Old man evicted on dubious principles dies

Al Gosling came home to his bachelor apartment to find that the locks have been changed, and that he was no longer a tenant. He slept under the stairs of the building he called his home for a week until he was picked up by a shelter. It was there that it was thought that he got an infection, which led him to a clinic, then a hospital bed, and then finally a grave. He was 82. Would he have died like this had he not been evicted by the TCHC? And what of the other tenants in his building that also had special needs? Would they meet a similar fate?

According to the TCHC, Al had failed to fill out his annual declaration of income that was required if your rent was geared toward income. Was is truly fair of the TCHC to evict an elderly citizen with special needs on something as simple as failing to declare income? The truth is, that if many people are responsible for a problem, nobody is responsible. And nothing is solved by kicking an old man out onto the street. The TCHC should have taken action instead of allowing Al to be kicked out to review the situation and see if something other than the usual course of action must be done. If nothing is done, thousands of other potential Al Goslings could be kicked out of their homes every month, and all potentially reach a similar fate.


Article Courtesy of The Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/709181--one-old-man-died-shame-on-us