Save a life with safe housing #HousingNotMAID

This fundraiser is organized by the Well Earth Collaborative

 

We are seeking to help Denise*, a 31-year-old woman in Toronto, who urgently needs suitable housing.

 

Denise is disabled, with a diagnosis of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and spinal challenges that have her using a motorized mobility chair, as well as several other complex chronic medical conditions.

 

An excellent advocate for herself and her community, Denise has been actively seeking suitable housing (with air free of volatile organic compounds and chemicals from commonly used products, smoke and mould) for seven years, to no avail.

 

Unable to find suitable housing, she is now partway through the approval process to seek MAID, or medical assistance in dying.

 

We are seeking to raise $100,000 to help Denise rent/make a downpayment on an accessible and suitable stand-alone home in Toronto close to all the medical services she continues to need on a regular basis to manage her conditions.

 

We are deeply concerned that individuals like Denise, whose MCS is a recognized disability under the Canadian Human Rights Act, are being left with no option but to die to reduce suffering.

 

Individuals like Denise living with environmental sensitivities such as MCS experience debilitating symptoms across a range of organ systems when exposed to low levels of household chemicals. Free of such exposures, MCS individuals can live without symptoms and manage their disability.

 

In addition to collaborating with Denise, we are deeply alarmed at the structural lack of support (social services, housing, and the like) that is pushing people like Denise to consider MAID.

We resonate with David Onley's (former lieutenant governor of Ontario) statement published in the Hill Times that: 

“There are two forms of assistance in dying. One for medical reasons where the person has no chance of recovery, and is living in severe physical and psychological pain. .... As opposed to political assistance in dying, where the various politicians and various other people in the structure of government simply fail to do their jobs.”

https://www.hilltimes.com/2022/05/05/senate-maid-sponsor-very-troubled-by-reported-use-as-alternative-to-inadequate-social-services/360161 

We do not want Denise to have to become another statistic. We want to help provide her options to live her life as she chooses.

 

Please contribute and spread the word about this campaign.

 

#HousingNotMAID

 

*Not her real name in order to protect her identity.

 

https://www.wellearthcollaborative.com/site/home

Denise endorsed the idea of this campaign, and she will receive %100 of the donations and has full autonomy to make the best possible decisions for her about her housing and related futures.