There is a long list of plans that Brenda Murdoch has made for her future, but first she needs to find a home.“I would like a place to live, that I could sustain, so that I can get my hip replaced, recover, go back to school, my volunteer work, feel productive and, you know, just have a life,” she says.Murdoch, 53, has stayed for more than seven months at a coed shelter in Mississauga run by the Salvation Army. She relies on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) because of severe rheumatoid arthritis.She is on a wait-list for subsidized housing and has applied for a rent supplement, through a new program for people who have experienced more than one episode of homelessness.But Murdoch, who does not want to go to a group home, doesn’t have a lot of options. In the region’s tight rental market, for a woman with a physical disability and low income, who is not old enough to access seniors’ services, there are very few places to go.The average stay at a Mississauga emergency shelter for a single person is about five days, it’s about four in Brampton, according to Peel Region staff. Families average about 20 days.Recently, Murdoch was told to leave for a few days after she broke shelter rules, but she’s been in the emergency system for close to a year.Leslie Moreau, manager of human services for Peel, says every effort has been made to help Murdoch find housing, but she has rejected several options and cannot stay indefinitely.“Usually something comes through. I hope that is what happens. They’ve got her on all the right lists. They have got the right agencies involved to support her,” says Moreau, who had Murdoch’s permission to speak about her case.Murdoch was back on the streets over the Canada Day long weekend. She had been drinking, was told to go to the hospital and when she came back was discharged, she told the Star. For about three days, she says she was on the street, at on ...
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