The word “shelter” is a good one. Gimme shelter, someone sang. Shakespeare used it in Pericles — “the leafy shelter that abuts against the island’s side” — I use the bus shelter on my street and the homeless go to shelters when death beckons on Toronto’s most frigid damp night sidewalks. From posh to poetic to prosaic, the word announces its own nature. There’s a warmth to it. Who doesn’t want shelter?Kira Heineck of the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness wants to change the name of homeless shelters. She told the CBC that they’re not so much shelters as they are “centres that are much more about helping people find housing.” Activist Mark Horvath, formerly homeless, says changing the word will reduce “stigma” as the general public becomes more informed about homelessness.So the city began a study on renaming homeless shelters. I filled out the online survey. It suggested “shelter” could be replaced by names such as Connect Services, Link Services, Housing Centres, First Step Housing and Services, Bridge Housing and Services, Stopover Services, Touchdown Services, and Navigation Centres.None of the choices were good, with shelters being made to sound like living under actual bridges — which is homelessness itself — highway fast-food places, airport lounges or air traffic control. Then there were three choices for the definition of a shelter: a place to people to “find safety and meet their basic needs,” to “access housing and services,” and to “come together.” These choices don’t work either. The first is what I would call my house plus hugs, kisses, etc., the second sounds like a welfare office (now called social assistance, which is what I call Lost & Found) and the third is either group therapy or a local choir.Jargon makes me restless. I like expressive, vivid language, not a dry bloodless antisepti ...
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