When former Toronto metropolis councillor and MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti discovered himself in a homeless shelter final 12 months, it was a circumstance he by no means imagined he would face.
“What am I doing right here?” he remembered considering on his first night time there. “I by no means thought this is able to have occurred to me, but it surely occurred.”
Berardinetti, whose political profession spanned 30 years in Toronto’s east finish, has been dwelling out of the Ajax, Ont., shelter since August 2023 following a bout of unemployment and a collection of medical points.
He says he wasn’t the one individual there who got here from an expert background, and the expertise highlighted to him how precarious life within the Toronto space is for thus many.
“Lots of people come as much as me and say, ‘You are homeless?'” Berardinetti advised CBC Toronto Friday.
“They’re involved they could develop into homeless as effectively at some point. And lots of people are afraid of that.”
After the Toronto Star first reported final month that Berardinetti had fallen on onerous instances, Ontario politicians rallied to assist.
Justin Van Dette, a former political staffer at Toronto metropolis corridor and Queen’s Park, was the primary to leap into motion.
First, he contacted the shelter in Ajax to depart a message for Berardinetti, who referred to as again and gave his permission for Van Dette to start out a web-based fundraising marketing campaign to assist get him rehoused. Then, he reached out to former colleagues on the metropolis and province.
“All people who responded [said], ‘How can we assist? We have misplaced observe of him,'” Van Dette advised CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Friday.
“Seeing anyone who was very captivated with our metropolis, who stood up for his constituents and residents, and to see that, the place he has gone since then, was surprising and really troubling,” Van Dette mentioned.
Berardinetti served 15 years as a Liberal MPP for Scarborough Southwest, earlier than he was defeated within the 2018 provincial election. Earlier than that he served as a Toronto metropolis councillor and, earlier than amalgamation, a Scarborough metropolis councillor.
However since his time at Queen’s Park, he says instances have been powerful.
Divorce adopted by unemployment, medical hassle
A former practising lawyer, Berardinetti says he took a while off after his 2018 loss to consider what he needed to do after politics.
Ontario MPPs do not obtain a pension, and Berardinetti mentioned he used the pension he obtained from Toronto Metropolis Corridor to pay down a mortgage on his home. That meant he started to depend on his financial savings.
When he began searching for work, approaching 60, he mentioned it was tougher to search out alternatives.
A divorce in 2019 set him again, he mentioned, and he started to eat additional into his retirement financial savings. In 2021, he had a mind seizure that compelled him to cease searching for work.
“I ended up within the hospital, and I used to be in a coma for a few month. After which I ultimately went dwelling on the finish of August 2021, and the medical doctors advised me to relaxation, you already know, the mind takes time to heal,” he mentioned.
However a 12 months later, he tried a return to politics, operating within the 2022 Toronto municipal election.
“I discovered that the vitality wasn’t there. It was onerous to mobilize, and so I did not win. And I utilized for various jobs, but it surely’s onerous at my age,” he mentioned.
Unemployed at a time when homelessness is on the rise in Toronto and the price of dwelling is forcing extra individuals to show to meals banks, no matter employment. Berardinetti mentioned he needed to promote his automotive to make ends meet.
He ultimately ran out of cash, he mentioned, and needed to transfer out of the home he was renting after his divorce. After a brief stint dwelling together with his brother in Ajax, Berardinetti mentioned he moved right into a shelter on the town in November of 2023.
Politicians of various backgrounds pitch in
Issues have rotated for Berardinetti in latest weeks, bodily and financially.
Berardinetti mentioned his physician has cleared him to return to work and he goes to the library on daily basis, working to resume his legislation licence, arrange his personal authorized observe and write a guide.
And after over a 12 months on Ontario’s housing listing, he is taken himself off and can be capable of search for new lodging with the assistance of the $25,000 raised via Van Dette’s GoFundMe.
The marketing campaign has raised over $35,000, with donations coming from politicians from throughout the ideological spectrum. However Van Dette says the additional cash will likely be given to the Affiliation of Former Parliamentarians to arrange a belief to assist different politicians struggling after retirement.
Politicians from all backgrounds contributed to the marketing campaign, together with former mayor John Tory, former premiers from completely different sides of the aisle, Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, Conservative MPP Lisa McLeod and Toronto councillors like Brad Bradford and Parthi Kandavel.
“It’s totally humbling,” Berardinetti mentioned. “The man that I defeated was a Conservative [Dan Newman]. He donated. And the girl who defeated me, who was NDP [Doly Begum], she donated as effectively. So, compassion shouldn’t be owned by one social gathering.”
Berardinetti mentioned he plans to fulfill with an actual property agent this month.
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