Alas, poor Fred! I knew him, fellow SCN readers: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: before these tragic circumstances befell the now lost soul:

Addict: a person who is addicted to an activity, habit, or substance: a drug

addict (verb used with object); to cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on an addictive substance, as alcohol or a narcotic; to habituate or abandon (oneself) to something compulsively or obsessively.

Video game addiction, also called video game overuse, is a form of psychological addiction composed of a compulsive use of computer and video games. Sometimes the addiction will manifest itself as part of excessive Internet use.

Most notable are massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and related to Internet addiction disorder. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from social contact and focusing almost entirely on in-game achievements rather than life events.

WebMD: At an addiction treatment center in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, teenagers and adults begin detox by admitting they are powerless over their addiction. But these addicts aren’t hooked on drugs or alcohol. They are going cold turkey to break their dependence on video games.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or multiplayer online role-playing games. Carl Jung

First he abandons his loyal readers, spending less and less time on SCN as feeding his addiction requires more and more time. Then it begins to affect his work as he becomes one of those undependable employees he recently decried in SCN.

Before long his poor roommate has to throw him out in favour of a roommate who works and can pay his share of the rent and the poor guy becomes one of the homeless, a member of that underclass that has graced the pages of SCN. The upper crust of that underclass as, like a turtle, he carries his home around with him as he drives from location to location to meet his needs.

Unfortunately it is his addiction that dictates his needs so instead of concentrating on employment and the path out of homelessness he focuses on finding internet connections to allow him to feed his habit.

Before long the car is gone as his focus tightens more and more on finding sources to satisfy his cravings, his addiction.

Living on the streets, hygiene challenged, soup kitchens for food – still his addiction drives him, consumes him, destroys him.

We loyal SCN readers need to stage an intervention to force Fred to confront his addiction, to encourage him to seek help in getting into recovery from his addiction.

STOP! THINK Fred: recall the sad state of those further along the path of addiction whose addictions had led them to homelessness and life on the streets. Reach within; find the strength to find help and recovery.

Addiction is a stone cold bitch whether to drugs, to work or to role playing games. Do not listen to the sweet siren song promising you Kingship of fantasy lands, lest ye continue down the path that leads to despair and utter hopelessness.

Take personal responsibility for you life and addiction, save yourself and find Wellness and Recovery. You have the strength Fred.

_____________________________________________________

post scriptum:

While written tongue-in-cheek there is a disturbing truth in what I wrote. Nobody says to themselves “I think I will become and addict” or “I think I will become homeless”. Addiction, mind altering substances, gambling, online gaming or work, is an all too easy downward slide whatever your starting point.

It is a sweet siren song luring you on until it is to late when it reveals its true nature as a stone cold bitch.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. Aesop

Fred’s original article that inspired this can be found at: http://www.somethingcool.ca/editor281.htm

The young woman was sitting there obviously in a great deal of distress, profound pain and in need of help.

The distress and pain were so pronounced that it evoked an act of kindness out of an acquaintance of mine. The only adequate description of seeing this act is “it boggled my mind”. He also stated that something needed to be done.

Her behaviour/situation was brought to the attention of those who should be helping her … and resulted in excuses as to why they weren’t helping.

Leaving the realm of excuses I found the young woman huddled with arms wrapped around herself under a tree. Mr. L, a homeless gentleman residing in his vehicle, was standing there regarding her.

I approached her quietly and spoke with her gently and after a few minutes she uncurled and stood up. With quiet words Mr. L and I walked with her to his vehicle and drove her to MSA Hospital.

Escorting her into emergency we supported and advocated for her through the admissions process. The psychiatric evaluation nurse and the woman doctor on duty were excellent, but the process, for someone in her shape, was far too long and complicated.

We spent 3 hours helping and sitting with her before she was in the care of a nurse. In fact it took so long Mr. L and myself were beginning to worry that perhaps the delay was due to the psychiatric evaluation nurse searching for butterfly nets and straight jackets for the pair of us. We had to stay with her in order that she could stay and get the help needed.

How many others are left suffering great distress and profound pain?

Getting help should not depend on random chance putting someone in need in the path of two strangers who are willing to spend the hours and effort needed to get them help.

This is not the first time I have experienced politicians, government, agencies, organizations or people delivering a litany of excuses for their failure to act to help those in dire need.

It is so normal a behaviour I can remember how surprising and above all helpful it was when, at a Communitas program I was a client of, I was told that something needed was not part of the program – but let us figure out how to get it done – and it did get done.

The issues, the problems that are part of addressing homelessness, mental illness, addiction and poverty are complex and lack nice neat easy solutions. Nobody can guarantee success in addressing these issues.

I can guarantee failure as long as it is acceptable to come up with excuses for why something is not being done. Benjamin Franklin pointed out that “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

As Mr. L. and I demonstrated you can accomplish something or make excuses. To quote Stephen Dooley, Jr. “A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who doesn’t will find an excuse.”

It is time we stop making excuses, stop accepting excuses and find ways to do what needs be done.

I had a coffee in one hand and a fresh baked cookie in the other when a homeless friend stuffed a folded sheet of paper in my shirt pocket with a cryptic comment about retirement homes.

Emptying my pockets later at my habitation I found and unfolded the sheet, which turned out to be a page of ready-to-assemble wood storage and recreational building kits from a home improvement store.

Some were pretty spiffy looking and given the cost of housing these days, extremely attractive in price. Which may well explain the warning “before finalizing your purchase, always check with your local building code official for any requirements”.

With my friend currently residing in a tent under a bridge, I can certainly understand the buildings attraction for him. Spacious 8 X 10 foot floor space – with a floor yet – space to stand up, luxurious accommodation compared to his tent.

He raises an interesting point, or is that an interesting idea, to ponder.

We have hundreds of homeless currently on the streets of our cities, with more people becoming homeless as time passes. We have no housing, make that no housing affordable to the homeless and creating the needed affordable housing will take years once (or if?) we ever begin to address the growing need for housing people can afford.

We have decommissioned schools surrounded by open playing fields. What about putting up a community, a “subdivision” as it were, of ready-to-assemble kit buildings? The school building would provide washrooms, bathing facilities and lockers for safe storage of belongings.

The classrooms and offices would provide space that could be used for a wide variety of purposes by a wide variety of organizations and government agencies.

I acknowledge there would be problems, but I point out that our current situation is full of a growing number of problems.

It is an interesting idea, hearkening back to the soup lines and shanty towns that sprung up in city parks in the Great Depression.

I know many will not find this an interesting idea or think it has any value or should be considered. They can easily remove it from consideration by advancing good, practical, workable ideas.

Without practical, workable ideas we are going to fall back to soup lines and shanty towns in our parks and open spaces even though one would have thought we would have come up with better ideas and ways of addressing poverty and housing in the seventy years since then.

Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, August 02, 2008

Home for Ed Chase is a patch of grass near the corner of 96th Avenue and 160th Street in Surrey.

He and his dog, Daryl, who is old and whose hind end is paralyzed, sleep there and spend their days there out in the open, or under a big, gaudy beach umbrella when it rains. It is a busy intersection, cornered by a high school, a Chevron station, a Husky station, and the Parkland Fellowship church, which owns the patch of grass Ed has homesteaded.

Ed and his dog, and the wagon Ed pulls Daryl around in, and Ed’s tarp, and Ed’s few belongings, are all visible to the passing traffic.

In both a physical and moral sense, Ed’s patch of grass has become a battleground. At the centre of that battle is Ed. On either side of him are arrayed two opposing sides: those who do not mind his presence and want to help him, and those who want him gone. Here, compassion clashes against the need for civic order, which is a fight played out a thousand times a day over the homeless.

But this isn’t the Downtown Eastside with its hordes of street people; this is a middle-class neighbourhood in the farthest reaches of Surrey, and Ed is an anomaly here. He stands out in stark relief to the suburban landscape, and his presence, and the polarizing effects it has had on the neighbourhood, are being played out with all the elements of some New Testament parable.

Ed is 47. He was born in Saskatchewan. He’s drifted around – Toronto, the Yukon, the Prairies – and he first came to B.C. when he was 19. He’s worked in construction and odd jobs.

“I’m a lifetime loser,” Ed said. “A jack of all trades and a master of none.”

He fell into homelessness five years ago. He told a disconnected story about being evicted for late rent, and then losing his van to ICBC, and then, more recently, having his car towed away. He slept in nearby Tynehead Park for 2 1/2 years, and when his gear was confiscated, he slept on picnic tables.

The authorities asked him if he wanted to go into a shelter.

“They wanted to put me in a shelter but I don’t want to live with anyone else. And I had my dogs.”

(He had two dogs at the time, Daryl and Ray. More about Ray in a moment.)

When he was rousted again, one of the neighbours in the area approached Brian Stewart, the pastor at Parkland Fellowship, and asked if Ed could park his car in the church’s parking lot. Stewart said yes, and Ed started sleeping in his car on the church property last November. The church, Stewart said, offered to help Ed find a place and even help him financially. But again, Ed, like many homeless, was resistant to that. In May, the police and bylaw people visited the church and told Stewart Ed’s sleeping in the car was illegal. At the same time, Stewart said, the church had concerns about Ed and his dog’s presence in the parking lot because of his proximity to the church’s daycare. Ed moved his gear out to the church’s boulevard.

The church, however, did not force Ed to leave the property entirely. They were Christian. They were not about to turn their backs on the social leper.

“As a church,” Stewart said, “we want to be redemptive in this community.”

For the first few weeks, Ed’s presence on the boulevard was uneventful. But he wore out his welcome at both gas stations, which have now banned him from their properties. In the meantime, Ed said, the city and police conducted what he considered a campaign of harassment against him, repeatedly confiscating his tents and belongings.

It reached a crisis point on June 28. Ed got into a fight with a customer at the Chevron station. Ed – who is convinced the provincial government has exacerbated the homeless situation with its policies – was holding up an anti-government sign in a one-man demonstration, something he does often. Words were exchanged. In Ed’s telling of the story, the customer grabbed him and started punching him. A second man tried to break up the scuffle, only to be punched in the mouth by the man fighting with Ed. It was then that Ed’s dog, Ray, whom Ed had on a leash, bit the man fighting with Ed on the leg. (The second man would later say the dog was only trying to protect Ed.)

The SPCA later seized the dog, and there is the possibility the dog could be put down or re-adopted. The City of Surrey has also informed Ed he must pay a $5,000 fine to get Ray released. Meanwhile, Ray’s fate, and Ed’s ownership, has now become a cause célèbre among animal rights activists. A Facebook website has more than 500 people demanding Ray’s release.

All this has split the community. While the manager of the Chevron station was quoted in an earlier Surrey Now story as calling Ed “a pain in the ass” who has harassed customers and abused his earlier kindnesses like free coffee and sandwiches, and who wants him gone, two employees at the Chevron station, Cynthia Soady and Cindy Oakson, both said they liked Ed and felt he poses no threat.

“I like him,” Oakson said. “But I think being on the street, and fighting for his cause, is really wearing him down. I think a lot of people are against him because he isn’t working (Ed collects welfare), but I don’t think he’s capable of working. I do think we do tend to over-enable him a little bit, but I have a belief system that believes in compassion.”

Oakson said she believed most of the neighbourhood felt the same compassion she does. And Stewart, at Park Fellowship, can attest to evidence of that compassion: many people, he said, have offered their help to Ed, offering him food and supplies. One neighbour even offered his backyard for Ed to sleep in. But Stewart has got plenty of calls, too, he said, from those who want Ed gone, and blame the church for allowing him to stay.

“We’re caught in the middle,” Stewart said. “But we believe, with God’s help, there is a solution here. And if we kick Ed off the property, so what? That doesn’t solve the problem.”

As for Ed, he said all that was important to him was getting Ray back.

“If I get Ray back, I’d leave.”

He didn’t say where, exactly.

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com or 604-605-2905