Category Archives: Homeless

Addiction, Caveat emptor, Consider, Issues

Bacons and the drug war.

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Listening to the news coverage of the arrest and murder charges against a Bacon brother I was left shaking my head.

What had me shaking my head was the implication and statements in the report that this was somehow a major success in the drug war in the lower mainland – it wasn’t.

It was a success the legal system and the family of the innocent people killed in that Surrey condo. An extremely expensive “success” that requires millions of dollars more to carry through and attain convictions.

Leaving one to ponder just how many more of these multi-millions of dollars “successes” we can afford and how are we going to pay for them?

But in terms of the drug war in the lower mainland the only real effect it will have is to change some of the players. Reality: even if the police went out and arrested and jailed everyone in the illegal drug business in the lower mainland right now, in a matter of hours people would be stepping in to take advantage of the lucrative employment opportunities in the drug business, in days the business would be flourishing again with a new cast of characters and be back to “fully staffed” in short order thereafter.

The drug trade sings its siren song of impossible promises of pleasure in the same manner as politicians and governments make impossible promises and when reality turns out to be something quite different it is the victims of the promises who suffer the consequences. When circumstances intervene to remove players through arrests or election losses the players are simply replaced by others.

As is the case in government we will have no effect on changing behaviours in the drug business until such time as citizens accept the reality of these businesses and choose to change our behaviours in order to bring about changes that will produce the positive outcomes we want – good government and taking the billion dollar profits and violence out of the drug trade.

Until such time we as citizens are willing to change our behaviours, rather than continuing to make the same choices and employ the same behaviours hoping that this time things will turn out differently (which is insane), we are going to keep on getting the same pointless and unacceptable results.

The difference at this point in history, as opposed to our past, is that Canada can no longer afford this type of behaviour. Economic, environmental and social systems no longer have any slack or fat in the systems. Every dollar wasted in programs and policies that do not achieve positive outcomes inflicts damage, pain, suffering and negative consequences on a wide range of Canadians and Canadian society.

Government or the illegal drug business: Canada cannot any longer afford to merely change the cast of characters. We have to think, think, and think. Then make the difficult choices that, while we may wish we did not have to make them, reflect the real world we live in and will affect positive results and a bright future for all Canadians – not just the privileged few.

We have squandered our easy choices on ineffective behaviour and as a result have left ourselves having to make hard choices if we want to remain Canadians and a Canada that makes us proud to declare “I AM Canadian.”

Consider, Issues

Wellness should not depend on Luck

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I get interesting email ideas and questions from students spanning grade school to university about homelessness, addiction and mental health. This is due to the fact that if you google Abbotsford and homelessness, at or near the top of the results is homelessinabbotsford.com with its email link to me.

In recent weeks I had spoken to several university students doing papers for their classes with questions on homelessness, addiction, mental health, the current system and what I would do to end homelessness and address addiction and mental health.

One comment I made to all the inquirers was that if you set out to deliberately design a system to not only keep people down but to beat them down, frustrate their efforts to get back on their feet and strip them of self esteem – it would look pretty much like our current system.

In a twisted quirk of fate I am, as I write this, currently living one of the (many) nightmares that those on the Ministry of Housing and Income Assistance disability constantly live with as we struggle to rebuild our lives.

At $375 per month the rent portion of welfare is ridiculously inadequate. It takes the $375 plus all, nearly all or more than all of the $235 ($282 on disability) monthly living allowance to pay the rent for a safe, healthy home environment.

Yes one can find places cheaper but those places are neither safe nor healthy. When you are working on recovery and wellness a home space that is both healthy and safe is vital.

I have watched people who were honestly struggling to find and stay in recovery and wellness, have their efforts destroyed by being forced to live in unhealthy and unsafe housing. This is one of the reasons I say that it is as if the system is designed to break people down and keep them down.

I feel so strongly about the importance of environment to wellness and recovery that when I had to move out of the supported independent living spot I was in I chose to move back into my car for the two additional months it took me to find a safe and healthy place. A place I have been in for near a year and a half and that supports my continued recovery and staying in wellness.

Given that my life is still moving forward in a positive manner the decision to live in my car for those two months, while an inconvenience, was the right decision for my recovery and wellness.

I said additional months because I had spent the two months before I had to move out searching for someplace to move into. When a place I judged acceptable for pursuit of recovery and wellness failed to be found I moved into my car rather than become another victim of being forced into an unhealthy environment.

Four months. It took me four months to find my place and I have a large network of people and contacts that were helping me look. Indeed, it was one of these people who not only found my place but whose landlord recommended me to my landlord.

One of the problems of having found oneself homeless is that you do not have a ready current reference for yourself as a tenant. Couple the lack of references with the prejudice that is attached to the term homeless and the problem is not only finding housing but being accepted as a tenant.

Given the rent levels in Abbotsford and the problems that simply being homeless causes in being accepted as a tenant it is far harder for the homeless to find safe, healthy housing that most people realize it is.

Safe, healthy affordable housing is a scarce precious commodity that is an integral part of wellness and recovery. The community of Abbotsford must demand that governments at all levels, municipal, provincial and federal, make a priority of bringing into being the hundreds of units of this type of housing desperately needed in our community.

Losing safe, healthy affordable housing and ending up homeless and on the streets again is mentally and emotionally devastating.

My monthly cheque covers my rent. Now fortunately being on disability I am allowed to earn up to an additional $500 a month. Phone, insurance, gas, internet, pool pass, old debt repayment and office supplies leaves me with a surplus of $20 – $30 a month as long as gas stays under $1 per litre. As it rises above that $1 level money gets tighter and tighter for me as it does for most people.

And no the pool pass is not a luxury. Swimming is, for me, the difference between walking and not walking; for being able to get out and accomplish things relatively pain free and being confined to bed where simply getting up and going to the bathroom leaves me covered in a cold sweat from agonizing back pain. Swimming keeps my back and back muscles in shape so that most days I am mobile and the pain level is such that I can live and deal with it.

I still cannot fathom how it is that Income Assistance does not consider a phone a necessity if one is going to find a job or simply for emergency use.

Not only does my budget not contain money for food, there is also no money to put away for those emergencies life throws at us such as car repairs or any other of the many somethings that require money to address. Honesty requires me to admit that using a change jar over the past 18 months did allow me to save up the $100 I recently had to spend on a new car battery.

A belt on my car broke. Now a broken belt is an annoyance but at $23.42 falls within the discretionary spending limits of my budget.

Unfortunately, shortly after installing the new belt the real problem announced itself with a horrific squeal and the engine temperature gauge soaring.

I was afraid it was the water pump which would be the end of the car because there was no way I could afford the cost of the repair and where would I find another $100 car that was as reliable as mine had proved to be for the past 18 months?

Sitting there with my anxiety threatening to turn into a full blown panic attack the ringing of my phone was a lifeline of a distraction. The friend who had helped install the new belt in the parking lot of Canadian Tire called to see how it was working. When I related the new belt had been eaten by the engine and that I had concluded it was the water pump and a disaster as I had never had an alternator that needed replacing seize. “Oh no it could be the alternator” he said.

A trip to the car revealed the water pump turned fine but the alternator stuck and when it turned you could hear the bearings grind. The pulley wheel on the alternator also had a large lump of melted belt material on it.

Hmmm. Not a total disaster then as an alternator is a cheaper repair still….
That is cheap in auto repair terms which in the case of an alternator range $190 – $350, depending on finding an appropriate rebuilt alternator or being forced to buy new.

Even at best case scenario of $190 that $190 has to come out of my budget someplace. Rent must be paid. Insurance comes out of the bank automatically. I have to swim to walk.

I can minimize my driving by not attending any of the committees, meetings or board meetings I participate or am a member of. Such actions would be extremely unhealthy to take from the mental health aspect of my life and would have consequences for others and the community as a whole.

Even cutting back gas it would still require not paying other bills in order to have the cash to pay for repairs.

This is why a car repair or any emergency that requires as little as $200 is one of the nightmares those on limited incomes live with as a day to day reality.

You get behind and you have started down the slippery slope that leads to homelessness, where even the $23.42 cost for an engine belt is now a problem pushing you out the door and onto the streets.

It is a nightmare you live with because even if you have been fortunate enough not to have been down this path to the streets (and I have been down that path) you know people who have been; know people currently in this or a similar situation who are struggling to stay off the streets.

A possible reality that gnaws at you day after day, undermining you mental health, until and unless you learn to accept that there is nothing you can do about it except let it go and focus on wellness and recovery.

Until the laws of probability catch you and you are face to face with such an emergency. At which point any gnawing worries are lost in the face of anxiety, panic attacks, depression, agoraphobia and the possibility of homelessness.

Your life implodes, mental health wellness and recovery disappears into the black pit you mind becomes and you are back on the streets struggling to survive – never mind get well or into housing.

This is why I have a WRAP plan; a Wellness Recovery Action Plan. When the *bleep* hits the fan and you are staring at the black abyss of plunging back into the dark depths of your mental illness; when your brain is heading so far into overdrive that rational thought is beyond you; when your thoughts are racing at the speed of light in endless circle; you can pull out your emergency sanity kit and break out of the downward spiral.

Forget base jumping or bungee jumping for shear heart pounding terror there is nothing like teetering on the edge of madness looking down into the abyss.

Which is where I found myself the other day and the fact that I managed to back away from the edge is why I find WRAP an invaluable tool of recovery and mental health.

It was by following my WRAP plan, that when it developed that an alternator for a 1987 Plymouth Turismo of the subspecies Duster is a rare bird meaning that I was facing putting a new alternator in, I dealt with it.

While I do not know all the details of the final outcome of this matter as I write this, I am calm about the matter. Mainly because as far as my mind is concerned the matter is dealt with since it is in the hands of competent and good people and the little hiccup, the weekend delay in not getting it resolved until Monday, is neither here nor there.

Little hiccup? There was only one alternator in the warehouse and when it was installed and tested it was found to be faulty. Getting a replacement in will take several days, hence the delay until Monday in getting my car back.

When the fine gentleman responsible for the repair apologized for the problem I told him I considered it an inconsequential minor inconvenience and I was just truly grateful that the matter was, to all intents and purposes, resolved. That having the matter resolved allowed me to find my serenity and that was the important concern for me.

Sitting here typing this I am calm and relatively serine because of having a WRAP plan. I facilitate WRAP groups to “pass on” to others the boon that I have found in the plan.

I say relative serenity because, as I shared with a friend, I was and am most fortunate to have people to reach out to who could and did help me out on the matter of the alternator. Thank you seems so inadequate to express the immense gift they have given me. This is not the type of gift you can repay, but you can pass it on to others.

But what about those others? I had and have people I could reach out to for help dealing with my car problems. Our current assistance system is loaded with people dealing with the same financial reality, the same grinding poverty, that live with. What happens to those people when one of their financial nightmares occurs?

Without help my most viable option would be standing on the street somewhere with a sign asking for donations to repair the alternator, the brake pads and rotors or deal with whatever small disaster needs a relatively small amount of cash to deal with it. My $200 share of the repair may yet find me out there with a sign.

Standing there humiliated and knowing that most people think it is money just for drugs (admittedly often the case) but having no other choice but to swallow your pride and beg.

As I said the system beats you down and strips you of any self-esteem.

The soul devouring reality of disaster being one small emergency away is a fact of life for all those without supporters to whom they can reach out and ask for help.

My luck is not the type that is going to win me the 6-49 millions; my luck is the more valuable type that has put people who will help me over the rough spots into my life.

Luck is not what a persons wellness, recovery and future should depend on and any system were a person’s wellness, recovery and future depends on luck is in need of serious change.

Thanks

Blessings

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Climbing out of the car into the brisk cold of the evening air served as a crisp reminder that it has been an unusually snowy and cold winter.

As a result of the snow and cold the extreme weather protocols for the opening of extra beds for the homeless have been in effect most nights since the beginning of December.

The consequence for the local churches that signed on to provide extra beds in December (Grace Church), January (Seven Oaks Alliance) and February (Emmanuel Mennonite Church) was the need to be open most of the nights in the month they were covering. These churches have also stepped in to provide beds for our continued unseasonable weather this March.

Thank you, it was and is much appreciated.

A Thank You needs also be extended to Faith Bible Church and all the volunteers who stepped in to provide a sheltered place for the Thursday night barbeque to be held. Shiver. A very warm Thank You.

Again Thank you, it was and is much appreciated.

Then there is Pastor Andy Kwak and his magnificent Sunday Brunch together with the usual suspects: the folks of the Calvin Tuesday dinner, the FVCC with music and a meal on Friday night, the good people of the Sunday blue bus and the ever popular pancake breakfast at the APA.

Thank You all.

Issues, Municipal

“The right thing to do”? I don’t think so.

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On the front page of Tuesday March 10’s Abbotsford Times (story below) there was a picture of the City’s latest homeless victim and a story mindlessly parroting the City’s media spin, but there was no comment from the City’s victim himself nor were any of the obvious questions asked of the Orwellian horde from the City.

“This is an individual who very clearly needs help.” So they ‘helped’ him by destroying his home leaving him out on the streets with the clothes on his back facing a night that the weather reports called for snow and a string of subzero temperature days and nights. Then claim “This was the right thing to do.” No it was not – if you treated a dog that way the SPCA would be hauling you into court.

For the record: the City was informed that this individual was not ready to come inside and would relocate to another camp site if displaced – no matter how life threatening the weather was.

I had spoken to the victim Friday to enquire as to whether there was something I could do to help ensure his survival. I spoke to him again on Tuesday because I felt it only fair to get his input before I wrote about the reality, not the City’s spin or pabulum, of what took place on Friday.

His evaluation of the Times reporting of Friday’s events was pithy, consisting of two four letter words; the first word beginning with B*** ***T and the second word ending with T. He then proceeded to ask several of the questions that should have been asked of the police or the City’s spin doctor – Katherine Jeffcoatt, manager of communications and marketing.

If the police were so worried about the “…health of the individual.” why were they turning him out of his home into weather predicted to include snow and that has been setting low temperature records in the province knowing this person would not come inside but would seek out another place to camp?

He wished Ms Jeffcoatt to explain to him what was “compassionate” or “respectful” in destroying his home, carting away his belongings and leaving him without his shelter in life threatening weather? He found statements by the City about the availability of social services laughable. I again draw to the readers attention the fact that the City had been informed that this individual would not avail himself of social services.

He found Ms Jeffcoatt’s comment about “…how vulnerable homeless people are in our community.” to be highly ironic in light of the fact that it is the City and their police who repeatedly take advantage of that vulnerability to abuse or violate the rights and dignity of the homeless.

He wanted to know why, if citing of the fire death of Jean Genereux was more than a handy excuse and the city was actually concerned about people dieing by fire, they were not also turning people out of apartments, houses and condos since far more people die in these locations by fire?

He stated that any digging had been done by the previous tenant and not by him. He felt very sceptical that the bridge was so poorly engineered and built that in was in any realistic (that is to say non excuse-mongering) danger of collapsing; asking why, if there was worry about a collapse, the bridge had not been shut down until a full engineering study and evaluation could be made?

He pointed out that when you have no vehicle being allowed to “…organize his personal possession to take with him.” is more B*** ***T asking “How much can you carry away on your back?”

He made the point that if the police had been there to make sure his rights were respected, they would have been arresting city employees destroying his camp. He spoke of the BC Supreme Court ruling that he has the right to set up a camp in Abbotsford and that if the City has any doubt about this they should seek the guidance of the BC Supreme Court as to the rights of homeless in Abbotsford.

His final comment was that the coverage of his illegal eviction was one-sided and all about making the city look good while ignoring the true facts of the matter.

Having now heard from the victim of City action (and the coverage of that action) I leave you to judge the action and the coverage for yourself.
Rafe Arnott, The Times
Published: Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A homeless man living along the Trans-Canada Highway was evicted from under the Peardonville Road overpass Friday morning for health and safety reasons, according to local officials.

A fire in a similar makeshift shelter on the north side of the same overpass claimed the life of Jean Genereux, 43, on Feb. 11. Police believe Genereux was trying to keep warm at the time.

Abbotsford Police and several staff members representing city and provincial agencies along with a cleanup crew cleared out hundreds of kilos of garbage, old furniture, clothing and belongings and loaded it into a moving truck for disposal.

Traffic was reduced to one lane on the overpass for several hours as the refuse was loaded and the man was allowed to organize his personal possessions to take with him. Outreach workers were on scene to address the man’s living arrangements.

Const. Casey Vinet with the Abbotsford Police described the homeless camp as “bunker-style,” and that a considerable amount of the ground under the overpass had been dug out over time.

Vinet said this led to concerns that the structural integrity of the overpass could be eventually compromised. A large collection of material had been building up for perhaps as long as several years at the site, according to Vinet.

Vinet said police were there for safety precautions and to make sure the man’s rights were respected.

Katherine Jeffcoatt, manager of corporate communication and marketing for the City of Abbotsford said, “We always use the most compassionate and respectful way of working with [the homeless] and making sure they connect with social service agencies.”

According to Vinet, the police department’s concerns echoed those of the city’s and added that “the very unsanitary conditions of the area were [also] of concern to the city – and of course police – in terms of the health of the individual.”

Jeffcoat said Genereux’s death was “a tragic reminder of just how vulnerable homeless people are in our community.”

Issues, Municipal

Snow? Freezing cold? To bad.

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It was good to step out Saturday morning and see that the snow they had been predicting for Friday night/Saturday morning had not arrived, even though it was unseasonably cold for March.

The City of Abbotsford, despite the predictions of snow and subzero temperatures, had just torn down the home (his camp) of an acquaintance of mine: turning him out into weather that had extreme weather shelters opening across the lower mainland to provide protection from the predicted freezing weather.

I spoke to him after his home was hauled away and he assured me he had already found another spot to camp. Still it is a different matter to be headed into freezing cold weather in an camp you are just setting up, rather than a camp that was well established and in which you had already survived the earlier snowfalls in.

The City had been informed that there was no housing suitable to meet the housing needs of this individual (and others like him) and that because there was no place for him to move to, tearing down his camp would render him without shelter from the elements.

The only thing the City’s actions accomplished, other than wasting the limited resources of the City, was to place this person’s health and life at risk by turning him out into the freezing weather.

Abbotsford seems desperate to close down the camps before the image of the Peardonville bridge fire fade from the public’s memory and they lose their excuse to be turning people out of their shelter, their homes.

And it is no more than a deceitful excuse until they start throwing everybody out into the street from apartments, condos and houses to protect them from fires – since far more people die from fire inside than out.

With the City apparently dedicated to continuing their pointless behaviour of tearing down homes and forcing people to relocate to a new camping location, other experienced homeless are asking about my supply of (or access to) blankets. Thus when the City comes by to haul their shelter away they will be able to get replacement bedding to survive the weather and the elements.

With all the money the City has wasted over the years I have been watching and writing about this pointless behaviour of chasing the homeless around the city, the City could have built the needed housing. But no, the City would prefer to cry poverty while pointlessly wasting taxpayer’s money – as opposed to spending it wisely and accomplish something.

Message to City Council: we are in a recession; we cannot afford this continued pointless waste of money; we need thoughtful behaviour for a change.