When former Toronto metropolis councillor and MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti discovered himself in a homeless shelter final yr, it was a circumstance he by no means imagined he would face.
“What am I doing right here?” he remembered considering on his first evening there. “I by no means thought this could have occurred to me, nevertheless it occurred.”
Berardinetti, whose political profession spanned 30 years in Toronto’s east finish, has been residing 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 knowledgeable 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 grow to be homeless as nicely at some point. And lots of people are afraid of that.”
Lorenzo Berardinetti says he is been residing in a shelter in Ajax, Ont., since November 2023. However a web-based marketing campaign lately arrange by a former colleague has obtained hundreds of {dollars} in donations to assist him get again on his ft.
Lorenzo Berardinetti says he is been residing in a shelter in Ajax, Ont., since November 2023. However a web-based marketing campaign lately arrange by a former colleague has obtained hundreds of {dollars} in donations to assist him get again on his ft. (Michael Cole/CBC)
After the Ontario Chronicle first reported final month that Berardinetti had fallen on laborious occasions, 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 go away 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 any person who was very obsessed 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 occasions have been powerful.
Divorce adopted by unemployment, medical bother
A former practising lawyer, Berardinetti says he took a while off after his 2018 loss to consider what he wished 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 on the lookout for work, approaching 60, he mentioned it was more durable to seek 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 pressured him to cease on the lookout 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 residence 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 yr later, he tried a return to politics, working within the 2022 Toronto municipal election.
“I discovered that the power wasn’t there. It was laborious to mobilize, and so I did not win. And I utilized for various jobs, nevertheless it’s laborious at my age,” he mentioned.
Unemployed at a time when homelessness is on the rise in Toronto and the price of residing is forcing extra individuals to show to meals banks, no matter employment. Berardinetti mentioned he needed to promote his automobile to make ends meet.
He finally ran out of cash, he mentioned, and needed to transfer out of the home he was renting after his divorce. After a brief stint residing along 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 circled for Berardinetti in current weeks, bodily and financially.
Berardinetti mentioned his physician has cleared him to return to work and he goes to the library daily, working to resume his regulation licence, arrange his personal authorized follow and write a e book.
And after over a yr on Ontario’s housing record, he is taken himself off and can have the ability to 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 probably 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 totally different sides of the aisle, Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, Conservative MPP Lisa McLeod and Toronto councillors like Brad Bradford and Parthi Kandavel.
“It is very 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 nicely. So, compassion shouldn’t be owned by one get together.”
Berardinetti mentioned he plans to fulfill with an actual property agent this month.
