The key to change?

Winnipeg’s Blue Key program offers an alternative to dropping loonies

ROBERT REIMER

I was on my way home from one excursion or another recently, when my bus passed a group of striking individuals. As in, they were on strike, displeased with their contracts or conditions. They had a sign attached to a car that said “Honk for fair working conditions!!!” I was riding the bus, and the driver did not comply with the demand. I tried to notice if anyone else had either, in other vehicles, but heard no honks.

It seems encouraging and sometimes liberating for society to see people outside, standing up for what they believe, especially in the sudden and angry cold we have all, I am sure, enjoyed. I have no doubts that the picketers on the street corner will receive supporting honks, news coverage and, if they plan things well, have some of there demands met by the employers with whom they are disagreeing.

These people are protected by a higher power, their union — a group with the money and influence to help them. But what if they didn’t have such help? Their course would obviously be a different one. The strike wouldn’t work. Their demands would be ignored. It would be a hopeless situation.

Then I realized a similarity between these people and a different part of society, because just up the road from the picket line, I saw a homeless man sitting, propped up against a building. Why he chose that part of the city to panhandle in, I cannot say. It seemed to me to be a high car-traffic, low foot-traffic area. But there he was, nonetheless.

So I thought: what about the homeless? Who looks out for them? They have no solid, well-funded organization working directly for them, making demands and threats on their behalf. They have care groups and social service agencies to get them through the day, but despite the best efforts of these organizations they can still be likened to that old proverb: give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. Who’s going to throw these people a rod?

There are hundreds of answers to the hundreds of questions about the homeless: questions dealing with the cause of homelessness, and whose responsibility it is to help them. Various programs exist in order to help these people get off the street and find employment, some more successful than others.

One such program is the Change for the Better program, also known as the Blue Key program. The program is designed around the idea that giving money to panhandlers is often not the best way to help them. Instead, the program uses change boxes placed at local businesses to collect money for the homeless. The money is then divided evenly between six local socialservice agencies that use the money to provide essential services to the homeless community.

The idea is for the people who have donated to the change box to take one of the blue keys provided at the box and give it to a panhandler instead of change. This is supposed to help prevent panhandlers from spending the money they collect to feed their addictions. It is also supposed to help to allocate the funds collected to places that will be able to help the panhandlers more effectively.

Although the program has been in existence in some form since 1992, raising over $60,000 since its inception, it has not always been active. It was originally begun by the Union Gospel Mission as a simple alternative to giving money to panhandlers. The keys were only available for purchase at the Mission for the cost of one dollar

“[I feel] like a useless member of society having to beg for cash, and this program is just a slap in the face to us . . . before I could at least go to the store and feel human” — panhandler.

each, and they were the only social agency who accepted them as payment for their services. Since then, the Blue Key program has gone through various reforms and governing bodies.

Its most recent incarnation was re-launched by Mayor Sam Katz in the summer of 2006. It is run by Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, along with help from Destination Winnipeg, the Manitoba Hotel Association, the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, the Winnipeg BIZ Association, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and the Winnipeg Committee for Safety. Also involved are the six social agencies that receive funding from the program. They are: Agape Table, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Salvation Army, Siloam/ Lions Den, Lighthouse Mission, and Union Gospel Mission.

Between the summer and mid- December a total of $9,228 was collected in the 136 change boxes around the Downtown area.

The advantages of such a program are obvious, as it is a simple way to collect and distribute funds to valuable organizations. In addition, it allows someone to be able to give a panhandler something that can help, but which they cannot misuse.

A study done by the Change for the Better outreach team found that 76 per cent of respondents admitted to buying cigarettes, while 67 per cent admitted to buying alcohol or solvents with the money they received while panhandling.

While it must be recognized that many of the people who panhandle are not addicts, and would use money given to them on the street in a responsible fashion, the fact remains that the majority of panhandlers are not living on the streets on purpose. They are there because of addiction or disability, and therefore may require some help in order for them to get their life into some stable form, which will include a job and a home.

By supporting the Change for the Better program, the idea is for people to be able to help the unfortunate directly, without giving money directly to them. Written on the key is the list of social agencies that are ready and willing to help. When the individual takes the key to the agency it is treated like cash, and the patron will receive the services of the agency at no cost.

This, however, may sound better than it actually is. At some of the agencies involved, the services that the key provides are already available, free of charge. At Siloam Mission, in the Exchange District, the keys are not needed to acquire any of the services, including food, clothing or a shower. This means that, in effect, would-be philanthropists who drop a key in a hat aren’t giving much of anything at all. However, at other agencies, the key is needed, such as at Union Gospel Mission, where a meal costs either a key or a dollar.

This discrepancy has been acknowledged by the social agencies and Downtown BIZ, and in order to combat this, certain services will soon be provided that will require a key.

These services may include something as simple as a granola bar or a juice box. They will not be anything that is required for living, only an added bonus to encourage the use of the keys.A common complaint from the homeless people whom I talked to was the fact that the program can dehumanize an individual. It also seemed to many of those whom I interviewed that the program was a waste, because for them all the key meant was that they were not given actual money to spend as they please. One older homeless gentleman became visibly angry when asked about the program. His clothes and hair were as haggard and dishevelled as society would expect from the homeless, but his speech and manner were that of any person his age. He explained that he feels “like a useless member of society having to beg for cash, and this program is just a slap in the face to us,” because “before I could at least go to the store and feel human.”

Trudy Turner of West End BIZ said that the program is meant to encourage the right kind of help, not prevent people from helping. “The reason that this program works is because the people that need the help, get the help,” she said. Getting a blue key instead of a toonie or $5 bill makes panhandling less lucrative a business for reasons other than desperate need, she added.

Turner also spoke of the importance of the list of the social agencies on the key, because it gives the individuals “who truly need the help somewhere to refer to.” It allows those in need to have a place to go and a reason for going there. She explained that even if the panhandler receives a $5 or $10 bill, and uses it to buy food or clothes, it still only helps for one day. Whereas if they use the key and go to a social service agency, there are people available who can help them in the long run.

Another problem with the program is encountered when the key is offered to the panhandler. In one instance, when I was handing out the keys in order to make conversation, one individual actually took the key out of his hat and threw it back, declaring that he had already had two given to him that morning, and that he didn’t need any more. He told me that I should give him money or go away. This is not an uncommon reaction, or an entirely unreasonable one, since many homeless people would rather have their autonomy and some means to exercise it than a blue key.

However, those who throw the key away also perpetuate the stereotype that the homeless are not looking for food, but money with which to feed their addictions. It is these people especially that the program is for.

The next day I bussed past the picket line again. They were still there in full force, and this time they were wearing orange, louder than ever. The car with the sign was there too. But the panhandler down the road was gone.

It could be concluded that the Blue Key program is a positive way to help a community that is in desperate need. However, this program is not the solution to the problem of homelessness. It is a stopgap, and one with serious drawbacks. It allows the public to be able to help the panhandlers without hurting them, but also without really recognizing their autonomy. It is important for society to remember that the panhandlers on the streets are people with needs and wants the same as the rest of us.