It was a weekend of bliss. Time with my daughter. Time in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Time to kick-back and just be.
It didn’t matter if it rained, or not. (It did both.)
It didn’t matter if we went to the Art Gallery or not (We didn’t.)
It didn’t matter what the weather or time, I got to spend time with a young woman who constantly amazes me with her beauty, wisdom, heart and soul. And I got to do it in a city I love!
What was different this time though, was my awareness of something that is missing from the streets of Calgary. Didn’t used to be — missing on our streets. In fact, it was the visibility of them that helped spur business and social agencies on towards the creation of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.
In Vancouver, panhandlers are everywhere. People holding signs and asking for money. People sitting with upturned hat by bus stops and subway exits. People lying under bridges sleeping. People lying in open doorways. People lying on sidewalks under cardboard boxes. They are everywhere.
And I felt my heart ache.
It was at one time the same here in Calgary. Panhandlers. People lying on park benches.
And then, people united and created a focus on building a path away from accepting it’s okay to have people, our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens’ panhandling and sleeping on our streets.
It’s not okay.
Not because it is ‘bad’ or makes me fearful, or makes me uncomfortable.
It’s not okay because it speaks to our acceptance of ‘us and them’ thinking. It’s not okay because making it okay means we believe there’s nothing we can do.
There’s lots we can do.
We can create better social assistance programs that help those with mental health issues live in community with dignity. We can provide better ‘basic needs’ funding to help families create well-being so that our youth can grow and thrive in our society.
We can, as they’ve done in Calgary, co-operate between agencies and emergency responders to build an infrastructure that respects the human being and works to provide the chronically homeless housing first solutions that give them the dignity they crave without having to jump through hoops first.
We can change our attitudes.
Recently, the Drop-In where I used to work, announced the purchase of a hotel. Their intent — to house 100+ clients in single room occupancy style accommodation. It’s a ‘pay for service’ model. Which means — these individuals will have jobs. They’ll be working.
What it doesn’t mean is they will not drink, or live their lives like monks. Like you. Like me. Like everyone, they too will be free to sit in their home and have a beer, or simply put their feet up and kick back with friends. Like you, me, everyone, they will have the choice of what to do with their leisure time.
These are not criminals. Nor are they animals. Yet, to read the media stories about how the community responded at the public meetings the DI held with the community, you would think a band of criminals was descending upon the community armed with ill-intentions and weapons of mass destruction.
Not so.
These are human beings like you and me and everyone. These are fellow citizens looking to get along, get by, get on with living their lives as best they can. Sure, they’re learned a lot on the road of hard knocks. They’ve fallen down. Many times. And every time they’ve fallen, the struggle to get back up has grown more daunting. Self-defeatism. Despair. Futility have all set in.
They’re not looking to break the law. Hell. If they were, they’d be taking it into their own hands and demanding justice!
They don’t have that kind of energy.
What each person looking to live in the DIs new facility has is a need to find some space of their own, a community where they feel accepted and part of ‘the whole’, and a bit of dignity to go along with the meager paycheque they earn through doing the jobs you and me and them over there don’t want to do. Jobs that keep the economic engines of our society running. Digging ditches. Pounding hammers. Moving boxes and pallets and rolling bins of products destined for the shelves of the stores where you and I go to buy the things we want because we can.
I saw many panhandlers on the weekend and was saddened. Not just by what is happening in their lives but rather, by one city’s lack of response to a crisis of the human kind.
Wake up Vancouver. You can do better than that! Wake up and take care of those who have fallen on your streets. For in their fall, we are all brought down to street level. And at that level, it’s hard to see blue skies when they break through the rains.
Dare Boldly 
Yes Vancouver can do better but so can many other places there are just so many cities around the world that do too little for their homeless……
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So true Jo-Anne — it requires all of us to commit and to urge our governments to turn up!
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I agree that everything that can be done for anyone who is suffering should be done. Of course, the most effective thing would be to explore deeply the reasons people end up this way, and address the root causes. Mental illness that leads to homelessness seems to me among the most difficult problems to solve. It seems like every person in this situation needs a team of people and a strong community infrastructure for them to have the support and help they need. Still, ifthese things are absent when an indivual is just walking by, giving them a little cash will probably help relieve immediate suffering.
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Beautiful words Carol. Thank you. Mental illness is a significant contributor to homelessness — and I am saddened by how we cannot do better for people who’s lives have been affected by MH issues. Working at a shelter it was apparent how many people suffered MH issues — and also — how many people have poor life/coping skills that are exacerbated by the condition called, ‘being homeless.’ It becomes a vicious circle. And yes, a little cash does relieve immediate suffering — but does nothing to build up a sense of worth, a sense that I can do something different today. That requires stability — and there’s no stability on the street. thanks again for commenting.
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I could wish our cities in the US did as much for their people as Calgary.
I’m in LA, and we have lots of street people too, some of whom are clearly mentally ill. Yes, we can’t fix everybody, and yes, even with the best of facilities and care, some people will want to live on the streets so the FBI or the little green men don’t get ’em. But we can do SO much better than we are doing.
Thanks for writing about this.
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Thank you for commenting Beverly — I am always in awe of our human spirit’s inherent desire to survive. yet, it is helping people move beyond ‘street survival’ to thriving that makes the biggest difference! And yes, Canada doesn’t have the same issues as the states. But then, our weather is much harsher! We can’t just let people freeze in the cold and often, that is the impetus — which at least gets us moving away from accepting people sleeping on our streets.
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I know what you mean when you say, they don’t have that kind of energy to break the law. We make so many assumptions in our life of privilege and never consider how draining it is to live on the edge. thank you for bringing our awareness to it. We need to respond. We have the energy!
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We do have the energy Jodi!!!! Thank you — I like how you put that, and that you too see how it’s not ‘choice’, it is the slow ebbing away of human spirit leading to an incapacity to make change happen in their own lives. Hugs
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I can attest to the love and respect given to those who found their way to the DI. We saw first hand how each human being felt worthy of a roof over their head, food in their belly and a loving arm placed around them. No questions asked, no judgement made. Bless all of them who extend that hand to another human being. I sense that Louise’s heart will always belong at the DI!! Hugs.
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Thank you lovely Bev. And yes, being at the DI softened my heart and expanded my perspective — as I tell people, regardless of all ‘the stuff’ that made it no longer possible for me to work there, being there made me a better human being.
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Sounds like delightfully regenerating time spent with a loved one.
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It was Fi! thanks š
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