Phase 2

First of all, happy Canada Day. This is my annual reminder that my first day of Canada World Youth started on Canada Day, so on this day when I'm supposed to be thinking of Canada, I think of Mali. The first week of Extend-a-Family's Summer Program's Day Program, of which I helped lead for four years, also happened during the week of Canada Day. So I think of our first themed week, All Around The World, as well. Kind of weird both those associations are international.

Here in Ontario, we have a 4 phase reopening strategy. In my post, Garden 2020, I mentioned that Home Depot, Canadian Tire, garden centres, and clothing stores that have an external entrance and exit were allowed to reopen. This is because we had entered our first phase of reopening. A few weeks ago, we entered Phase 2, which has allowed shopping malls to reopen with strict physical distancing guidelines, as well as barbers, single-person sports, patio dining, and we are allowed to gather in social groups of ten instead of five. Weddings and funerals can be attended in social groups of fifty.

Not everywhere in Ontario is opening up at the same rate. Initially, there was some concern that if we allowed ourselves to reopen in regions that were less at risk, they might get stormed by long-haired Torontonians craving barbers. But eventually, we did take a region-focused reopening strategy that left the Greater Toronto Area behind most of the rest of Ontario. For the most part, the Torontonians have demonstrated a level of self-discipline that has allowed us to progress at a fairly consistent rate. Durham, Halton, and York were next allowed to enter Phase 2, with Toronto Proper and Peel Region (where my girlfriend lives, and the worst-hit region by percentage) being left behind. As of last Wednesday, Toronto and Peel Region were allowed to reopen, but it turns out that Windsor-Essex has been having its own issues, and was disallowed to enter Phase 2.

My understanding is that the Windsor-Essex area has been hit mostly due to the presence of migrant workers. When we closed our border, there was some concern about whether or not we would be able to have migrant workers assist us as "essential workers". With a significant percentage of our agricultural workforce being dismantled, as well as the potentially invasive species that are the murder hornets impacting our crops, this created worry about how our local food production would be impacted.

It was decided that migrant workers count as being "essential", but because employers do not provide pandemic-safe lodging, the virus ran rampant throughout their population. Eventually, Windsor-Essex was deemed safe to enter Phase 2, with the exception of Lemington and Kingsville.

The past four days, I've been in Guelph. This is the first time I've seen my family since everything began. It's funny how everything is a little bit different city-by-city. In Kitchener-Waterloo, the hours of every open business has been reduced. In Guelph, all hours are the same, but if you go inside anywhere that isn't your home, you are required to wear a mask.

I've talked a lot about Charles Street Terminal. For the longest time, it was the heart of Kitchener. It was the place where most public transit gathered, and so did out-of-city services such as Go and Greyhound. There was an information desk, as well as a cafe and a bar. It wasn't the cleanest space, and a lot of homeless people took shelter there. After the introduction of the Ion Light Rail system, Charles Street Terminal began to be phased out. Public transit continued to run throughout the first two weeks of the Ion's opening. After public transit closed, the building was still open, but only for the information desk, the cafe and the bar. At this time, the bar was packed, I assume because everyone knew it would be closing. Then the bar and cafe closed, and the information desk was relocated, but Go and Greyhound still ran and the building was open. At this point, all the homeless people I had grown to know, as well as security and maintenance were the only people still occupying the building. Charles Street Terminal had become a de facto homeless shelter.

Eventually it was fully closed, with only a small shelter open for people waiting for the Greyhound, and as kind of a meeting space for security personelle. But even since then, Greyhound has closed its services during the pandemic. However, during the pandemic, they have reopened as a homeless support space. I find this absolutely beautiful. Until the very end, they were doing their best to cast out the homeless, and now they are trying to bring them back.

It's not a shelter though, and isn't meant to house them. Many of our pandemic responses have impacted our homeless population. Many of them relied on public bathrooms, and since all food establishments went curb-side pickup only, and since our libraries and community centres closed, those became unavailable to them. Many relied on coffee shops or libraries to charge their phones and connect to WiFi, which was their access to information. Without that, many people have been watching the world shut down and transform without a reliable source of information. Those that relied on panhandling are having a more difficult time because the streets are much more empty, and among those that are still outside, they are less likely to be carrying cash because it has become frowned upon due to the chance it might carry the virus.

So in response to this, a number of new homeless support centres have been developed, where homeless people can use the washrooms, wash their hands, charge their phones etc. The fact that they're using Charles St Terminal's washrooms as a resource is kind of pathetic though. I distinctly remember the men's washroom has three urinals and one stall, and the taps don't function unless you hold down the lever that turns it on. So if you want to wash your hands, you have to do this really awkward thing where you hold down the tap with one hand, and use the other to wash itself. Not too sanitary. City Hall across the street is also a support centre though, and that place has nice washrooms!

I've spent enough time in downtown Kitchener to know all the best public washrooms.

The YMCA near where I live is a homeless support centre, and the local community centre also offers some services. It's funny, this area never had homeless people before. Do you remember those pictures I showed of some deer I found nearby? If you look in that patch of woods now, you'll see tents scattered around.

There have been some efforts to revamp homeless shelters so that they adhere to physical distancing guidelines. "Tent cities" have opened up, which allows for better physical distancing than the current open-concept shelters. There's an area that has introduced cabins as an alternative to camps

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2020/06/14/residents-move-into-one-room-cabins-at-a-better-tent-city.html

In Toronto and in many other places, hotels, which were seeing lower traffic are being used to house homeless people. I called that in an early post regarding the pandemic.

Last month was my weekest for monthly updates in 2020. Before that, my lowest count by month had four updates, and last month only had two. I'm still on my way to reaching my goal of a minimum of 40, as this is my 26th update, and we are precisely halfway through the year as of today.