When former Toronto city councilor and MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti found himself in a homeless shelter last year, it was a situation he never imagined he would ever face.
“What am I doing here?” He remembered thinking about his first night there. “I never thought it would happen to me, but it did.”
Berardinetti, whose political career spanned 30 years in Toronto's east end, has been living out of an Ajax, Ont., shelter since August 2023 after a series of unemployment and medical problems.
He says he wasn't the only person there who came from a professional background, and the experience highlighted to him how unsafe life is for many in the Toronto area.
“A lot of people come up to me and say, 'Are you homeless?'” Berardinetti told CBC Toronto on Friday.
“They're worried that they might be homeless one day, too. And a lot of people are afraid of that.”
After the Toronto Star first reported last month that Berardinetti had fallen on hard times, Ontario politicians rallied to help.
Justin Van Dette, a former political staffer at Toronto City Hall and Queen's Park, was the first to jump into action.
First, he contacted the shelter in Ajax to leave a message for Berardinetti, who called back and allowed Van Dette to launch an online fundraising campaign to help rehabilitate him. Then, he reached out to former colleagues in the city and province.
“Everyone responded (saying), 'How can we help? We've lost track of him,'” Van Dette told CBC Radio. Metro morning Friday.
“To see someone who was so passionate about our city, who stood up for his constituents and residents, and to see that, where he's gone, was shocking and very troubling,” Van Dette said.
Berardinetti served as the Liberal MPP for Scarborough Southwest for 15 years, before he was defeated in the 2018 provincial election. Prior to that he served as a Toronto City Councilor and, before amalgamation, Scarborough City Councillor.
But since his time at Queen's Park, he says times have been tough.
Unemployment after divorce, medical problems
A former practicing lawyer, Berardinetti says he took some time to think about what he wanted to do after politics after his 2018 defeat.
Ontario MPPs do not receive pensions, and Berardinetti said he used a pension he received from Toronto City Hall to pay off his home mortgage. This meant he had to rely on his savings.
He said that after reaching the age of 60, when he started looking for work, it was difficult to find opportunities.
A divorce in 2019 set him back, he said, and he started eating more into his retirement savings. In 2021, he suffered a stroke that forced him to stop looking for work.
“I ended up in the hospital, and I was in a coma for about a month. And then I finally went home at the end of August 2021, and the doctors told me to rest, you know, it takes time for the brain to heal,” he said.
But a year later, he tried to return to politics, running in the 2022 Toronto municipal election.
“I found that the energy wasn't there. It was hard to mobilize, so I couldn't win. And I applied for different jobs, but it's hard at my age,” he said.
While homelessness is on the rise in Toronto, unemployment and the cost of living are forcing many people, regardless of employment, to turn to food banks. Berardinetti said he had to sell his car.
He eventually ran out of money, he said, and had to leave the house he rented after his divorce. After a short stay with his brother in Ajax, Berardinetti said he moved to a shelter in the city in November 2023.
Politicians from different backgrounds enter
Things have changed physically and financially for Berardinetti in recent weeks.
Berardinetti said his doctor has cleared him to return to work and he goes to the library every day, working to renew his law license, set up his own law practice and write a book.
And after more than a year on Ontario's housing list, he's gotten himself out and will be able to find new housing with the help of $25,000 raised through Van Dette's GoFundMe.
The campaign has raised more than $35,000, with donations coming from politicians across the ideological spectrum. But Van Dette says the extra money will be given to the Association of Former MPs to set up a trust to help other politicians struggling after retirement.
Politicians from all backgrounds contributed to the campaign, including former mayor John Tory, former premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, Conservative MPP Lisa McLeod and Toronto councilors such as Brad Bradford and Parthy Kandwell.
“It's very humbling,” Berardinetti said. “The guy I lost to was a Conservative (Dan Newman). He donated. And the woman who defeated me, who was NDP (Dolly Begum), also donated. So, mercy is not owned by a party.”
Berardinetti said he plans to meet with a real estate agent this month.
