the charges despite the evidence.

Crown Tara Dobec has decades of history of prosecuting males simply on a "She said" of assaults or offences that dated back years, and without a shred of corroborating evidence.

In this particular case, a Superior Court Judge commented that Gender was an issue and if the genders had been reversed she would have automatically been charged and it would have automatically gone to trial.

Crown Tara Dobec also stayed criminal charges of Obstructing Justice and Fabricating Evidence against CAS lawyer Marguerite Lewis prior to the first hearing.

Sgt. John Gibbons of the Ottawa Police who commenced the investigation was at first outraged "She lied to the judge, it's perjury" he said.

Welcome to Male Sharia Law

Ottawa Mens Centre
 

 

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Ontario actively promotes Violence by women towards men and the worst offenders are the Judiciary of Ontario.

Justice Jennifer Belishen, recently terminated a child's relationship with his full time father because, the Mother repeatedly assaulted the children, the father and her next male partner.

One witness was the Ottawa Police officer who charged her with threatening death and assault for some 55 assaults that occurred on just one day.

Another witness was her new male partner who she assaulted by "Placing her hands around his throat with her fingers intertwined around his windpipe saying "My father was KGB, I know what I am doing".

The evidence included dozens of photos of injuries, scores of pages of medical reports of the injuries she caused many using weapons like a BBBQ Fork, Toilet Plunger and Broom handle.

The injuries left the father with permanent disability in an ankle and broke his left little finger not once but twice. He was a runner and the injury prevented him from running without pain. He used that little finger to play the violin.

On the last day of trial, the mother asked "isn't it true you were convicted of being a pedophile and spent time in jail for that".

Even Justice Belishen was shocked and reminded her that there was no such evidence to support that suggestion.


But, that was enough for the Dishonorable Jennifer Belishen, a Former lawyer for the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa to terminate the father's unnecessary supervised access with the child permanently.

She then added numerous conditions to her order as to make the order impossible to appeal.

Another example of how a Dead Beat Lawyer with a Dead Beat Judge abuse Children and bring the administration of Justice into Ill repute.

Ottawa Mens Centre