If you are being evicted from your home due to rent arrears from COVID-19 or other reasons. Then help is now available.

The Toronto Rent Bank provides limited, interest free, repayable loans to seniors, individuals and low income families facing imminent eviction.

The bank provides a maximum loan of two months’ rent. They also provide rental deposit loans to those who require first or last month rent to move to more affordable housing.

“Our Rent Bank program has been designed to help end the cycle of increasing poverty,” says Gladys Wong, executive director of Neighbourhood Information Post (NIP) a community group that started the Rent Bank last year. “We see clients in desperate situations and the idea is to prevent homelessness and keep families in housing.”

Wong says Toronto residents ‘need to know that help is available if they are experiencing difficulties in making rent payments.’

Rent Bank officials say applicants should demonstrate that they have exhausted all other means of financial assistance available to them before applying for a loan. All loans are to be paid back in monthly installments to a Rent Bank fund to help others.

The goal of the bank is to help residents preserve stable housing, which is free from rental arrears or risk of eviction and to improve their skills and confidence in managing their own finances.

The Rent Bank program is funded by the City of Toronto and is a collaboration between NIP and partner agencies citywide.

Also available is an Emergency Rental Deposit Loan, which provides an interest-free repayable loan for first and last months’ rent deposit to households where changes in economic situation necessitate a move to more affordable or stable housing.

Residents are eligible for the Rent Bank program if they live in Toronto, have legal status in Canada, a steady source of income, receive income through social assistance and can provide the necessary documentation.

Those who require help are asked to call the Rent Bank Central Office at 416-924-2543 to leave their name and phone number or send them an email at torontorentbank@nipost.org or visit their website at www.nipost.org

Members of the Tibetan community have banded together to make masks, headwear and deliver hundreds of meals to frontline workers fighting COVID-19.

Volunteers of the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre (TCCC), on Jutland Rd., have been busy making meals, face masks and headwear for community members and frontline workers.

TCCC President Tsering Wangyal says the centre has delivered almost 400 hot meals, consisting of dumplings and fruit, to frontline workers at St. Joe’s Health Centre and a long list of seniors and long-term centres and other places of need.

“The workers love our hot meals,” Wangyal says. “They know we appreciate all their hard work and that we are there to serve them a nice meal.”

The volunteers a couple nights ago served 85 meals to workers at a long-term facility on Dunn Ave., and will be feeding others at an East Mall home where seniors have died due to the pandemic.

The meals are pre-packed by volunteers and taken to a care facility, where workers in gloves and masks them inside for the workers.

He says female volunteers have been making masks and hats by the dozens for members of the community who require them.

“Every couple days we take them cloth and pick up bundles of masks,” Wangyal explains. “The masks are gone very quick.”

The goal of the TCCC is to help Tibetan immigrants adjust to the culture, heritage and lifestyle in Canada and to promote and foster Tibetan culture and art in the community. There are more than 8,000 Tibetan-Canadians living in Toronto.

Donations to help with the meals can be made at www.tcccgc.org  Cloth is also needed so the women can make more masks for the community and emergency workers.

Some Etobicoke volunteers have stepped up to the plate to offer a free grocery delivery service for high-risk seniors who are unable to leave their homes due to COVID-19.

FreeGroceryDeliveries.com is a service for seniors and disabled, who are immunocompromised, or differently abled, and aren’t able to leave their homes to get groceries due to the pandemic.

The volunteers pick up additional grocery order requests while shopping online for their own groceries, according to their website.

“They then proceed to deliver the groceries without charging a delivery fee,” the group says. “The goal is to encourage our volunteers to help their neighbours who may be considered high-risk during the COVID-19 crisis.”

The non-profit group say they’re giving back to the community since the provincial and municipal governments have asked seniors to quarantine themselves at this time.

They say the orders are made and paid for online and picked up from the stores by the volunteers, who then delivers the food to the homes of the seniors, with the appropriate bills. The volunteers are then repaid by cash, e-transfers or cheque.

The volunteers wear mask, gloves and take other health precautions.

The service has been getting good reviews with area resident Gerri McLangley writing; “They were so generous to my mother-in-law. So grateful.”

“That (service) is well-needed,” says Heather Currie. ‘Hope all goes well.”

Orders can be placed by email to freegrocerydeliveries@gmail.com or by calling 647 946 6670. Please leave your name and other information and a volunteer will reply back with order details and timeslot availability.

Working closer with communities during Police Week

National Police Week runs until Saturday as officers across the country focus on safety and helping their communities which are coping with the outbreak of COVID-19.

This year Police Week runs from May 10 to 16, with the theme; Leading the Way to Safer Communities, which focuses on the many ways that our police members help promote the safety and well-being of everyone in our communities.

Police Week began in 1970 as a way for police to connect with their communities and increase awareness about the services they provide. Community policing is at the heart of the week, and the week provides an opportunity for police and community members to get to know each other.

Also taking place is Canada Road Safety Week, which runs from May 18 to May 18, in which officers focus on the “Big 4” contributors to collisions that often cause injury to people and includes; speeding, aggressive driving, distracted and impaired driving.

Minutes after Road Safety Week was kicked off a driver was arrested by traffic officers racing down the Queen Elizabeth Way at 170 kmh. A learner was also arrested earlier this month for travelling at 308 kmh on the same road using his father’s car.

We are all being encouraged to step up our efforts to support our local businesses and shop locally.

Many small businesses owners in the community are breathing easier today that they can finally reopen their doors and offer their goods or services.

Many mom-and-pop businesses in Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, Alderwood, The Kingsway, Eatonville, Islington – City Centre West, Queensway Humber Bay and across Ontario are slowly reopening after shutting down for weeks, or in some cases more than a month, due to the spread of COVID-19.

Thousands of workers for the first time are returning to work in a bid by the Ontario government to reopen the economy and put the pandemic behind us.

“I never thought this day would come,” says an Alderwood store worker. “We haven’t worked in weeks and are behind in all our bills.”

All retail stores with a street entrance can begin offering curbside pickup and delivery, in addition to garden centres, hardware stores and safety supply stores, officials say.

Some residential construction projects have also been given the green light to continue while observing health guidelines.

And more enjoyable for many are the 500 Ontario parks and conservation areas which are open for day-use only, with no camping at this time. The remaining 115 parks will be open at the end of the week.

And it must be summer since the LCBO is extending its hours of business this week.

Officials are warning small businesses to utilize online payments like credit, debit or e-transfer; banning their customers from using their own containers, reusable bags or boxes; minimize the amount of time to receive the customer and complete the curbside transaction; control the loading of product into a customer’s vehicle where possible and pick up from trunk by customer and establish a clear designated pickup area and boundary.