Home Safe reveals the recession’s impact, shows housing is a human right

Amanda Connon-Unda, Culture Editor

As the lights dimmed at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on October 8 the audience went silent. Laura Sky’s latest film called Home Safe Toronto started playing. Serene yet emotive music filled the dark room as the SkyWorks Charitable Foundation logo crossed the screen.

Laura Sky is my former boss, so I know her organization well. Sky started SkyWorks after she left the NFB, in order to produce her own films about social issues. Sky’s films aren’t necessarily destined to be broadcast (although sometimes they are), but instead her films are funded through NGOs, government agencies and private donors. They are made in consultation with community participants who give feedback and consent along the way. Her films are eventually toured as feature length documentaries across the country. It’s a process that drastically departs from the broadcasting model, whereby independent producers are beholden to broadcasters’ audience and marketability considerations, budgets and deadlines.

Home Safe Toronto is a very timely film which was being researched both prior to the recession and in the wake of the recession being thrown about incessantly in the media. In the film, Sky and her executive co-producer Cathy Crowe reveal that homelessness is becoming a new reality today for more working families. As the manufacturing sector has weakened due to recent restructuring, housing insecurity is becoming more common.

Home Safe is a national film series that has several editions. It features what’s happening to children and their parents facing housing insecurity or homelessness in four cities across the country. Home Safe Toronto reveals what’s happening to families in the G.T.A.

According to recent city statistics, in April there were almost 1200 families living in homeless shelters in downtown Toronto. Meanwhile more than 70,000 households were on the waiting list for affordable housing.

Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and co-producer of Home Safe Toronto, explained the objective of their film. “It was to witness family homelessness - to make it visible,” she said. “But [we wanted] to go beyond the stereotype… To show that [homelessness] is families hitting a crisis or misfortune through lack of adequate social programs and employment that make them fall into homelessness,” she said.

While researching the film during the economic downturn Sky and Crowe found that laid-off workers and their families were facing some extreme stresses. The families they followed were relocating to follow work, doubling up in apartments with other families and even moving into family shelters. The producers said that some families are having to choose between paying their rent or feed their kids.

The Richards family in Brampton was one of the families featured in the film. Colleen Richards recently joined the fast-food workforce to support her family. She was working 60-hour weeks at $10 an hour. Her husband was laid off from Chrysler and his employment insurance ran out.  She and her husband and two kids were finding it very hard to live off of her wage and at the time of filming they were facing an eviction notice.

After Home Safe Toronto’s premiere Richards explained what she got out of participating in the film: “We had a voice,” she said. “It empowered us and it gave us an opportunity to open up dialogue and hopefully inspire some change…And to tear down some of those walls and the prejudice that is out there,” said Richards.

Home Safe Toronto is a touching film that includes the stories of loving families who are enduring tough times. The film highlights the social need for better affordable housing policies that would enable families to have a decent standard of living even during economic downturns. The film reveals a liberal, human rights oriented, pro-union stance through its sourcing and its request for economic justice.

Sky’s narrative voice is interwoven throughout the film. She tells the story of her grandmother who helped organize labour unions in the Toronto garment factory where she worked during The Depression era.  The concluding segment of the film depicts community building today amongst laid-off workers and it was particularly moving. “Together we’ve begun to ask the bigger questions… [about housing] and about recognizing housing as a human right,” said Sky in her closing narration.

As the finale music came on in the theatre during the film premiere, the audience clapped stridently. Their sound was resoundingly clear. The audience clapped even louder as the families who had participated in the film went on stage for the final Q&A period.

Audience members and friends of SkyWorks commented on the families’ bravery for having faced the stigma of coming out and talking about their economic hardship. In the Q&A period the stereotype about homelessness was discussed and people talked about making changes to legislation so that there would be more affordable housing in future.

Home Safe Toronto will tour across the country at community screenings. The documentary is available for use by educational institutions, community groups and activists and is part of a tool kit of materials to help plan local strategies. For more information visit www.skyworksfoundation.org and www.vtape.org.