A local pastor and business owner is sounding the alarm after taking a hard look at poverty in downtown Thorold, and calls for community action to help transition the area out of social inequality that he says is hiding in plain sight.
Terence Schilstra, who also serves as co-chair with community group One Thorold, held a presentation about the situation through Thorold Public Library on Tuesday night, describing how downtown Thorold has transitioned from a once prosperous banking centre serving the rapidly expanding paper industry, to a part of the city under heavy economical and social strain, with low academic success and a raging need for supportive housing.
“I have a lot of respect for the restoration that has happened in downtown, but the city is far from a place of affluence that it once was,” Schilstra said in his opening comments.
“On the rears of these beautiful old structures sit low-income housing, buildings bustling, not with people or commerce, but with darkness.”
That darkness, said Schilstra, presented itself unexpectedly, as him and his wife considered buying a downtown residence and went for a viewing.
“We had looked at a house right on the main drag, and it was really nice. But then we went inside and the first thing we saw was that the kitchen was covered in food and garbage, the stove had food caked on to it, people were laying on thin mattresses on the ground, on drugs. The bathroom was in horrible state. We walked out, and actually started crying with the real estate agent. We could just not believe the state people live in right under our noses.”
“I pass by that house every day.”
In his observational community analysis - one of several that Schilstra has conducted in southern Ontario towns - Schilstra also takes note of the low school results in downtown Thorold schools, which in one case has 25 percent of its students not graduating in the spring.
“Every spring, a quarter of the students will leave the school, because their families have been evicted. Then they gain them back again, because other people have moved into the neighbourhood. Presently, it is my contention that we see more scholastic poverty than progress. I would suggest that there is a correlation between job-loss, poverty, hunger and bad grades. According to a report from the Niagara Region, food insecurity and income are closely linked. Children who are experiencing hunger are more likely to have memory- and concentrations issues.”
A clear example of the effects on local children, Schilstra said, came about when he walked down a local alley and saw a familiar face in a parked car; a eight-year-old boy.
“I came to know him from volunteering at his school, and asked him what he was doing there. He said his dad was up in one of the buildings, buying drugs. The boy said that, straight out. He told me it was his birthday, and the dad had no money to buy him a gift,” Schilstra recalled.
“All of a sudden it made sense why this boy sometimes would come to school and wasn’t able to concentrate or be quiet. It was like being hit with a weight.”
While being careful to not point out specific locations to avoid stigmatisation, Schilstra says he isn’t making things up.
“Some would say that this is a dystopian view, and that I’m exaggerating. I would say instead, that what I have done is that I have defined some of the hard realities of downtown Thorold for the reason of meaningful engagement.
The engagement presently has a hoist of local communtiy stakeholders coming together through One Thorold, with its sub-committee dedicated to housing, and currently scouring the lands for a suitable place to build up to 40 supportive housing units.
But it is among community members that a real difference can be made through neighbourly interaction.
“It has been proven throughout history that the art of neighbouring and caring for neighbours are one of the most effective ways to engage with communtiy needs.”
How to do it? It doesn’t have to be complicated, says Schilstra.
“Just going over, saying hello and offering to help with the driveway, lawn mover, or just share a cup of coffee on the lawn in front of the house. To practice the art of neighbouring is one of the most impactful ways we can contribute to the positive transformation of our communtiy.”
Learn more about One Thorold and its work promoting neighbourhood hubs here.