Matt Racicot deposits his donation to Ottawa’s homeless in one of the city’s kindness meters in the Byward Market.
The City of Ottawa decided to cut a cheque to local charities a day after realizing that none of the money donated to its kindness meters had been distributed. A miscommunication between the mayor’s office and city staff prevented the funds from being distributed, said the mayor’s spokesperson Pat Uguccioni.
“They’re going to get the money ASAP, it was just held up in a bit of a miscommunication,” said Uguccioni.
Initially the money was going to be transferred during an official ceremony with the charities and mayor in attendance, he said.
But the ceremony was never organized because David Gibbons, the mayor’s assistant responsible for the project, had been sick for six weeks and the project was “lost in the shuffle,” said Uguccioni.
“It’s just one of the files that got lost in the fact that (Gibbons) was away and we didn’t check up on it,” he said.
March 4, a day after learning that none of the money had reached the charities, the mayor’s office told city staff to give the money immediately instead of waiting for a ceremony, said Uguccioni in an interview with Centretown News.
Around $1,500 has been collected since the kindness meter program was launched by Mayor Larry O’Brien last December. The six refurbished parking meters are intended to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers, and the money collected is then meant to be donated to charities that help Ottawa’s homeless.
In an earlier interview, Uguccioni said he was not aware that the donated money had not reached the service agencies.
He added that he found this surprising since the mayor recently participated in an event with some of the charities that were named as benefactors of the program and they did not mention that they were still waiting for the money.
Allan Moscovitch, a social work professor from Carleton University, said this type of bureaucratic confusion shows that the kindness meters are not helpful.
“If you want to donate money to help people who are on the street, you can send a cheque or some cash or just walk into the Shepherds of Good Hope,” he said. “It seems to me that the kindness meter is a pretty poor alternative.”
Joanne MacGregor, the manager of youth services with Operation Go Home, said her group is slated to receive money from the kindness meters.
She said she supports the idea behind the program, but the delay in transferring the money is evidence that the project’s organizers need to improve co-ordination and communication.
“It seems to me like a lot of effort for very little pay,” she said.
The cheque was issued March 5 to the Downtown Ottawa Coalition for a Safe Community, but the money would not be distributed until after the group meets this week, said the coalition’s chair Gord Diamond.
Diamond said the donations will be divided amongst the Ottawa Mission, the Shepherds of Good Hope, the Salvation Army, Operation Go Home and the Ottawa branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Despite this delay, both Uguccioni and Diamond said the project has been successful, and they both expressed optimism for the kindness meter program.
“We’d like people to give money to these service agencies, not to the people panhandling on the street because it goes straight to drugs and alcohol,” said Diamond.
But Moscovitch said the kindness meters are not the answer to fighting substance abuse.
“It’s just one of those little tiny gestures that I suppose Larry O’Brien thinks is a substitute for actually doing something,” said Moscovitch. “If you’re really concerned, put substantial resources into providing housing, support services, and rehabilitation services for people who are on the street."