The Tuesday morning crowd

Folks waiting for lunch at Bissell Centre

It's a warm one. This morning Quinn (the pastor from Inner City Pastoral Ministry) and I took a quick trip to Walmart for water, juice, snacks, underwear and toiletries, and went to offer what we bought to the folks living in tents and makeshift shelters around the Bissell Centre. They were glad to get supplies, and some stopped to chat with us, blessing us as they went on their way.

I was glad I went, as J, a regular at our Sunday Community of Emmanuel services, told me that she's going back to her home town in Iqaluit soon, since her father recently passed away, and she was here "looking after him" for the past 21 years. I received two big hugs from her, tiny as she is. I hope she'll be okay. 

Why am I moodling about my morning? Well, in case you missed it, Edmonton City Council recently decided against allowing small permanent encampments to be established for its homeless population, deciding that it was more cost effective to hire a few more outreach workers to go out to the camps scattered throughout the city. At present, there are many tents set up around the Bissell, and an outreach worker stopped by to say good morning. Quinn asked him what it was like to try to help folks in the area. 

"I'm having to cover a lot of ground," he said, "because they’re not just here -- they're spread all over, and down into the river valley. And then, just when I'm making progress to help someone with getting housed, their camp is dismantled because it’s deemed too messy or noisy, or violating bylaws, and I have to spend two or three days trying to find folks again because they've been forced to relocate." 

How is this more cost effective? City of Edmonton, are you listening to your own employees? Your Encampment Response non-Strategy isn't working very well.

Quinn and I found paths through the tent area in the vacant (but full) lot north of the Bissell to pass out our remaining water bottles, and lamented that, since some of the dwellings had encroached across a public sidewalk, it won't be long before police and cleanup crews dismantle them and send residents scurrying to find shelter elsewhere yet again. 

The tents, tarps, and belongings of these people will go to the trash heap, and they'll have to start over, scrounging for the basics. One of the dwellings I noticed was barely there -- a small blue tarp tied to a fence and held up with two small pieces of wood, open to the elements, two sleeping mats inside, tidy as could be. Of course, not many were quite that organized.

Heading back towards Quinn’s car, we noticed a young man in some drug-induced distress on the sidewalk in front of the Bissell. While Quinn went to look for a street healthcare worker, I stayed with the line of folks waiting to get into the Centre for lunch, making sure that the young man’s shopping cart was shading him from the hot sun. 

The people in line were concerned for the fellow, though no one knew his name. One offered his half can of Grape Crush, another asked if someone should call EMS. I assured her that the one resting on the sidewalk didn’t seem to be in immediate danger, and watched the interactions going on among the Tuesday morning crowd.

One of the most frustrating things about the City's response to homelessness is that it announced that it has increased the Bissell Centre's hours, when actually, Bissell hours have been cut back significantly. When we serve ICPM bag lunches on Sunday mornings, we were able to say "It will open at noon," but now we are constantly saying, "Sorry, it's not open today; come back tomorrow."

The homeless folks in the inner city face many challenges, but clearly, what gets them through, more than help from the city, is that they are a somewhat cohesive community simply because they know each other, and share similar struggles. This morning in the area around the Bissell, folks were looking out for each other, sharing things amongst themselves, loudly suggesting that the angry ones “walk away,” and encouraging each other to have patience. And they all seem to have more patience than I do. 

Or perhaps it's resignation, and who can blame them? 

Resignation about social issues among the general public gets us nowhere. Yes, encampments will have their problems, but dividing up community by frequently dismantling it only adds to the struggles these homeless folks are trying to handle in the best way they can -- by working together and helping each other. 

Those of us fortunate enough to have roofs over our heads need to get off our resignation.

What can we do? There has to be something. A province bringing in a surplus thanks to oil money has no excuse for its citizens having to live under tarps.

I guess it's time to write more letters and emails...