By Christina Toth – Staff reporter

By allowing a dozen or so people to camp temporarily on an undeveloped city park – Compassion Camp – Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson has officially acknowledged his homeless constituents. By meeting with Fraser Valley Regional District mayors to seek workable solutions last week, and by having city staff meet with housing and homeless advocates, Ferguson and the other mayors are saying they have a responsibility to help the poorest of their residents. He is saying this is a community problem, not solely for provincial and federal governments.

What can we do to help the 430 or more people who are homeless? For starters we can turn up our compassion and turn down our fear – by several degrees. The “homeless” are not baby-eaters and monsters lurking in our backyards. We are talking about real people with heart and brains whose burdens have overwhelmed them. Their pain and shame is only deepened when you and I look down our noses at them and call them losers who have chosen this “lifestyle.”
Some may resort to petty crime, but let’s not forget there are criminals in every strata of society.

Now, let’s meet Diane. Four years ago she was a stay-at-home mom to three children and regularly volunteered at her kids’ school. Today, at 50, she sleeps in doorways when she’s used her 10-day-per-month limit at the Salvation Army emergency shelter. She says when her marriage fell apart, she hung out with her neighbours, who introduced her to crack cocaine. She began an eight-month “trip to hell,” and when it was over, her ex-husband had the kids and she lost all she had. Diane has been clean for more than two years but she can’t find her way home from the streets. “It’s very easy to fall, but it’s so hard to get back up,” she said. She hasn’t seen her children for a year. Her heart is breaking, but it’s not something she can talk about with her current friends. “Most of us are parents or grandparents, but we don’t talk about our kids. It’s a silent rule – it’s too heart-breaking.” Diane didn’t want her real name and photo used. “I don’t want my kids ashamed of their mom. Moms aren’t supposed to do things like this.” Huddled under a blanket the day I met her, worried about where she’d be sleeping that night, Diane never in her wildest dreams never thought she’d be homeless. “We used to be just like them,” she said, pointing up to the nearby houses.

Kevin Ellis, who sometimes stays at the camp, is wrapped up in a green sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable on two plastic chairs. The sleeping bag heaves with his breathing. Turns out he has COPD, or emphysema. He used to work at the Mission Raceway until the COPD sapped his strength. He can’t walk far. “Sometimes I fall asleep at the side of the road,” he said. “I get tired, I can’t help it. Then someone will call the cops on me.” Kevin has been homeless since Aug. 22, when he and 30 others were evicted from the Fraser Valley Inn. He stays at the Army’s shelter sometimes, but because he coughs so much, he says he’s also been asked to leave. The cough makes it difficult to share a place with someone. Kevin, 46, has spent two weeks on and off at the hospital recently. “I need an oxygen tank, but I can’t have one out here,” he said, labouring for breath. Is there enough warmth in his tent? “No, but I’ve got no choice, eh?”

James is a bright, articulate soul, a trained accountant and he lives in his car. Like Diane, he tumbled from middle-class comfort, in his case due to the depression that descended into his life and dissolved everything he had. Being homeless has given him a cruel insight to how our agencies and you and I treat the down and out. He shares his views and experience on his remarkable blog, www.homelessinabbotsford.com. To maintain some kind of balance, he volunteers at a local pool with special-needs kids on the weekends.

A few weeks ago Lawrence E. Smith hopped on a bus in Prince George and landed in Abbotsford without a penny. Lawrence, 59, had a head injury and was very much lost in the world. When he didn’t receive care at the local hospital, Compassion Camp resident Kerry Pakarinen took in “Yogi,” as he was nicknamed, fed him and sheltered him until he found some help from local churches. “Yogi” was put back on a bus to Prince George, where we presume his mental health workers have found secure housing for him.

Kerry, 44, was working and had an apartment until he broke his ankle while working as a construction labourer in winter. He has grown children in university. He didn’t want to talk about them, but did say rather proudly they are strong-willed and intelligent. Kerry has some problems: aches and pains, epilepsy and maybe the depression that dogs people who are homeless. But he has faith that God is helping out. “That’s why all of this is happening,” he said in reference to the community action plan for the homeless. Kerry took a risk exposing the camp. I asked him why he doesn’t just look after himself. “That wouldn’t be me. I enjoy giving a hand, I like to see people’s eyes light up when you help them.”