Monday August 24, 10:30 am. The Good Neighbours’ Club on Jarvis is all decked out in preparation for a memorial for Paul Croutch, the homeless man beaten to death in 2005 at Moss Park by army reservists who’d had a few too many to drink.
Two cops on horseback in ceremonial garb form a tiny honour guard. The Salvation Army band is playing. A military piper is warming up across the street. A huge portrait of Croutch hangs outside Good Neighbours’ front wall.
Before the day is out, local pols in attendance, Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy and Councillor Paula Fletcher, will talk about the importance of renewing efforts to fight homelessness. Police chief Bill Blair will serve BBQ. A wreath will be laid by military reps at the ceremony and a plaque unveiled.
A touching tribute. An acknowledgement on some level, perhaps, that we all share the responsibility, as a city, as a society, for the death of Croutch.
But unlike so many other homeless men who die anonymously on the street every year, Croutch’s death was not one that could so easily be forgotten.
That he died, mercilessly kicked and beaten, at the hands of our men in uniform – they’re supposed to represent our finest – got the media’s attention.
The trial of the reservists charged and protests of housing advocates, helped keep Croutch’s death in the public eye. Croutch was a different kind of homeless victim for the press. The story of how he ended up on the street seemed to be more hard luck than hard core. Croutch wasn’t some strung out junkie who’s appetite for self-destruction led him to a life on the edge.
Croutch was a newspaper publisher of a small paper out west for a time, and showed some business acumen in the earlier part of his life, until the mental illness he suffered from began to get the better of him.
But what if Croutch hadn’t been the victim of exceptional circumstances? What if he had merely died from the cold, succumbed on that Moss Park bench to one of his many ailments, instead of caught by happenstance in the madness of drunken soldiers?
Would there have been a similar outpouring from officialdom? It’s doubtful.
For some housing activists, Monday’s memorial to Croutch, while appreciated, left a bitter aftertaste.
Despite the political promises, there is still no national housing strategy. Welfare rates, give or take a few dollars, are still hovering at mid-90s levels. For the homeless, times are only getting tougher.
The Safe Streets Act, the Harris-era law against aggressive panhandling, hasn’t been repealed. According to Street Health, more homeless people than ever are being fined by police for begging.
Shelters, meanwhile, are stuffed on the coldest nights to overflowing. The sad irony: Croutch preferred to sleep on the street because he believed shelters were unsafe.
Question is: would Croutch be alive today if he had housing? Chances are he may not have been on that park bench.[rssbreak]
