Discourse: The Politics of Home Care: Where Is Home"?

Abstract

What might be the meaning of home care for Bryan? Bryan's situation is by no means unique. As the health-care reform movement has gained momentum, and as the drive towards home-care management has accelerated, homelessness and poverty have become realities in the lives of many. An October 1997 headline in the Globe and Mail read, "Shelters running out of space: Warning sounded as winter looms." That same year, it was estimated that about 5,350 people in Toronto slept in shelters each night, compared to about 3,970 the year before. And the newspaper article reported that it was not only single men who faced homelessness; shelters for women and children were also full (Matas & Philp, 1997). The crisis of homelessness reflects, among other social issues, a rise in urban poverty. Lee (2000), "using data from the 1996 Census and Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-offs to measure poverty," found that between 1990 and 1995, poor populations in metropolitan areas grew by 33.8%, far outstripping population growth (6.9%) for the same time period (p. xv). Moreover, "certain population groups were more likely than others to be poor. The average poverty rate among all city