For Ashkan Sayyadi and Kristen Coutts, the decision to temporarily donate their downtown Toronto condo to a stranger — a frontline health-care worker — was an easy one.
"It kind of seemed like a no-brainer to at least have some sort of a positive impact...on people who are actually on the frontline and making a true difference," Sayyadi said. The couple recently handed over the keys to the condo they purchased in February to a doctor working at a Toronto hospital.
The COVID-19 pandemic which has devastated families across the country has seen many Ontarians lending a hand to their families, friends and complete strangers. This has included several people temporarily donating their homes or trailers to health-care workers looking to live away from their families to avoid potentially transmitting the virus to their loved ones.
Sayyadi and Coutts, both 32, are currently living at their residence in Whitby. Both were working in Toronto and had planned to live in the condo for a few months to enjoy a shorter commute before renting it out. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the disease started spreading across Ontario, the two decided to move back to their home in Whitby and offer their condo, free of charge, to a health-care worker.
"There are just so many people, frontline workers, those in grocery stores, transit, custodial staff...doing so much to impact COVID-19 directly and those who are helping," said Coutts, who was laid off from her previous role a few weeks ago because of COVID-19 but is now working again. "So while donating financially wasn’t necessarily the most feasible path for us, the small thing that we could do was offer up our place considering it was going to be empty, so that was just something that we thought we might be able to do as our small part during this time."
Not knowing frontline health-care workers themselves, the couple took to social media for help. They received at least around a dozen applications. The doctor they chose was concerned about treating COVID-19 patients and potentially passing on the virus to her infant or husband, Sayyadi said.
The doctor was commuting to Toronto each day and was working long stretches, Coutts added.
"The fact that she applied already told us — it’s an incredibly hard decision to be away from your baby and your partner," said Coutts. "It showed us her own sacrifice, not only being a frontline worker, but missing out on some of her child growing up, so to me it just showed that she really needed it."
The couple also set up a fundraising page, which has nearly reached $1,000, and said they plan to donate the money to an initiative trying to get more personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline workers.
"As a community, we’re literally all in this together and I think everyone wants this to be over as soon as possible, and the more we can collectively do as much as we can, as aggressively as we can, as early as we can, it just helps," he said. "If there were people who had excess capacity to be able to do things, we would love to see more of it...there is definitely no shortage of people who could benefit from it."
He said they've discovered many people "genuinely want to do more, they just don’t know how." For people who don't have access to PPE that they can donate, a resource that lists ways individuals can contribute to the fight against COVID-19 would "go a long way," Sayyadi said.
Coutts said she'd like to see more temporary housing being provided to frontline workers, such as in hotels. "At a government funding level, I think that would be a really great thing to be able to provide more housing for folks," she said.
The NDP has recently called on the Progressive Conservative government to provide all health-care workers with a "cost-free option" of a place to stay that is "organized and paid for by the province."
"We’re hearing from health care workers who are devastated at the very thought of going home after their shift because someone they love there is vulnerable," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in an April 9 statement. "If a health care worker or first responder has higher-risk people in their household, we need to help them keep their family safe."
Health Minister Christine Elliott's office noted the need for public hospitals to maximize their capacity to care for their communities and said the ministry is therefore allowing hospitals to "operate and use an institution, building or other premises" if certain conditions are met such as the hospital providing any information requested about the premises to the ministry.
"For example, this change could give hospitals the ability to increase their capacity by entering into contractual agreements with retirement homes, hotels and other buildings or facilities to house COVID-19 or general patients or to provide lodging for health care workers," wrote Elliott's spokesperson, Hayley Chazan, in an email.
CTV recently reported that Grand River Hospital in Kitchener was renting hotel rooms for its staff.
Meanwhile, some hours northeast of Toronto, Nancy FlemingKelly and Marty Kelly had a similar mindset as Sayyadi and Coutts and recently donated their trailer to a stranger in their community.
"Why wouldn’t we help her if we could," FlemingKelly said from her home between Richmond and Munster — small rural towns on the outskirts of Ottawa. The couple's family trailer, passed down from FlemingKelly's parents, is now sitting on the driveway of the home where Courtney Argue, a registered nurse at the Ottawa Hospital, and her mother stay.
Argue, 27, took to Facebook on March 26 to ask if community members had any camping supplies such as lights that they could part with for a fee. With her mother waiting for surgery and being "high risk," Argue was planning on "camping it out" in a garden shed beside her home.
"I’m rural, I’ve camped it out before, and when we were young we would sleep in the barn waiting for horses to foal...so (I thought) I can do it," she said.
Within two hours, Argue received an "overwhelming response." One of the people who reached out was Adam Kelly, who sent her a message and offered her his parents' trailer.
He "saw the post and he contacted me and said, 'Mom can we lend her our camper?' I said, 'Sure, I don’t have a problem with it,'" FlemingKelly said.
"I cried, it was just so overwhelming the support," said Argue. "I knew I had a great community, that really solidified just how great people are."
She offered to pay for the trailer, but said he "wouldn't take anything."
"We wouldn’t even think of asking her for money, it’s just the right thing to do," said FlemingKelly, adding that they'd let Argue keep the trailer for as long as she needed. "She doesn’t need to be bothered with paying money, she’s working hard. That’s not the point of lending her the camper — it wasn’t to make money, it was to make her life simpler."
"It was really humbling to know that complete strangers that I didn’t even know would offer me such significant help," said Argue. "It’s really amazing to know that people have your back whenever you’re in need."
On April 3, Marty and his son Adam delivered the propane-filled camper to Argue's home and it's where she's been staying ever since. The trailer has a queen-sized bed, a bathroom, a couch, and a small kitchen.
"It’s like living in a little miniature house; why wouldn’t you do something if you had one available if somebody is looking for a place to live? I’d like someone to help me in the same way," said FlemingKelly.
Argue has also extended their internet out to the trailer and her mother cooks for the two of them, leaving the food on the doorstep.
"Considering basically everyone in our society is making lifestyle changes, I can say this probably isn’t the most terrible lifestyle change considering people are having a lot of financial hardships and don’t know if they can even make their bills and have a roof over their head," she said.
On March 24, a few days before Argue posted the message on Facebook asking for supplies, she sent a text message to a local hairdresser, who was closing shop because of the COVID-19 crisis. Premier Doug Ford had announced the previous day that all non-essential workplaces in the province would have to close by the end of March 24 — this included hair salons.
"I’ve been saving for a house for five years now, so I have quite a bit of a downpayment and that’s when I offered her mine," said Argue. "I was really worried about her because she’s self-employed and she’s had that business since 1992. I figured that she might need the money more than me."
The owner of the hair salon took to Facebook expressing her gratitude to Argue, saying "it never ceases to amaze me how the community always comes together" and asking others to support their neighbours: "Please stop hoarding groceries, sanitary items...share...stop focusing on fear and start working together."
"She’s really supportive of our community and especially vulnerable populations, so I really thought it would be good to help her out as well," said Argue, adding that the salon owner has done much work with cancer patients to get wigs made and fitted and was very concerned about her clients who are seniors.
A post on the hair salon's Facebook page on March 30 made a plea to the public: "Please don't forget the seniors. They are all alone and some are scared. I’m making it my daily mission to give my senior clients a call to check in on them to make sure they are safe and or is in need of anything. Sometimes a little chat goes a long way."
"She has a lot of senior clients and she washes their hair for them and a lot of them use her for that mental health getaway," said Argue. "For her to put her worries aside and worry for other people, it’s amazing."
While she didn't accept the downpayment offer, Argue made sure she knew it was "always on the table should she need it."
For her part, when she's not working, Argue has made sure to do her own check-ins with people.
"Every week I make sure that I have my list of people and my key people that I want to keep an eye on," she said. "I’ve been reaching out to everyone weekly if I can and just sending a text message or putting a call in and saying, 'How are you doing?' Just checking in, making sure everyone’s OK, just the little things we do to make sure no one falls behind."
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