Does life have to hurt this much?

I've known Damien (not his real name) for a couple of years now. I first met him on a sunny August morning at Table Time, the almost weekly outreach that Pastor Quinn and I are able to offer thanks to the donations that Inner City Pastoral Ministry receives from supporters who care about our homeless community members. 

On that particular Tuesday morning, Damien crossed the road to say hello to us. He wished us an enthusiastic "Happy Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God!" and we had a little chat about his connection to the Ukrainian Orthodox church before he started talking philosophy with Quinn. I soon realized that Quinn and Damien had engaged in several such conversations in the past. 

In subsequent encounters, Damien struck me as a rather brilliant renaissance man, well-read and well-educated on many topics, and there was nothing he loved more than sharing what he was learning. Usually, he was coming or going from the library when we saw him. I often wondered why he didn't have a home, but whenever Quinn asked him about getting into housing, he said he was content where he was living (at Hope Mission's men's shelter, though his beliefs don't exactly fit with Hope's evangelical bent).

It has been so cold in February that there were a few Table Times that Quinn and I missed. When it's -30 with a -40 windchill, there's no point standing on the corner near Bissell Centre to hand out clothing, snacks, or toiletries because homeless people are holed up trying to stay warm in the library, malls, LRT stations or tarp/tent shelters -- wherever it's warm and bylaw officers are scarce. 

Yesterday, we learned from Bissell West staff that sometime in the recent weeks of extreme cold, Damien experienced frostbite so severe that all his fingers and one thumb had to be amputated. And my heart immediately broke for this sweet fellow who has no real home, and now, a serious disability that could have been prevented. How will he hold his beloved books and turn their pages?

What makes Damien's story even harder to bear is that the Bissell Centre West community space, which, for many years, has held a drop-in for people who are homeless and precariously-housed, is being closed on March 31st. City and province are no longer willing to support its essential services. 

Make no mistake, the community space is essential. It offers warmth on cold days, a place to get out of the blazing sun on hot days, not to mention washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, nurses who offer first aid, a clothing closet, an Indigenous cultural space, coffee, snacks, and a few other amenities that most of us who live in comfort take for granted. 

Perhaps more important than all those things, however, the community space offers a place where people can connect with their friends, and where they can receive help from staff members who have the right blend of humour and heart to really care for community members who come in. The Bissell staff I know are exceptionally kind people who go far beyond their job descriptions. I suspect that for them, working in the drop-in is a vocation more than a job. They worry when regulars don't show up. 

And regulars are people just like you and me except their lives have unraveled through no fault of their own -- people suffering from deep poverty often complicated by mental health issues, physical and/or mental disabilities, intergenerational trauma, addictions, and other challenges. Every individual has a heartbreaking story, and many, like Damien, don't talk about it.

It hurts that when the Community Space closes on March 31st, there is one less place for homeless sisters and brothers to safely gather and connect. Their supports are consistently being eroded by governments that would rather pretend they don't exist, or who want to force them all into detox facilities before they have the appropriate supports to be psychologically ready for substance-free living. The Public Spaces bylaws passed by Edmonton City Council this week will make life even more difficult for them. And I'll be surprised if people who are homeless are even mentioned in tomorrow's provincial budget.

Their supports are consistently being eroded. Yes, I'm saying it again.

And nobody is stepping up to say, "This is Wrong!"

Yesterday I sat on my back steps and sobbed for Damien and his stubs of hands, and tears also ran down my cheeks for the wonderful Bissell staff members whose hearts are completely broken -- and who are about to be laid off -- but who are still talking about a March memorial service for people who have died on our streets in the last four months. The staff know and care for the community one-on-one and don't want lives to end unremembered. 

My tears have dried up long enough to write this post, but I am left with a burning anger that chokes my throat and stings my eyes. 

That's nothing compared to Damien's pain from losing all his fingers and a thumb in the past weeks.

Does life have to hurt this much in a wealthy city and province like ours?

It shouldn't. That's why I'm telling you, friends, about what's going on. The Bissell staff's hands are tied by policies preventing them from speaking out. 

But mine aren't.

Of course, my writing isn't enough unless it motivates good people like you to do something. At the bottom of this post are the email addresses and phone numbers of the Alberta Premier and various ministers who should have a stake in caring for ALL Albertans, as well as Edmonton's city councilors and mayor, who need to be reminded to spend public money on care for the homeless rather than ineffective police and cleanup crews. I've put all this information together in one place to make contacting officials easier. 

Please -- send emails demanding that the Bissell Centre West Community Space be kept open and well-staffed, and that services for homeless people be expanded rather than cut, copying your message to your own MLA, too. If you have a few extra minutes, it would be great to follow up your email with a phone call. And if you would be so kind as to share this post among your own friends and family so that they can also help, you'd be adding numbers to these efforts. We all know there is strength in numbers.

If you live elsewhere, please consider writing and calling your own politicians demanding an increase in services for people who are homeless in your area, as well as supportive and affordable housing for all.

Life doesn't have to hurt this much. 

Not if we all work together for positive change. 

* * * * * * *

With many thanks to Jim Gurnett for his helpful words.

Provincial contacts:

premier@gov.ab.ca (Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta) (780) 427-2251

SCSS.Minister@gov.ab.ca (Jason Nixon, Seniors and Community Services) (780) 643-6210

PSES.Minister@gov.ab.ca (Mike Ellis, Public Safety and Emergency Services) (780) 415-1550

MHA.Minister@gov.ab.ca (Dan Williams, Mental Health and Addiction) (780) 427-0165

Health.Minister@gov.ab.ca (Adriana LaGrange) (780) 427-7164

Minister.MunicipalAffairs@gov.ab.ca (Rick McIver) (780) 427-3744

IR.MinisterOffice@gov.ab.ca (Rick Wilson, Indigenous Relations) (780) 422-4144

City of Edmonton contacts:

aaron.paquette@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8138

andrew.knack@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8122

anne.stevenson@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8333

ashley.salvador@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8140

erin.rutherford@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8136

jennifer.rice@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8132

jo-anne.wright@edmonton.ca  (780) 496-8148

karen.principe@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8128

keren.tang@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8142

michael.janz@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8146

sarah.hamilton@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8120

tim.cartmell@edmonton.ca (780) 496-8130

amarjeet.sohi@edmonton.ca (No phone number that I could find)

What a housing emergency means

Yesterday, here in Edmonton, Mayor Sohi declared a housing emergency in an effort to bring all levels of government together to come up with housing solutions. A good step, but there's a long way to go. At this point, it's anybody's guess as to whether other government officials will actually show up to the meetings.

Temperatures here in Canada's northernmost provincial capital are warming up a wee bit (-20 with windchill to -30 as I write), but people are still suffering frostbite and there have been at least 3 deaths from the cold this week that I know of, likely more. A housing emergency means that there aren't enough places for people in my city to stay warm, never mind live in a community of their own choosing. It means more than that, too.

As Canadians, we have been told that our country is high on the list of places where migrants and refugees want to live. For decades, our standard of living has been something many aspire to share. We've been proud of that.

But the fact is that housing prices continue to rise (due to greed in some cases) and because of that, there clearly isn't enough affordable housing for the people already here. If there was, no one would be freezing to death outside. Our governments used to invest in supportive and affordable housing, but lately they haven't put money down to get shovels in the ground and build what is needed right now. 

If that's not a housing emergency, I don't know what is. Clearly, things have to change so that we can ensure that no one has to live outdoors, and so we can welcome new would-be Canadians, especially from places where life is untenable.

I wasn't going to share this interview link from early Sunday morning as it feels embarrassing to do so, but the images (notice the fellow I wrote about last week with his dog, Billy Bob, on the trolley?) and the last minute or so of the interview about contacting elected officials -- are the whole point of what I keep going on about here. 

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2299556419635

The thing is, the inability to afford a home that affects even one person has a ripple effect on all of us. We are all connected, whether we realize it or not. No matter where we live, it's possible we don't realize that some of our neighbours may be having to choose between paying the rent or buying groceries/medications. 

Some of us might be safe, warm, and secure for the moment, but if we don't speak up in defense of those who are struggling, their miseries will compound, and might overwhelm the systems that sustain us all. Crime rates, pressures on healthcare and mental health, addictions, and so many other ills only increase when people are up against a wall. That's a future that none of us really want to imagine. 

So it's time to make noise.

Please, if you haven't already, contact your elected officials. Remind them that all of Canada (all of the world, really) is in various states of housing emergency. Give them the Bottom Line: housing is a human right, and government officials MUST work to ensure that everyone has homes that they can afford. And if you want to go the extra mile, suggest that basic income for all would be helpful too.

Both can happen with some effort, creativity and political will. But we have to push our politicians in the right direction, because they get distracted from these life and death situations by the darndest things! 

After reading my last moodling, my mom said, "why don't you post contact information for people who want to write letters?" So here it is. Mom -- you're right, I should have done it sooner! And everyone is welcome to share this moodling/these addresses with their circle of friends!

Sean Fraser, Canada's Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities. Email address -- sean.fraser@parl.gc.ca 

Jason Nixon, Alberta's Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services. Email address -- scss.minister@gov.ab.ca

And if you're not Albertan or Canadian, please don't doubt that there's a housing emergency where you live. It's world wide. Sending an email or phoning your own elected officials can get the ball rolling for a better and more resilient world. 

Hey, there's my word of the year!

I'll get off my soapbox now and post happier things for the rest of the month, I promise!

Remembering 209

Imagine losing 5 friendly faces out of your life every week.

Yesterday, the staff of the Bissell Centre and the Inner City Pastoral Ministry team gathered to remember the 209 people who died in the inner-city between February 1 and October 31. If you do the math, that's 5 people a week, more or less, depending on the week.

In my role as ICPM lunch coordinator, I don't often have enough time to ask people their names in the 10-second interaction as they collect snack bags and coffee outside the Bissell's doors on a Sunday morning, but I try to look them in the eye, greet them, and ask how they're doing. And if they come around regularly, I know their faces, if not their names.

We shed many tears during our ceremony, especially when Jeremiah from the Mustard Seed put his heart and soul into singing one of the best anthems of lament -- Gone Away by The Offspring -- "And it feels, and it feels like heaven is so far away, and it feels, and it feels like the world is so cold now that you've gone away."

Things are not getting better for homeless folks downtown. Today, I'm sending a very short letter with the picture above to the Prime Minister, my Premier, provincial health and housing ministers, and as many MLAs as I can with the request that they spend public dollars on 1) safe consumption sites and 2) affordable housing.

I just don't know what else to do. 

209 is too many. Even one is.

When ONE is too many

The City of Edmonton's annual homeless count is today. Volunteers endeavor to find and count the homeless people in our city, and I always wonder how accurate their count is. Not very, I suspect.

Yesterday, I drove Lee to his place of work in the Research Park not far from the Anthony Henday ring road, and took Shadow-dog for a walk around the area. It's a lovely area with a couple of ponds and many well-placed trees, not far from South Edmonton Common, a major shopping centre. 

So I wasn't too surprised when I discovered a man with a shopping cart living among the trees in an unused corner of a parking lot. I'm guessing his chance of being counted today is pretty much nil.

The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH) sent other volunteers out today with a handbill containing some of the info you'll read below. ECOHH wants to raise awareness of the fact that a count of the homeless population doesn't really do much to solve anything. However, the handbill did manage to shock a group of teenagers when they read that 222 people died on Edmonton's streets in 2021, compared to 132 in 2020. It's clear that serious issues for homeless people are increasing.

It's one thing to gather statistics on how many people are homeless, and another to solve the lack of non-market affordable housing. Homeward Trust, a local social service organization that has a program called Housing First, notes on its website homepage that 2,671 people are currently experiencing homelessness. Of them, 56% identify as Indigenous, 45% as female, and 18% as youth.

In a wealthy province and country called Alberta, Canada, even ONE homeless person is too many.

Even more shocking, it's estimated that more than a quarter million people in our country will experience homelessness at some point this year.

Edmonton City Council is doing what it can, but the real problem is that provincial and federal funding for affordable housing and support services has been completely inadequate since the 1980s. Adequate housing is a human right, one the 2,671 people known to Homeward Trust lack. And that number doesn't begin to address the tens of thousands of people who are living in unsafe, unhealthy, inadequate, or too expensive places, people who are in danger of becoming homeless themselves for any number of reasons.

So what do we do? For the moment, we can write Premier Jason Kenney (premier@gov.ab.ca) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca) and tell them it's past time to invest in actually building desperately needed housing. They need to be reminded that it has been proven, time and again, that giving people a roof over their heads is more fiscally responsible than leaving them to fend for themselves on the streets. Otherwise, governments end up investing more taxpayer funds to care for homeless people than investments in housing and wrap-around care require.

Even one homeless person is too many. Especially when you come upon one who seems to be dying on the sidewalk before your eyes, as I did on Sunday morning.

If you are able, please click those email addresses and write to ask that federal and provincial governments invest in affordable housing and wrap-around care. If you're not from Alberta, it's easy to computer search your own politicians. 

It's time to #endhomelessnessyeg. And everywhere else, too.

December 5, 2021
There's a much longer line of tents now...