Tag Archives: victoria

A Modern Christmas?

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What do kicking someone out of their halfway house-type accommodation, calling emergency mental health services and then having someone forcibly removed from the premises by police, and finding a dead body have in common? Apparently they are all in a weeks work when you work at the largest emergency shelter in town.

But that isn’t what I came here to write about. I had wanted to write a story of happiness, of Christmas spirit and Christmas joy at work in the emergency shelters.

We are all familiar with the story of two young people travelling a long distance, one preggo, only to find there is no where for them to stay when they get to their destination. I don’t know if I’ve ever stopped to think about whether or not they had money for a place even if there was one to be found, but like it or not, they were homeless.

How might that story translate to 2011?

It is Christmas Eve and this young family with three children under six finds themselves unable to sleep in their car as they have been for the last while: it is raining and the back window is broken. Not only that but they have no food. Alone and strangers in town, they make their way to the emergency shelter.

Sorry, we can’t take children. We are a 19+ shelter only.

But what about families? Where are families supposed to go?

We’ll call the Ministry and see what they suggest … They are closed until Tuesday, there is nothing we can do … We’ll check with the Housing workers at the Community Centre that administers our family units … Also on holidays … Well, we just happen to have one of our family units vacant at the moment. It isn’t large, in fact there is only 1 bedroom for the five of you, but it is warm and dry and you can leave your small car in the parking lot …

And so some staff members went grocery shopping and then shopping to get Christmas gifts for three youngsters who’s parents were afraid to tell them it was Christmas Eve for fear of disappointing them with another year of nothing.

While it isn’t much, it is five more people out of the cold with a dry roof over their heads and a stable floor below their feet. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Roadtrip With Reason

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I have high intentions of getting back onto the Friday Photo train, however that will have to wait until I can find the uploading device for my camera. I’m pretty certain which box it is in.

I was emailed this link by the manager of shelters at work. While I don’t post things about my work, after my facebook link earlier this week to a ten minute interview with “homeless poets” (from the writing workshop at my workplace), this one fits right in. In it, a young person volunteering her way across the country stopped for a while at my shelter and spent time volunteering with us. She writes about her experience with us.

Friday Photo

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Well. It has been a busy week. Today is my first day off since Sunday and then I’m working the next four before leaving to Ontario for a few days. (Wow, it sounds a little depressing when I actually stop to think about how much I’m working and write it all out.) So in expectation of hanging out with some fantastic people in Ontario next week, I’m calling them the light at the end of the tunnel (or, in the case of this picture, the Chinatown alleyway…).

Homelessness Action Week

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Today’s Friday Photo is brought to you by Homelessness Action Week.

This is the first year that I can actually say with confidence that I am on a first-name basis with many of the homeless in our city. I had that brought home twice last week. On one occasion, I was sitting in the atrium of the Public Library and two of our clients at the shelter walked by. I knew both of their names and have had interactions with both of them. One of them, I knew something of her story and we’ve talked on a slightly deeper than surface level about the joys and pains of family. On the other occasion, I stopped to get a coffee at the 7-11 (pretty much the only place serving coffee that is open after 10pm on a Friday night) when a young fellow on a bench caught my eye and said hello. My attention had been grabbed by one of his companions, a girl who didn’t look like she could be more than 16 or 17 with a sign saying she was pregnant and needed money. I didn’t know the girl, but I knew him. I knew his name and where he was staying. We’ve talked a few times and he seems like a fun kid who has had his innocence taken away by living on the street and in a homeless shelter.

I don’t know if it is possible to classify a “most tragic” case of homelessness, but the one that always gets me is the working poor. I see so many people who have no mental illness and no addiction issues but, for whatever reason, cannot get together enough money to hold down a place to live. It really sucks to see them on the street or in the shelter. These are the people who are participating members of society and yet they do not get enough back to be able to have a place to live.

Sunday Evening

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I was walking through downtown after dropping someone off at the ferry terminal. I decided I needed a coffee, and so hit up a favourite place on the edge of Chinatown. From there, it is only a couple blocks to a bus stop where the bus that drops me practically at my front door stops.

As I walked through the square, I noticed a crowd of people gathering under an overhang. Not yet close enough to see what it was, I initially thought it was the Sunday market gone into overtime. As I drew closer, I saw that it was something else entirely. I began to suspect it was CARTS as I started to recognize some of the individuals standing around. It was interesting to see clients I am used to seeing at the Shelters in another context entirely.

I continued on to the bus stop, wondering if I should say hi. Obviously that would be weird and a complete breach of confidentiality, so I did not. Some of the individuals drifted over to the bus stop and loitered for a while before crossing Douglas St to another part of town. Others I have seen since, wandering around town. Many do not recognize me from shift to shift at the shelter, so I am not sure why I think they might recognize me outside of the shelter. If they did recognize me, I don’t think that would make any difference to how I reacted. Once again, however, I am struck by how thin the line is that separates me from them.

New Jobs New Outlooks

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I started a new job. To date, I am just casual/on call (which means that my phone is always on and by my side so that I can pick up shifts), but I have begun a new job. I am working in an emergency shelter.

To be honest, it isn’t the job I thought I would have when I finished my Masters in Counselling. I had all sorts of grand ideas about setting up private practice somewhere and settling in to that working world. Now that this has happened and I am getting into the rhythm of working here, I am enjoying it and right now I would rather be doing this then establishing a practice. Not to downplay the important work that is done in private practice – work that I have participated in myself in my sessions with individuals dealing with marital conflict, anger and alcohol use, mild depression, identity questions, and grief – but there is something quite satisfying in working with people on a more base level of survival: providing food and shelter and basic human contact.

The kicker is that some of the individuals I see regularly at the shelter are not individuals I would have placed in that arbitrary category of “homeless” or “needing shelter housing”. They look just like me. They don’t all have that glaze of addiction over their eyes. Some are quite well-dressed and well-groomed. They are intelligent. In other words, they don’t, at least not obviously, all belong in that ‘other’ category of “mentally ill” or “addicted”.

Others do, and I have already had my share of entertaining encounters with those who are high, drunk, or experiencing delusions and/or psychosis. We’ve had to call the paramedics but, thankfully, not the police (yet). All in a day’s – or night’s – work as they say.

While I make it a practice to not talk about work on my personal blog, sharing my responses and reactions to working in this field is something I feel okay about doing because it is about my own personal growth and will hopefully be able to continue as I spend more time with a segment of society we often ignore and overlook. I’m looking forward to getting to know people and sharing parts of life with them.

[As I was writing this, I checked my rss feed and read this post by Tall Skinny Kiwi on choosing to be homeless and thought it an interesting comparison/compliment to the individuals I work with and challenge for our spiritual life.]

Friday Photo

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I’m sailing the West Coast of Vancouver Island right now. Instead, this photo is from the summer I cooked the West Coast after returning from Offshore. After seven or eight days of playing on the West Coast with the kids we pick up in Ucluelet, we round the bottom of Vancouver Island back to Victoria, ending the last trip of the summer. On the way around we pass Race Rocks lighthouse. The light has been going for something like 150 years. There are lots of sea lions that make their home on the island. Another Race Rocks trivia item is that there is a local brew named after it…