Homeless in Abbotsford, BC

A Very lively Corpse

Ah, this mortal coil! I was speaking to my friend Steve at lunch today and I must say he is very lively for a dead person and looking very good for a corpse. He has been dead for approximately four years at this point, although in our conversation it came out he was not aware of the exact date of his death, not having been there for it. We both agreed that, just as a point of interest, it would be rather out of the ordinary to know what day you died - a tiny Bon Mot to drop into conversation.

People often make assumptions, pretty much of a non-complimentary nature; about how and why someone, or that entire class of someone’s, became homeless. Now being dead is, in my experience anyway, a little radical as a cause or major contributing cause to somebody ending up homeless and on the streets. Nevertheless, there are many more unique stories among those categorized as homeless than pigeonholing this diverse group under the simple label “homeless” suggests to the general public.

To return to Steve’s story: he had migrated westward from his home in Quebec, losing touch with his sister along his journey as they were not close. Hey, was it not for e-mail I would have undoubtedly been incommunicado, family wise, during the worst of my mental struggles and homelessness. So about four years ago, after not hearing from Steve in years, his sister had him declared dead to allow for settling legal matters. Had not fate, in the form of flames, intervened this might have been not a major headache and obstacle, but rather a great conversation piece. If you google Steve Aspin you will find a link to the online archives of the Abbotsford Times and can read the story of the fire that consumed his home (trailer) and all his identification. Without ID you may be alive and kicking, but pretty well as far as government and other institutions are concerned you are a ghost, a non-person, a fabricated falsehood. In this day and age of Identity Theft proving you are who you are can prove extremely challenging, especially for those with the added tribulation of being numbered among the dead.

As I pointed out when I wrote up and e-mailed Steve’s corpsehood difficulties to newspapers, radio and television – to get identification you need identification, a rather frustrating Catch-22 situation to try to resolve. I had hoped someone would have a suggestion or way to overcome this barrier but nothing came of this. Currently Steve’s best hope for resurrection would appear to lie with a teacher from MEI who met Steve through the Redemption Café and is determined to help him obtain identification. Hopefully have some acquaintance with our local MP Mr. Fast will give her a foothold on the towering wall of bureaucracy she must climb to accomplish Steve’s return to life.

So the next time you see a homeless person consider that they may not be homeless because of the reasons you assume. Rather they may have suffered one of the many other ways to slide onto the streets and into the ranks of the homeless. You may even be seeing or standing next to someone who has departed ordinary life in more than the customary sense.

Refreshing Media change.

You keep going like this… and you are going to not only live up to your stated aspirations, maybe even exceeding them, but you are going to have a very interesting, must read publication. That is how I had planed to end the last sentence in my prior letter, but then the best laid plans of mice and men. Or perhaps it was just fate this week’s edition contains an excellent start covering an important issue even though it is not “nice” and entails a certain amount of controversy.

Perspective – Whoa! An informative piece hinting at the temptations that a drug can have, the seductive promises that the drug and its effects can make: euphoria, endless energy, decreased appetite (easy weight loss), alertness. For the education of the public who tend to only see the end product of drugs – the addict – Ms Daniel paints a picture of the ordinary people that it lures into using with its siren song. The housewife, mother, sons and daughters, outstanding school athletes and scholars, fathers, business people - these are the real people that lie buried within the addicts that end up on our streets. Hopefully articles such as this can help people to see that the “addicts” are people, people suffering from listening to the seductive promises of a “mother’s little helper”. Then perhaps we can cease judging and concentrate on healing.

The promise of the Post that this is only the first of a series on this issue holds forth the promise of bringing knowledge and understanding to allow Post readers to begin to comprehend the nature of the insanity that is drug addiction. Dare I hope for a perspective that examines what effect legality (nicotine, cigarettes) vs. illegality (crystal meth) can have on addiction, the addict, “functional users” and on crime.

The issue also contained Kevin Gilles’s article on the growing and increasingly visible challenge presented by homelessness. The first thought I want to share is that it is a rather damning comment on our society that the Salvation Army and other organizations that help those in distress need a PR hack … ahem, let’s make that a PR person as, in spite of her unfortunately required occupation, Deb is a nice person – whom I know as a caring individual. How can we have any expectation of achieving progress on a multifaceted series of interrelated acutely complex and muddled people problems, when on even the simple aspects of this gargantuan chaotic mess we have to apply spin in presenting even the most elementary and simple pieces of the issues to the public. Given that the only route I see holding promise to help the homeless regain their souls and their lives lies thru community involvement, how do we eradicate the need for PR, educate and involve the community?

Perhaps the need for PR and what it says about our society should have been second on my list. First definitely has to be having a local newspaper that is part of and engaged with their communities, providing the needed forum for an examination of the reality of ours streets and an exchange of ideas – opening the gateway to addressing these pressing issues. We have to get past what people believe and most especially what they want to believe (because of their own personal world view) is the situation; to open their eyes and gain an awareness and a degree of understanding for the nitty-gritty, often dirty facts that underlie homelessness and its street kin - mental illness, drugs etc. We need an informed public on this matter so we do not need to spin what IS. To permit trying new ideas as well as adapting and using methods that have generated positive results elsewhere in the efforts to tackle these dilemmas. Adopting Edison’s attitude that he had not failed a thousand times in trying to invent the light bulb but had merely carried out the necessary thousand experiments, is crucial to making any true progress in addressing these problems. If we cannot honestly discuss: this worked, that did not work, this result wasn’t what we expected – why?, Say… how about trying this?, this kind of worked, and so on; we are going to find ourselves trapped in the quagmire that results from all the churning of the ground we are trying to work on by all the spin that these types of discussions would generate.

Wondering about the why behind the headline “Homeless numbers rise despite abundance of jobs”? Here is a sample or two of the actual reality behind that Why? to think about. What happens to all those functioning users in Ms Daniel’s Perspective as they become less and less functional, starting the fall from home, employment and social network to the harsh loneliness of the streets. Rising job numbers do nothing for them as a job is not the type help and support they need to begin to slowly and painfully turn their lives around. Consider the worker for whom losing their job was an economic disaster that left them having nothing and on the street or the recovering addict whom, in the throes of their addiction, burned all their bridges behind them and now has nothing, no one and are on the streets. Without a phone, an address, a way to be contacted, a way to keep clean and presentable, to have time and energy to look for work after taking care of the necessities of food, water and sleep, without transportation other than by foot, with basically nothing – just how are you to find work? Yes I am aware of Social Assistance. Are you aware of its inadequacies, how far short it falls of providing the basics needed to enable a person to conduct a successful job search? It is just as inadequate, perhaps more maddeningly so, in providing support to help those who find work in meeting their basic needs in a way that does not interfere with keeping their jobs and getting back onto their economic and social feet. Ponder the obstacles that being homeless puts up if you should find work, little things such as adequate sleep, personal hygiene and appearance, food to keep you alive, getting to work. Actually there are separate articles that could be written just on these barriers. To keep this letter from becoming a novel I will leave the reader with a final point to consider. Due to whatever circumstances you find yourself with nothing, absolutely nothing and without family or friends to help. Damage deposit; first months rent; the most basic of furniture, pots and pans, dishes; a phone; old debts; bad credit. Yes, we all at one point started out, but if we are honest we have to acknowledge just how much support we received from family and friends and how important, how necessary that help and support was in getting onto our feet and taking our first steps into our new lives.

I hope that this quick and rather superficial look at just some of the points that flow from considering the implications and issues raised by reading Kevin Gillies’s article serves to let the reader begin to see just how complex the labyrinth of issues and needs connected to homelessness is. You want neat, simple, easy, quick answers? They don’t exist. You want a perfect solution? You are living in a very altered state of reality. We are dealing with people here. It will be messy; mistakes will occur; it will take patience to allow for adequate time frames; it will take and try the patience of the saints in dealing with some of those in need of help; there will be some who cannot or will not be helped. There are many other disagreeable aspects we would rather not have to deal with or face, that must be dealt with or faced in order to bring positive change to these serious issues.

To have success we need the involvement, support and commitment of our entire communities. We need to achieve a public understanding of the underlying realities of the situation through education, insight, perspective and commentary. We need to put aside partisanship, politics and self delusion while dealing with the entrenched vested interests. We cannot be afraid of controversial issues, of facing and dealing with the facts – the un-spun, bare facts. We need to accomplish change, or suffer the insanity of continuing to repeat that which has not only failed to work, but has allowed things to worsen. We need a forum for public discussion, generation of ideas, a steadfastness of purpose and a commitment to action.

Wisdom or lessons can come from strange places. So, let us take to heart the words of Yoda: ”Try not. Do or Do Not. There is no try.” We need to stop hiding behind “trying” and choose. Do Not and accept the costs and consequences. Do and begin reclaiming lost or shattered lives. Do or Do Not. Choose what kind of society you want to live in. DO.

The Abbotsford News Champions ESP as:

THE solution to Homelessness.

(HP) Homeless Press

No, this does not stand for Excessive Social Pressure. That course would require the News to become an active participant in: a continuing community wide dialogue on homelessness and its associates (poverty, mental illness, unemployment, drugs - to name but a few); an exchange of ideas on lines of attack; community wide tackling of these issues. This seems highly unlikely given that contentious issues or positions, no matter how well they would serve the community, have far too much potential to cause a reduction in advertising revenues.

No, I am no mind reader myself. It is clear from the language used that the News can only be advocating the use of Extra Sensory Perception in dealing with homelessness in Abbotsford. Psychics would, one assumes, be used to determine who in our community was about to become homeless. Remedial actions could then be undertaken to prevent this homelessness from occurring, thus avoiding the creation of additional members of the homeless community. One would presume that once this use of clairvoyants proved proficient in averting additional homeless, the News would call for additional seers to be employed in addressing the needs of those currently homeless. How foolproof! Using psychics to divine the specific set of actions that would enable each and every homeless person to deal with and overcome the maze of issues that have reduced them to a life of living on the streets. No failures, no relapses, no need for community involvement … only correct actions need be undertaken under the guidance of the paranormal practitioners. Brilliant … or sheer lunacy

“NO!” That was the almost unanimous answer given by the homeless surveyed on the question of whether the use of psychics would prove successful in resolving homelessness. It needs to be noted that some of the more dedicated practitioners of chemically altered reality did feel the News may be onto something with this approach of dealing with current problems by fortune telling the future.

No, Oh No. One can only hope that there are enough thoughtful citizens aware of the complex reality of homelessness to, in voting no, counterbalance those looking for a neat, quick, easy solution. Otherwise the fairytale illusion championed by the News in their Question of the Week:

Do you believe (take as true) homelessness can be
averted (avert: to keep from happening; ward off; prevent)
in communities that establish special committees to tackle the issue?

– will permit this community to continue to avoid the grim, harsh, despairing reality that populates its streets.

RE: Valley neighbours setting an example.

I sit here shaking my head, dismayed that this piece is what the News considers an opinion worthy of expression on such a complex issue.

Anyone reading your totally misleading “reporting and opinion” on the British success in achieving a 35% reduction in crime, would come away with the thoroughly erroneous impression of what measures the British used in accomplishing this notable reduction. Only those who had seen balanced and fair reports of Mayor Watts’s trip from other sources would know the British had wisely decided to try the unique approach of focusing on addressing the root causes of their crime problem. As with any weed, you can waste all the time and money you want on the symptoms of the problem (the leaves) such as car theft, B & E, prostitution and drug trafficking, and it just grows back. In fact, this approach often permits the weed to flourish and spread. You want to kill off the weed, you better get at the root.

The British, recognizing this reality, chose to focus on Cause rather than the effect. Not that anyone reading your “reporting” of the British experience would learn this. More accurate reporting elsewhere made clear that the British used innovative social programs and approaches to help the people involved, their fellow citizens who were in need of assistance, to address their personal problems and issues in order to permit these marginalized people to begin leading productive lives.

With all the innovation involved in the British approach that achieved these highly desirable results, the News chose to report and focus on the old and trite surveillance camera red herring of a “plan”? Further we are suppose to be amazed that citizens are complaining and upset about the activities in Jubilee Park? I suppose the News would favour using the ”miracle of surveillance” to drive these people out of the Park. Then in a few months the News can “report and opine” the problem some other area of Abbotsford is having with those previously displaced from Jubilee. Then repeat then process over and over and over as is the current policy.

Then blundering onward to the subject of transition housing regulation, you give any of the public depending on the News for informed opinion the entirely wrong impression that this is an easy question to deal with.

You offer a few misleading lines on issues that, to even begin to give the citizens of Abbotsford a basis for thinking about and making decisions on, need as series of articles (for each point/issue) to convey the many complexities of these problems.

The News wagging a finger at the council, no matter that the council fully deserves to be severely chastised for its lack of imagination and action, is the pot calling the kettle black. It is hubris to point a finger at the council for lack of being proactive when the News itself fails to invest the time, space and writing needed to be act in a proactive manner by informing the community of the intricacies of these issues, fermenting debate and involving the community in a situation that can only be addressed and solutions derived with the involvement of the entire community. Enough “drivel”, let us have some “meat and potatoes” from the News.

Living up to ones Ideals

“We are independent and non-partisan. We represent no vested interests nor will we be afraid of reporting on controversial issues or expressing our opinions.”

“By providing insight, perspective and commentary we hope to provide a forum for discussions …”

Both statements made very welcome reading to me and I am sure many others. With our local papers being part of media chains, all to often their ‘reporting’ seems founded on the principle of blandness so as to not upset anyone in order to maximize profits. Having grown up with an independent locally owned newspaper I appreciate how important and how much a local paper can contribute to the issues of a City and the lives of its citizens. With so many important issues and decisions facing our Cities the promise of “ … nor will we be afraid … controversial” and “forum for discussion” seemed an answer to prayers for bring important questions into much needed public attention, focus and discussion.

While “Could media be to blame” was on the rather safe topic of whether medias constant “if it bleeds, it leads” reporting of crime is leading to unreasonable public fears, it was a step in the right direction. You also included a report as to the Times strike and settlement. I suppose one could argue the need to ease both the public and their new paper into examinations of whether media conglomeration has left them ill served in the examining or reporting on important local and national issues. Future editions of The Post will bear witness on this.

However, in order to deliver on your promises as quoted at the outset of this letter, you cannot let statements or issues raised in the stories you report on go unchallenged.

In “Downtown looking up” you failed (miserably) to examine or question the statements: “the idea is to clear out the area where STREET URCHINS lurk…” or “…will drive out the some of the seediness that has plagued these streets in recent years.” Street Urchins? What exactly is that in reference to? Drive out seediness? Again, what does that mean? Now given the actions of the Downtown Business Association I would suspect these statements are veiled references to the continuing campaign to drive the homeless, the poor, the addicts and the hookers out of Downtown into other parts of Abbotsford.

If the Post truly wants to “report” it needs to make sure it does not accept vague euphemisms but requires the speaker to clearly spell out what they mean. You also failed to address what effect the “…clear out …” or “…drive out …” would and has had on others. I would suspect the merchants on Sumas Way have little thanks for “street urchins” driven their way. I am sure that homeowners finding these “street urchins” and “seediness” forced into their neighbourhoods, by the actions of the downtown businessmen, would have some words to pass along to Mr. Bos and associates for “what you told us…” Assuming you would care to question the actions of a “vested interest”. Moreover, I would expect that many citizens would like the opportunity to comment on the fallout of the efforts led by Mr. Bos in closing down Street Hope. Losing the source of their evening meal, being human (and thus unwilling to quietly starve) and having been forced to “clear out” into new parts of the City items previously not worth stealing suddenly became the means to food.

Instead we get a puff piece either of the other papers would or could have written. Understand I fully support the right of the Downtown to work for improvement. I just feel they should have addressed their concerns with thought and carefully chosen action. I certainly do not think it is permissible, or acceptable, that their current solution is to “drive out” their problems onto their fellow business people and the citizens in general. Of course puff pieces are far easier to write and sell than asking hard questions and holding perpetrators responsible for the consequences of their actions.

To compound the offence against your stated goals for your new paper you allowed Fiona Brent to misrepresent the upcoming referendum as an “all encompassing facilities upgrade”, when that is clearly what the referendum IS NOT about. Further you have accepted the implied assertion that the plan is a good idea without raising any of the important questions that would clearly demonstrate that this plan is far from a good idea.

You have ignored that this is about only a few facilities; overlooked Councilors Beck’s statement that this is not about IF but only When the facilities will be built; failed to to ask a representative of the Chamber of Commerce if the business people really think it is a good idea to rush to build in an over priced construction market, to build without adequate design and consultation with end users, to build a huge rink after chasing the major tenant out of town (the Chiefs), wasting money on what is in the end a pointless referendum since it is only about timing; you have not questioned what the priorities for City capital projects should be; if we should be building a large sports/entertainment complex for which there is no clear need when the money would permit the building of many needed smaller capital projects; should we be deciding what to build based on what projects are pet projects of City Staff and councilors OR should we base capital plans on the needs of the citizens, the people who pay for all the building.

Yes, it is only your second issue. Perhaps it is that you intend to raise all the questions and issues that others have failed to ask about capital spending plans. Mr. Bos is slick and facile with words, but no more than you should expect form one involved with the legal profession.

Still, as you begin so do you tend to go. If you truly want the public to “find what we (the Post) have to say useful, thought provoking and always interesting” you need to be willing to forego the easy “Puff” pieces and work hard digging into the Who, What, Where, when and Why of stories. In that way you will succeed in offering our communities the “forum” so sadly lacking and desperately needed.

Can you imagine Abbotsford as a Vibrant community?

I recently found myself at a rather interesting point on the space-time continuum where a most interesting (and important) conversation, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say a series of conversations, was taking place. Once time has allowed me to think about and digest what was expressed, I plan to share some of the conversation, some of the questions posed and what answers/thoughts were called into my mind. Because the point of this conversation was to begin the process of engaging the entire community in this conversation.

It seems that some of our fellow citizens, when looking around at the state of affairs found themselves (quite understandably) less than pleased with the state of poverty, and all its trappings, in the city of Abbotsford. At the beginning of this past June at the Ramada Plaza the Frazer Valley Community Conference 2006 was held on the topic: “Creating Community Movements for Change”. The speaker was Mr. Paul Born of Tamarack: An Institute for Community Engagement who was not only an inspiring speaker, but had the advantage of having what he was saying make sense. That what we have been doing has not been working, has in fact allowed things to get worse. That if we want to address issues of local concern such as poverty, we have to do it as fully engaged communities since that is the way to act effectively. That achieving a purpose requires using purposefulness to power and motivate change, creating movements for change. www.tamarackcommunity.ca/index.php

Our displeased fellow citizens, seeking to effect positive changes in our community, have sought out the expertise and experience that Tamarack has built and continues building with communities across Canada. As part of pursing this working relationship with Tamarack, and through them with other Canadian cities seeking to make positive changes, Vibrant Abbotsford was born. At the time I attended the conversation being written about, this newborn was less than a week old and taking his/her first steps out and about our community, seeking to engage us all in creating change in our community.

So why am I writing this? I look around our community and see poverty and its attributes such as homelessness, hungry children, the desperate need for the local food bank, mental illness and addiction, families with young children eating at the Salvation Army, human life reduced to the cheapest commodity on the planet, pain and hopelessness – to name but a few. I see how badly Abbotsford needs to come together as a community to create the change needed and seek to knock over that first domino. To start the chain reaction of falling dominos that, gathering speed and inertia, will help power Vibrant Abbotsford’s spread through the community, engaging the community in creating not only the movement for change but CHANGE itself.

I also want to answer the last question posed to us during that conversation – do I want to, am I willing to give of myself, in order to bring positive change to my community, to work at turning our community into Vibrant Abbotsford. The answer is YES; I will stand up and be counted. So it is that I pass the question along – Look around. What do you see? What do you want to see, what matters to you? Will you be part of Vibrant Abbotsford?

RE: Christina

I was speaking with her today and she said her son, living on the East Coast phoned her after reading about her on this website. She did not get his phone number or email and asked if I could do anything to help. So, in case he is unable to resist the superlative writing taking place on this site I ask he drop me a line with his phone number, but especially his e-mail address – since e-mail is such a fast and inexpensive way to get in touch. Just click on the JWB email link.

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
Rodney Dangerfield