Homeless in Abbotsford, BC
I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, WOULD NOT ever suggest throwing money at a problem. I am a REALIST, believing in examining a problem to understand what the situation IS. I am not an Ideologue who, wearing the blinders of ideology, looks at a situation and sees what they want to see, not what really is. There is NO perfect solution. A system dealing with people demands flexibility and denies neat, easy answers. Rigidly applying Ideology guarantees failure. How I came to homelessness: click Backstory below.
Senior Citizens hunger for - food
A friend came up to me and sat down at the table at the Street Hope meal at Global harvest and stated, “You have to write about all the seniors needing the Food Bank.” I’ll skip the discussion as to why I had to write it instead of him and speak to his concern.
Mr. O wanted me to draw people’s attention to how fast the number of seniors who need the Food Bank in order to eat is growing. There is also growing numbers of seniors eating at the Salvation Army and/or accessing the food distributed there.
Housing costs in Abbotsford are skyrocketing. For seniors owning their own homes property tax increases outstrip available grants. For those who don’t own, rental rates are climbing with increased demand for housing providing an additional boost to soaring rent costs.
To pay for their housing seniors are being forced to reduce what they spend on food and rely more and more on charity to eat.
Compounding these concerns we are beginning to see senior/retirees who not only cannot afford food but also can no longer afford housing. They are ending up in emergency shelters – in shock and lost.
Both hunger and homelessness will continue to grow in the seniors/retirees population – until we as a society choose to say it is unacceptable and act. Volunteering at their local food bank would be a real eye-opening experience for many.
Speak to your family, friends and neighbours; write, talk and demand that our so-called leaders take action; and be a little extra generous to the Food Bank and people such as Street Hope or the Open Door seventh day Adventist church who feed so many hungry.
We may not be seeing hairy caterpillars but all the signs are that this is going to be a cold, wet, hungry winter for many senior, poor and homeless.
A friend came up to me and sat down at the table at the Street Hope meal at Global harvest and stated, “You have to write about all the seniors needing the Food Bank.” I’ll skip the discussion as to why I had to write it instead of him and speak to his concern.
Mr. O wanted me to draw people’s attention to how fast the number of seniors who need the Food Bank in order to eat is growing. There is also growing numbers of seniors eating at the Salvation Army and/or accessing the food distributed there.
Housing costs in Abbotsford are skyrocketing. For seniors owning their own homes property tax increases outstrip available grants. For those who don’t own, rental rates are climbing with increased demand for housing providing an additional boost to soaring rent costs.
To pay for their housing seniors are being forced to reduce what they spend on food and rely more and more on charity to eat.
Compounding these concerns we are beginning to see senior/retirees who not only cannot afford food but also can no longer afford housing. They are ending up in emergency shelters – in shock and lost.
Both hunger and homelessness will continue to grow in the seniors/retirees population – until we as a society choose to say it is unacceptable and act. Volunteering at their local food bank would be a real eye-opening experience for many.
Speak to your family, friends and neighbours; write, talk and demand that our so-called leaders take action; and be a little extra generous to the Food Bank and people such as Street Hope or the Open Door seventh day Adventist church who feed so many hungry.
We may not be seeing hairy caterpillars but all the signs are that this is going to be a cold, wet, hungry winter for many senior, poor and homeless.
"Changing Lanes"
A SCN Documentary
James Breckenridge on Living In A Car and Ignorant City Councils
Just an addict.
He/she is “just an addict” is an attitude far to prevalent in our society because so often underneath the addict lies a whole other world or person.
Based on my experiences and observations I have come to the conclusion that if we want to be efficient and effective in dealing with addiction and homelessness we need to move away from current practices and towards the best practices in the field of mental health. This will require adopting a much longer view of treatment and recovery; in many ways adopting a much more holistic view of what constituted recovery and being healthy.
I knew someone while he was in his addiction, saw him off to treatment, back from treatment and as he struggled with sobriety and dealing with his mental illness sober and without the use of illegal drugs. It is and was an incredibly painful struggle for him, and in some ways for me.
I know just what a mess his head is in because my head was in just such a mess not that many years ago and I have to admire his tenacity in staying sober and not using drugs to escape what is going on in his mind. I am thankful that the way my head works would not permit me to seek escape through mind-altering substances. Perhaps even more thankful that experiences in my youth had taught me that for me, unlike most, there was no escape into oblivion via drugs.
This is the struggle almost all of the homeless and addicts face in getting their lives back on track and why we need to begin using a long term mental health recovery model to be effective and efficient.
Experience had lead me to the conclusion that we had to change the way we think about, plan and deliver services to the homeless. Still I was blown away by the personal store told by a new friend, who when I asked if I could relate her story in my writing said if it would help someone I was welcome to post it on billboards around the lower mainland.
She was a heroin addict, one of those viewed as “just an addict”. The first time she cleaned up she fell back into addiction. The second time she cleaned up she stayed clean and thus had to face her inner demons sober and without heroin.
Obsessive/compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, can I ever relate. Maybe it was hearing in her story of the struggle we shared with these mental illnesses that struck such a cord with me. Once again I could only be thankful that mind-altering drugs was not a route that promised me escape from my mental demons and so I had avoided addiction.
Listening to her story was wrenching, illuminating and life affirming. But it left me more convinced than ever that we need to change our way of thinking, planning and focusing on addiction recovery. It was supporting to find in conversation that she too felt that we needed a much longer term, more mental illness recovery model in haw we approach and deal with addiction.
Perhaps the most telling and thought provoking statement she made in reference to addiction was “…its less painful”. Heroin addiction, being a heroin addict was less painful than dealing with her mental illness. I wonder how many of those who would have judged her “just an addict” would have the intestinal fortitude to deal with those mental demons that come with mental illness without escaping into addiction?
We need to change. We know our old and current approaches are not resulting in attaining effective and efficient outcomes for the homeless, the addicted. To just mindlessly continue doing what we have done in the past is insane behaviour, even more insane is to do more of what is not working.
It is time for leadership willing to embrace change, risk and new ideas to be applied to helping those suffering the blight of homelessness and/or addiction.
He/she is “just an addict” is an attitude far to prevalent in our society because so often underneath the addict lies a whole other world or person.
Based on my experiences and observations I have come to the conclusion that if we want to be efficient and effective in dealing with addiction and homelessness we need to move away from current practices and towards the best practices in the field of mental health. This will require adopting a much longer view of treatment and recovery; in many ways adopting a much more holistic view of what constituted recovery and being healthy.
I knew someone while he was in his addiction, saw him off to treatment, back from treatment and as he struggled with sobriety and dealing with his mental illness sober and without the use of illegal drugs. It is and was an incredibly painful struggle for him, and in some ways for me.
I know just what a mess his head is in because my head was in just such a mess not that many years ago and I have to admire his tenacity in staying sober and not using drugs to escape what is going on in his mind. I am thankful that the way my head works would not permit me to seek escape through mind-altering substances. Perhaps even more thankful that experiences in my youth had taught me that for me, unlike most, there was no escape into oblivion via drugs.
This is the struggle almost all of the homeless and addicts face in getting their lives back on track and why we need to begin using a long term mental health recovery model to be effective and efficient.
Experience had lead me to the conclusion that we had to change the way we think about, plan and deliver services to the homeless. Still I was blown away by the personal store told by a new friend, who when I asked if I could relate her story in my writing said if it would help someone I was welcome to post it on billboards around the lower mainland.
She was a heroin addict, one of those viewed as “just an addict”. The first time she cleaned up she fell back into addiction. The second time she cleaned up she stayed clean and thus had to face her inner demons sober and without heroin.
Obsessive/compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, can I ever relate. Maybe it was hearing in her story of the struggle we shared with these mental illnesses that struck such a cord with me. Once again I could only be thankful that mind-altering drugs was not a route that promised me escape from my mental demons and so I had avoided addiction.
Listening to her story was wrenching, illuminating and life affirming. But it left me more convinced than ever that we need to change our way of thinking, planning and focusing on addiction recovery. It was supporting to find in conversation that she too felt that we needed a much longer term, more mental illness recovery model in haw we approach and deal with addiction.
Perhaps the most telling and thought provoking statement she made in reference to addiction was “…its less painful”. Heroin addiction, being a heroin addict was less painful than dealing with her mental illness. I wonder how many of those who would have judged her “just an addict” would have the intestinal fortitude to deal with those mental demons that come with mental illness without escaping into addiction?
We need to change. We know our old and current approaches are not resulting in attaining effective and efficient outcomes for the homeless, the addicted. To just mindlessly continue doing what we have done in the past is insane behaviour, even more insane is to do more of what is not working.
It is time for leadership willing to embrace change, risk and new ideas to be applied to helping those suffering the blight of homelessness and/or addiction.
Be as a drop of rain...
I am getting to old for homelessness or perhaps having a bed to sleep in spoiled me. Either way my new living arrangements have me stiffer than the proverbial board, feeling over 100 years old and moving very sloooooooooooow.
I admit I was definitely remiss in not focusing on making sure I got a station wagon or van during my sojourn indoors – and a laptop computer. I suppose I should have kept my priorities focused on the car and computer and not let things like classes, earning certifications, working, volunteering and pursuing mental health distract me from preparations for being on the street again.
With our out of balance housing market and economy it is a fact of life that more and more people, many of them working poor, are going to experience homelessness for at least some period(s) of time.
In fact we are now and have been for a while seeing even people with full time jobs who do not earn enough to pay all their bills because increasing housing costs have consumed a larger and larger portion of their disposable income. The working poor have the additional burden that their jobs prevent them from getting to the food bank to be able to save on food costs and therefore have more money available for housing.
As a society we can behave in our normal manner ignoring the problem, letting it worsen into crisis, having politicians and pundits make political footballs out of the matter etc. OR we could try a new approach – rational behaviour. Personally I am solidly in favour of acknowledging reality and behaving rationally as I have no wish to inflict on or share homelessness with anyone.
I admit I do not have a nice neat solution, probably because there isn’t one. From the Tao of James: always be suspicious of anyone who claims nice neat solutions to complex problems that involve people - they are lying or delusional.
Affordable housing is just such a complex problem. But by starting to work on it sooner rather than later, by being open-minded and flexible we can avoid having more and more citizens thrown onto the streets.
So as you prepare to sit down to eat or are going to bed or are listening to the rain pound down – ask yourself what you can do or better yet will do about addressing this question of affordable housing. There are lots of little actions that can be taken to help, remember little actions all add up. And a good idea shared or put into action will spread.
We all know rain/water can wear away mountains. It does not do this in a massive wall of water but through countless little drops falling over time in different places. For affordable housing and other “too big” problems if many of us choose to be as that single drop of rain, we can and will wear away the “mountains” our inaction has made many issues into.
I am getting to old for homelessness or perhaps having a bed to sleep in spoiled me. Either way my new living arrangements have me stiffer than the proverbial board, feeling over 100 years old and moving very sloooooooooooow.
I admit I was definitely remiss in not focusing on making sure I got a station wagon or van during my sojourn indoors – and a laptop computer. I suppose I should have kept my priorities focused on the car and computer and not let things like classes, earning certifications, working, volunteering and pursuing mental health distract me from preparations for being on the street again.
With our out of balance housing market and economy it is a fact of life that more and more people, many of them working poor, are going to experience homelessness for at least some period(s) of time.
In fact we are now and have been for a while seeing even people with full time jobs who do not earn enough to pay all their bills because increasing housing costs have consumed a larger and larger portion of their disposable income. The working poor have the additional burden that their jobs prevent them from getting to the food bank to be able to save on food costs and therefore have more money available for housing.
As a society we can behave in our normal manner ignoring the problem, letting it worsen into crisis, having politicians and pundits make political footballs out of the matter etc. OR we could try a new approach – rational behaviour. Personally I am solidly in favour of acknowledging reality and behaving rationally as I have no wish to inflict on or share homelessness with anyone.
I admit I do not have a nice neat solution, probably because there isn’t one. From the Tao of James: always be suspicious of anyone who claims nice neat solutions to complex problems that involve people - they are lying or delusional.
Affordable housing is just such a complex problem. But by starting to work on it sooner rather than later, by being open-minded and flexible we can avoid having more and more citizens thrown onto the streets.
So as you prepare to sit down to eat or are going to bed or are listening to the rain pound down – ask yourself what you can do or better yet will do about addressing this question of affordable housing. There are lots of little actions that can be taken to help, remember little actions all add up. And a good idea shared or put into action will spread.
We all know rain/water can wear away mountains. It does not do this in a massive wall of water but through countless little drops falling over time in different places. For affordable housing and other “too big” problems if many of us choose to be as that single drop of rain, we can and will wear away the “mountains” our inaction has made many issues into.
“D’oh”
For Gordon Campbell quoting Homer Simpson would have been a verbally succinct method of conveying his real message on Homelessness.
Instead, in the way of politicians, he wasted peoples time by making them wade through a sea of words to arrive at the same place: Campbell and the Liberals have none of the fresh ideas or approaches needed to begin to reduce the homeless and addicted on our streets. With homelessness growing so quickly and into such a major issue Campbell and the Liberals had to do something, no matter how “Homer Simpsonish” (i.e. REAL DUMB) the actions were.
In desperation the Liberals have fallen back on the old political strategy of wastefully throwing taxpayers $$$ at the problem to make it appear they are addressing the issue. After all, if they are spending millions of hard earned taxpayer $$$ it must be going to accomplish something positive, right?
Wrong. Wasting money to open shelter beds 24 hours does not create a single new space for the homeless, although I concede it will pump more dollars into the pockets of those in the homeless industry/economy.
Unless of course an unannounced part of the plan is to use the beds in shifts in order to double (12 hour shift) or triple (8 hour shift) the effective number of beds available? Or perhaps the unannounced plan is to chain them to the beds, keeping them out of the public eye in order to create the illusion the problem is disappearing and thus solved?
I used the wording “something positive” in speaking of what opening 24 hours will accomplish because I know the opening 24 hour policy will give rise to negative effects. In speaking with those who run operations open 24 hours a day in our area they have stated that the one big change they would make is not to be open 24 hours – for a host of reasons.
Experience with the longer hours (basically 24) that come during an extreme weather response demonstrated that with 24 hour operations came/comes a host of headaches. These problems could be endured for the length of an extreme weather alert, but can be expected to compound at shelters that run 24 hours a day. The discussions I have witnessed among those experienced with shelter operations have always given rise to lots of problems and no real benefits – at least to the homeless.
What will this government, obviously bankrupt of any new and effective ideas, turn to next as a “solution” - internment camps in the interior?
We do need both more shelter beds and drop-in facilities for the homeless. Most of all we need to change how we deliver aid services to the homeless in order to help them recover themselves and their lives.
But such a course will require creativity, accepting reality as it is, risk, patience and change. In judging the likelihood of this based on Gordon Campbell’s recent statements I can only conclude:
D’oh.
For Gordon Campbell quoting Homer Simpson would have been a verbally succinct method of conveying his real message on Homelessness.
Instead, in the way of politicians, he wasted peoples time by making them wade through a sea of words to arrive at the same place: Campbell and the Liberals have none of the fresh ideas or approaches needed to begin to reduce the homeless and addicted on our streets. With homelessness growing so quickly and into such a major issue Campbell and the Liberals had to do something, no matter how “Homer Simpsonish” (i.e. REAL DUMB) the actions were.
In desperation the Liberals have fallen back on the old political strategy of wastefully throwing taxpayers $$$ at the problem to make it appear they are addressing the issue. After all, if they are spending millions of hard earned taxpayer $$$ it must be going to accomplish something positive, right?
Wrong. Wasting money to open shelter beds 24 hours does not create a single new space for the homeless, although I concede it will pump more dollars into the pockets of those in the homeless industry/economy.
Unless of course an unannounced part of the plan is to use the beds in shifts in order to double (12 hour shift) or triple (8 hour shift) the effective number of beds available? Or perhaps the unannounced plan is to chain them to the beds, keeping them out of the public eye in order to create the illusion the problem is disappearing and thus solved?
I used the wording “something positive” in speaking of what opening 24 hours will accomplish because I know the opening 24 hour policy will give rise to negative effects. In speaking with those who run operations open 24 hours a day in our area they have stated that the one big change they would make is not to be open 24 hours – for a host of reasons.
Experience with the longer hours (basically 24) that come during an extreme weather response demonstrated that with 24 hour operations came/comes a host of headaches. These problems could be endured for the length of an extreme weather alert, but can be expected to compound at shelters that run 24 hours a day. The discussions I have witnessed among those experienced with shelter operations have always given rise to lots of problems and no real benefits – at least to the homeless.
What will this government, obviously bankrupt of any new and effective ideas, turn to next as a “solution” - internment camps in the interior?
We do need both more shelter beds and drop-in facilities for the homeless. Most of all we need to change how we deliver aid services to the homeless in order to help them recover themselves and their lives.
But such a course will require creativity, accepting reality as it is, risk, patience and change. In judging the likelihood of this based on Gordon Campbell’s recent statements I can only conclude:
D’oh.
Love is a selfless emotion.
As I walked past the television an advertisement for the Alanon/Alateen Family Groups came on. This organization is about helping the families and children of alcoholism and addiction get healthy.
In recovering my own mental health I have come to an appreciation how much how we think affects our behaviour. I know that even if there had been a magic pill to cure my mental illness, taking it would have changed nothing. Having lived with the illness so long my thinking, my thought patterns, had become warped. “Curing” the illness would have accomplished nothing because I would have continued to think and act in the warped ways I had learned.
I am an adult child of alcoholism; I grew up in a household with an alcoholic parent. Children learn from their parents, are directly influenced by the environment they grow up in. I learned lots of bad ways of thinking, acquired a multitude of “-isms” that influenced and ruled my life and behaviours. The interaction between the “stinking thinking” I learned in my home life and my mental illness proved devastating, eventually consuming my life, myself and resulting in homelessness.
Recovery has been an interesting journey of learning, self discovery, growth and change. A significant part of my recovery has been to learn about and deal with the effects that being raised in a household with alcoholism had on my ways of thinking and perceiving the world around me. This knowledge has given me a keen appreciation of just how important it is to acknowledge and deal with the effects alcoholic or addiction have on children raised in that environment.
With the path my life has taken over the past several years I have a keen awareness of the extent that alcoholism and addiction exist in our society. Couple that with the experience and knowledge of the effects alcoholism and addiction have on children and I am left wondering why the local Alateen meeting is not overflowing with the children that simple mathematics tells us there are in need of help in dealing with and recovery from the effects alcoholism and addiction have had on their young lives and minds.
When I posed this question to an Alateen group I got some interesting and thought provoking answers. There is of course a thread of denial, of various forms and degrees, running through the “reasons” for parents not insisting their children seek out Alateen.
The “I am alright now and therefore everyone else will be or is” syndrome, ignoring the reality that you getting help to recover in no way helps those affected by your behaviour to recover from the effects of that behaviour. We are speaking of real life, not a fairy tale land of make believe and live happily ever after.
There is guilt, embarrassment and shame. Perfectly understandable human reactions, but not acceptable as excuses for not taking the actions you should.
You only compound the guilt when you let it prevent you form acting as you should. Those affected by your behaviour should be at the top of your amends list; especially children for your behaviours will have life long consequences for them – if you do not act to help them recovery healthy behaviours. You cannot change the past, you need to let it go or you will find yourself anchored to the past and to bad behaviours from your past. As uncomfortable as it maybe or may make you feel the amends you need to make is to help people recover from the effect your behaviour has had on them – including mentally and spiritually.
You need to deal with shame and embarrassment in the same manner as quilt, and as with guilt a major part of truly healing yourself is to help those your behaviour wounded to heal themselves. Shame and embarrassment – secrets, and we know you are as sick as your secrets. Secrets can be so very poisonous and the only true way to deal with them is to accept you behaviours and the results of those behaviours, acknowledging them, making amends as needed and cutting them free behind you so they do not poison the future.
Fear of what the kids will say and share about themselves, family and YOU. They will share what they need to share to get well – live with it. Groups such as AA, Alanon and Alateen only really work when one is able to share the truth and in a metaphysical and indefinable way – what you need to share or someone else needs to hear. Afraid they will speak of your insane behaviour? Get over it – and yourself.
Alateen is not about the parents, it is about letting the kids get healthy both mentally and spirituality. Non-sane behaviour is one of the consequences of alcoholism and addiction. Parenting is about doing the best you can in raising your children. Your past behaviour is just that – past and nothing you do will change that past nor make it cease to exist.
You can change the future. If you have any doubt about how important that is for your children, just ask any Adult Child of Alcoholism how important they know it is. There are good reasons that mental health professionals study the effect being raised in a home with alcoholism or addiction has and continues to have on children into their adult lives – and the lives of their children. There are many books and studies on how crippling and devastating be raised in alcohol, addiction or other unhealthy circumstances are on children and their lives.
If you love your children or grandchildren freely and without reservation and they have been affected by alcohol or addiction – get them to Abbotsford’s Alateen meeting. As an after word let me say that if a group or meeting would like to hear this message from the horse’s mouth – I know an Alateen or two who would be willing to speak – just be sure you really want to hear what they have to say.
As I walked past the television an advertisement for the Alanon/Alateen Family Groups came on. This organization is about helping the families and children of alcoholism and addiction get healthy.
In recovering my own mental health I have come to an appreciation how much how we think affects our behaviour. I know that even if there had been a magic pill to cure my mental illness, taking it would have changed nothing. Having lived with the illness so long my thinking, my thought patterns, had become warped. “Curing” the illness would have accomplished nothing because I would have continued to think and act in the warped ways I had learned.
I am an adult child of alcoholism; I grew up in a household with an alcoholic parent. Children learn from their parents, are directly influenced by the environment they grow up in. I learned lots of bad ways of thinking, acquired a multitude of “-isms” that influenced and ruled my life and behaviours. The interaction between the “stinking thinking” I learned in my home life and my mental illness proved devastating, eventually consuming my life, myself and resulting in homelessness.
Recovery has been an interesting journey of learning, self discovery, growth and change. A significant part of my recovery has been to learn about and deal with the effects that being raised in a household with alcoholism had on my ways of thinking and perceiving the world around me. This knowledge has given me a keen appreciation of just how important it is to acknowledge and deal with the effects alcoholic or addiction have on children raised in that environment.
With the path my life has taken over the past several years I have a keen awareness of the extent that alcoholism and addiction exist in our society. Couple that with the experience and knowledge of the effects alcoholism and addiction have on children and I am left wondering why the local Alateen meeting is not overflowing with the children that simple mathematics tells us there are in need of help in dealing with and recovery from the effects alcoholism and addiction have had on their young lives and minds.
When I posed this question to an Alateen group I got some interesting and thought provoking answers. There is of course a thread of denial, of various forms and degrees, running through the “reasons” for parents not insisting their children seek out Alateen.
The “I am alright now and therefore everyone else will be or is” syndrome, ignoring the reality that you getting help to recover in no way helps those affected by your behaviour to recover from the effects of that behaviour. We are speaking of real life, not a fairy tale land of make believe and live happily ever after.
There is guilt, embarrassment and shame. Perfectly understandable human reactions, but not acceptable as excuses for not taking the actions you should.
You only compound the guilt when you let it prevent you form acting as you should. Those affected by your behaviour should be at the top of your amends list; especially children for your behaviours will have life long consequences for them – if you do not act to help them recovery healthy behaviours. You cannot change the past, you need to let it go or you will find yourself anchored to the past and to bad behaviours from your past. As uncomfortable as it maybe or may make you feel the amends you need to make is to help people recover from the effect your behaviour has had on them – including mentally and spiritually.
You need to deal with shame and embarrassment in the same manner as quilt, and as with guilt a major part of truly healing yourself is to help those your behaviour wounded to heal themselves. Shame and embarrassment – secrets, and we know you are as sick as your secrets. Secrets can be so very poisonous and the only true way to deal with them is to accept you behaviours and the results of those behaviours, acknowledging them, making amends as needed and cutting them free behind you so they do not poison the future.
Fear of what the kids will say and share about themselves, family and YOU. They will share what they need to share to get well – live with it. Groups such as AA, Alanon and Alateen only really work when one is able to share the truth and in a metaphysical and indefinable way – what you need to share or someone else needs to hear. Afraid they will speak of your insane behaviour? Get over it – and yourself.
Alateen is not about the parents, it is about letting the kids get healthy both mentally and spirituality. Non-sane behaviour is one of the consequences of alcoholism and addiction. Parenting is about doing the best you can in raising your children. Your past behaviour is just that – past and nothing you do will change that past nor make it cease to exist.
You can change the future. If you have any doubt about how important that is for your children, just ask any Adult Child of Alcoholism how important they know it is. There are good reasons that mental health professionals study the effect being raised in a home with alcoholism or addiction has and continues to have on children into their adult lives – and the lives of their children. There are many books and studies on how crippling and devastating be raised in alcohol, addiction or other unhealthy circumstances are on children and their lives.
If you love your children or grandchildren freely and without reservation and they have been affected by alcohol or addiction – get them to Abbotsford’s Alateen meeting. As an after word let me say that if a group or meeting would like to hear this message from the horse’s mouth – I know an Alateen or two who would be willing to speak – just be sure you really want to hear what they have to say.
Homeless - Again
It did not look it, but my old VW was a lot roomier on the inside as a place to live than my current home, my ’87 Duster. I do count my great blessing that although cramped, it is dry.
The new month of October has found me once again homeless in abbotsford. High housing prices, tight housing market and the limited funds available to be spent on shelter defeated my efforts to find suitable accommodation to move into before October 1. At least this time I do have experience with the organization and planning required to at least have a chance to continue to search for a healthy place to live.
The next time you see a homeless person do not be quick to assume they are living homeless because they choose to – it just may be me and it certainly is not my first choice to be living in my car on the cold, wet streets of Abbotsford once again. It is just the reality of affordable housing in Abbotsford and cities across Canada.
Making my current homeless state more frustrating to me personally is that outside of housing my life was and is in many ways, starting to come together with some very interesting and challenging opportunities on the horizon. However it is now going to require a great deal of effort just to continue to move forward rather than just giving up in defeat. I have no desire to join the ranks of those beaten down to the point they have moved from homelessness to hopelessness.
There are some places that would fall within my limited budget had they been able to meet my one must requirement for a place to live; with my one requirement for housing for myself being that it be healthy. I have had the maddening and sad experience of watching those striving to get their lives back that made the mistake of thinking that having a roof over your head was worth living in an unhealthy environment.
I would see them come out of treatment or off the street full of energy and plans to get back their lives. In their desperation with the lack of affordable and healthy living space they would take whatever they could get. A few weeks (or less) later I would see them again – back into addiction, mental illness, despair and hopelessness.
My mental health and wellness is far to important to me, having taken years of hard work, to put it at risk in an unhealthy environment. I know from previous experience that I can maintain my mental health better living in my car than in the unhealthy housing situations so many of the homeless are forced to accept and then regret. What good is a place to live if it is going to rob you of your mental health, your future and dump you hopeless into homelessness.
City hall, city councillors, our mayor and the social development committee may be comfortable speaking so glibly of years before we can get anything concrete accomplished on the affordable housing front. This was an unacceptable attitude to me last month and the only difference this month is that the need for affordable housing NOW is more urgent to me in a personal manner.
So if you see someone who is homeless do not jump to the conclusion it is by choice. It may well be a reflection of the economic reality of prohibitive housing costs making healthy, secure affordable housing a dream to be chased for the poor and homeless. At least until people demand politicians act, not just flap their jaws in dealing with the affordable housing crisis before it becomes a disaster.
I know for myself that if preserving my mental health and getting more stability and control of my life requires another stint of living in my car for a period of time I will do that. I just hope it proves much shorter than the near two years of my last character test by homelessness.
My Linked Homeless Pages
Alternative Perspectives Views & News
Information & Reference
Lastest Posts
- Think. Think. Think. There are good reasons that ...
- Rules? What Rules? I was at a meeting focusing on...
- Budget Realities Establish Shelter Realities. I wa...
- Canadian Society Metaphorically Speaking
- From the 'We're Doomed File' Given that the defini...
- The Bare Facts December 15, 2011
- P3 - What's really going on? Participating in th...
- P3 - What's really going on?
- I draw your attention to how careful George Pear...
- Concerned about Council's P3 NOT Citizen's Pocketb...
Archives
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- August 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- November 2010
- December 2010
- January 2011
- February 2011
- March 2011
- April 2011
- May 2011
- June 2011
- July 2011
- August 2011
- September 2011
- October 2011
- November 2011
- December 2011
- January 2012
- February 2012
ATOM 0.3