Homelessness, hospital, jail — and for some troubled souls — suicide. Those are the bleak outcomes people on social assistance fear as the provincial government plans to change Ontario’s welfare program for the disabled.“I worry about people like me who become ill and won’t qualify under the new rules,” says Jordan Bond-Gorr, 38, who has HIV. “How will they eat? Pay rent? Heal?” The former financial services worker is one of 86 Torontonians on social assistance surveyed about the Ford government’s plan to narrow the definition of disability for new applicants to the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).“The amount of fear and anxiety around this is very real,” says Bond-Gorr, who spiralled into substance abuse and mental health problems about six years ago after his HIV diagnosis.He and others are worried the change will exclude people newly diagnosed with so-called “episodic” disabilities such as mental illness, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, HIV, and some cancers — and force them to rely on Ontario Works (OW).ODSP, which provides up to $1,169 a month, is still meagre income support for anyone living with a disability or illness that prevents them from working full time, Bond-Gorr says. But it is better than OW, which pays just $733 a month and is geared to those without disabilities and expected to work, he adds.The increased income and medical support available through ODSP helped Bond-Gorr “take care of some serious mental health and physical health problems I was having. It helped me stabilize my life so that I was able to return to work part time and cover the cost of my medication.”It also gave him access to supportive housing for people with a history of substance abuse.“Without ODSP, many people will end up in hospital and become homeless,” he predicts.At least one-third of the 375,000 people currently receiving ODSP suffer from episodic d ...
|
