Myths
There are many myths about "the homeless."
Contrary to popular stereotypes, only a small proportion, about 6% in Toronto, of the homeless population suffers from schizophrenia. Much more common are affective disorders, self-reported by 20-40% of Toronto's homeless. According to Toronto's Street Health Report in 2007, one in ten homeless people reports attempted suicide in the past year.
Homelessness is actually a chronic problem for only a small minority of people, the vast majority of individuals are "one-time only" shelter users or experience episodic homelessness. However, the distinctly different subgroup of individuals who are "chronically homeless" consume about half of shelter beds and available resources at any given time.
Many of "the homeless" who make use of homeless shelters are also employed. Individuals and families are simply priced out of private housing markets. In 2000, about 22% or 2.5 million Canadian households fell below the minimum amount required to afford a basic home, gauged at $25, 920. Five years later, this number rose to 26% or 3.2 million households.
While some of the "homeless" do perish in the extreme cold of Canadian winters, more die due to the extreme heat in summers. The first heat registry system in North America was set up in Toronto's west end to address this problem in the summer of 2008.
Another common misunderstanding surrounds the homeless who prefer not to use the shelter system. In addition to rules and regulations, shelter users must accept crowded shelter conditions, which carry a high likelihood of TB exposure in inadequately ventilated room, along with risks of bedbugs, scabies, and lice infestations.
Read more about this topic: Homelessness In Canada
Famous quotes containing the word myths:
“... the first reason for psychology’s failure to understand what people are and how they act, is that clinicians and psychiatrists, who are generally the theoreticians on these matters, have essentially made up myths without any evidence to support them; the second reason for psychology’s failure is that personality theory has looked for inner traits when it should have been looking for social context.”
—Naomi Weisstein (b. 1939)
“The myths about what we’re supposed to feel as new mothers run strong and deep. . . . While joy and elation are surely present after a new baby has entered our lives, it is also within the realm of possibility that other feelings might crop up: neediness, fear, ambivalence, anger.”
—Sally Placksin (20th century)
“The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient.... They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels.”
—Strabo (c. 58 B.C.–c. 24 A.D., Greek geographer. Geographia, bk. 1, sct. 2, subsct. 8.