Thread by @ThisCrazyTrain

I spent the day today with my best friend of 15 years at her home in Hamilton. Anyone who thinks subsidized housing via #OntarioWorks is living in luxury wouldn't last a day with what she puts up with.

So let's talk about living on the "dole" @fordnation. My friend left an abusive relationship in 2015 with just the clothes on her back and her two girls. She spent 45 days in a shelter before getting housing. She had $681.00 a month to run a household. Groceries ate up a third.

She tried the infamous conservative tuna diet and made use of food banks that you love to take photo ops at each food holiday to remind us all you only give a damn about the poor three times a year. It was awful. Her kids won't touch tuna anymore. It makes them nauseated.

It's impossible to find fresh meat, fruit, eggs and dairy at food banks. So you can imagine the kind of diet one has to adapt to. Anything canned, packaged or wrapped is high in sodium. The variety isn't great and sometimes you'll score a bag of spuds, but it's rare.

However, it's the housing I want to tell you about. Today I redid the venting for the dryer; retiled and caulked a portion of a shower wall; cleaned duct work, filled outside cracks with expandable foam and tried to repair a short in the fridge (no dice).

These are all things that work orders were put in for. Instead, my friend got a letter asking for a review of her financial situation because she picked up some work as a stepping stone to a F/T job. Instead, she quit because it meant a clawback and she wouldn't be able to eat.

So she's back on the "dole" because trying to train for work means being unable to feed herself to ensure her girls' needs are met. Her townhouse is in such disrepair that it was all I could do to not pack her family up and move her in with me.

The leaking roof is the worse part. There's no attic access so no way to see if it can be repaired from the inside. Her daughter's bedroom is uninhabitable right now. A bucket keeps the situation at bay. I have a roofer who is able to come to look at it. This is a year old issue.

My friend is also trying to finish university but constantly having to prove she's poor so she can just not be homeless stresses her out and it's taken her almost fives years to complete her course. You see, OW makes it almost impossible to get off the "dole".

She eventually qualified for the universal basic income program and was one year from graduating and landing a possible job being held for her when you decided the cut the program. Having that money meant she could work on herself and not stress about clothing and dental bills.

It's not just you but every government before you who has never really cared about those in these programs (the Liberals under Wynne tried to). All you've done, along with your caucus, is intimidate the poor insisting they don't work or are lazy. I personally don't see it.

I don't have the answers for how to fix this but I think if you spent more time talking to people on OW and less time complaining about a labour shortage, you'd probably find the answer right under your nose. I am truly disgusted by how the ON gov treats people on ODSP and OW.

@MarcScottEmery Because you think we offer a generous welfare system, I challenge you to meet people in the system and talk to them. They are good people. Single moms and dads. Immigrants. Born Canadians. Not everyone has been as privileged as you to have never needed a hand.

To anyone who got this far in the the thread I wrote these tweets when I got home last night which was already Saturday morning. I am still upset by what I saw.

Thank you to everyone for all the retweets and offers of help. You never know when you might need help one day or find yourself on one of these programs. We're all humans and we need to look out for each other.