Managing crisis and living in crisis: health & place, what separation? A holistic view of the community environment at Sherbourne and Dundas

A person’s environment greatly influences and informs their emotional health, wellbeing and ability to live with dignity and express agency. The Sherbourne and Dundas neighborhood presents a matrix of spaces entrenched with high levels of violence, incivilities and public health hazards. Currently, there are numerous institutions working within and surrounding this community all with a mandate to support the vulnerable and stigmatized who live here yet to date has not been actualized on any level at Sherbourne and Dundas. The environmental living conditions for the neighborhood and the participants of this study are quickly deteriorating putting everyone within and surrounding the area at increased risk Findings of this narrative study with three residents indicate that there to be a stronger balance between community and service user voice in developing and informing programming as well at determining who occupies space in their environment as ‘helpers ’and other structural and systemic representations which yield a great amount of power as brokers in this marginalized and vulnerable neighbourhood space. In doing so this community would be able to hold power accountable in this environment, disrupt the hybridization of institutionalization that is in effect in this space.