SN Homelessness

                             Homeless Blog

Being homeless is a tragic situation to be stuck in. You start off living happily in a sheltered, safe home, under a roof. Then in a heartbeat, I’m out on the street. Running out of clothes to wear, food to eat, money to spend, and a bed to sleep in.

You’d never expect it to happen to you, never you. You always thought you would be the one driving past the homeless person on the street, on your way to buy loads of things you don’t need. You can never really tell the difference between your wants and needs when you don't have the option to have either.

Friends and family! The two most important type of people you’ll ever know. You need them, their support, their love. It’s hard to get by without them. If you can’t tell why, just look at me on the corner of this street with a cardboard sign in my hands. I took my friends and family for granted.

That’s why i’m here, that's why they're important, and that's where I messed up.

I believe that the government should put consideration into building shelters where they have lots of beds for the unfortunate to sleep on, and a breakfast, lunch, and dinner for them to be healthy. Also to open more easy jobs for the homeless just to get back on their feet. Homeless people usually have no support by any family or friends. Making therapy classes just for the less fortunate, with no charge, should give them more confidence in themselves and put them in a better situation.

I hope the government takes these ideas into consideration to make canada a better and happier place!

• Sheila .N.

KB Homelessness

I never thought I would end up homeless.

I graduated high school with top honours and got a college scholarship. I had a well-paying job, got married and started a family. I had what some might call a perfect life.

It wasn’t.

I worked an office job at a bank. It wasn’t the most exciting job I could hope for, but I enjoyed it. It paid well. What I didn’t know was that the bank was committing mass fraud. Four years after I started working there, the bank got found out and shut down, and my job was gone. To make matters worse, other banks didn’t trust anyone who worked at mine, because we were rumoured to all have been in on the fraud. No one would hire me.

At the same time,  my relationship with my husband was changing. We got into arguments more often. He told me it was my fault I didn’t have a job.  My youngest child came up to me and asked what “incompetent” meant.  She’d heard my husband call me that over the phone.  When I tried to talk to him that evening, he ignored me and left the house.  He came home two weeks later smelling of beer and cigarette smoke, and told me he was leaving.  Just like that, I was living out of only my savings account.

Life took a downward spiral: over the next few years I was barely able to pay the bills, started shopping at food banks, and later on very nearly starved myself in an attempt to feed my kids, who were going to school with no lunch in their backpacks.  I had to sell the house, but I couldn’t find a new one cheap enough to be able to pay for.  My kids went into foster care, and I packed up our hatchback with some extra clothes, a toothbrush, and all the non-perishables in my house.  It wasn’t a good situation, but it would keep my kids alive, and that was all I wanted.

I don’t care that I can barely pay the parking meter (3 months ago, my car broke down. I couldn’t afford to get it fixed, so I pushed it to the nearest spot I could park.  It was paid parking, but I didn’t want to lose the car, so I keep it there.)  I don’t care that I haven’t showered in weeks.  I’m doing this so I can see my kids again.  I haven’t talked to them face-to-face since the day the social services worker picked them up and drove them to their foster home.  I haven’t written a letter since my car broke down because now I can’t afford postage.  But I keep going.  I will do anything to see them again. I keep pushing.  

The government could help by erasing stigma, if it was able to.  One of the reasons I don’t have a job is because people think it’s my fault I’m jobless.  They won’t listen to the full story, not to mention that I’m considered untrustworthy because of the fraud.  An anti-stigma campaign would be nice, but it wouldn’t stop the ignorance completely.  Still, give it a try.

Another thing that you could do is pay those who’ve recently gotten a divorce )to pay for things like counselling, and to get you back on your feet when your partner’s paycheque is lost). I know it would help me a lot to have some extra money on hand.

Thank-you for your consideration.

K. Bateman

SB Homelessness

December, 3, 2016

I’ve been homeless for a little while now and I can honestly say it’s very difficult. Everyone thinks that if you sit on the side of a road or in front of a restaurant, somebody will feel bad and give you some money, No. A lot of people walk right past you and they just act like you aren’t there. Even sometimes they will pull their kids a little bit closer because there first thought is i’m going to try and steel their child. I’m a child too, a lot of the kids are the same age as me and almost the exact same as me in general, A 13 year old girl. The only difference is the other kids have a home to go too and lots of food and water to keep them well. I’m scared,hungry and I just wish that my life was different.

It’s been around 4 months since I’ve had a good meal, I am starving,dirty and I have no where to go when it gets cold outside. Put it this way, You are outside playing in the snow and you get cold. So you go inside and you put on some nice,warm and comphy clean clothes and your mom makes you some nice hot chocolate and you sit inside and enjoy it in the warmth. Well my life might just be the complete opposite. I have no coat or boots or a hat and no gloves. I’m cold all of the time and I have no mom to make me some hot chocolate.

My mom passed away around 5 months ago and I became homeless around 4 months ago. One day I was living in a beautiful home with both my mom and dad, My life was great. Then out of no where my mom had a heart attack while cleaning the kitchen. We rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. Alot of our money went to hospital bills and trying to save my mom but she passed away anyways. We had no clue what to do with ourselves.

We stayed inside for about a week then I cracked and my dad had a mental breakdown, I think you can guess what happend next. It happend so fast I couldn’t even actually process it. It’s like I blinked and then I was sitting in front of a restaurant asking for money just so I could have a decent meal. This is my life and I sure wish it wasn’t.

I think that the government could help the homeless by actually taking some time to think about how expensive everything is and if you have even one thing happen, it costs alot. If the governement knew how many people were homeless because of a loss of a family member or just how expensive things can be, I feel like there would be maybe a homeless shelter that you can stay in until you can get back up on your feet and start making changes. This shelter could be a temporary shelter for homeless people. You can’t stay there like it’s your own home, but you can stay there just to re-group and have a shelter.

Being homeless isn’t like they show in movies or TV shows. It’s completely different, but no one understands. If I could take away homelessness forever and I could make a change for the world, I would take that chance in less than a second. Till next time.

Skyllar. B

EB Homelessness

Émilie B

Busy, crammed days; fearful, frosty nights. Days, weeks, months... It all just blurs together for me.

Have you ever felt that bitter, November wind, biting at your cheeks as you watched your breath fog in front of your eyes? Remember that feeling of warmth, of safety, when you walked out of the cruel cold into a heated room? Now take that cherished feeling away.

That’s how it feels to be homeless.

I know, because I am.

Four years ago, at the age of twenty-five, one stupid choice led me to join the ranks of those who were evicted or kicked out of their homes, those who are unable to find a job or home themselves, and those who, no matter how hard they work, can never make enough to get off of the streets. I fall into the latter category. One poor decision was all it took for me to lose everything.

I have two part-time jobs that take up the dawn, sunlight and dusk portions of each day. When the shift of my second job ends, a clerk at a twenty-four hour convenience store, I pull off the key that hangs low on my neck to unlock the door of my five-year-old van, and drive to the fast-food restaurant part way across town, both my first job and my main source of food.

At this point of my life, my van is my home. I intend to accomplish much more in life.

A Few Suggestions For Future Employers:

• Do not eliminate if the permanent address portion is not filled in.
• Be willing to provide training workshops.
• Perhaps you and other companies could set up a mutual “work bus”, one that would provide transportation between shelters and the workplace.
• Do not discriminate between race, age and gender.
• Provide the option to be paid daily in cash.

By providing us with the opportunity to add experience to our résumés, hopefully employers can overlook our homelessness and see us as contributing and valuable members of society.

LB Homelessness

Homeless Blog Post.     Liam B.  Thursday, Dec 1, 2016

My life is RUINED! Let me Explain, a couple months ago my mom got very sick and eventually the hospital bills became too much to keep up with, everyday I was Hungry because i had no money for food, and every day my mom's condition got even worse, her health diminished every day, and one day she passed away due to a heart attack causing loss of brain function, it became hard to live without my mom, but i pushed through it, until the bank came and evicted me,that is. Like “that” my life was gone, no food, clean water, bed, and worst of all no family to take me in, I now live on the streets, sleeping under old tarps and on broken uncomfortable benches. Nights are cold, and winter is like Death, Frostbite is so common in homelessness, the rate of death is higher because of hypothermia, summer on the other hand is by far the best part of the year, so many people outside to draw away attention so you won't be judge, and even more to give you a little bit of spare change for some food.

Being Homeless is like being a caveman, hear me out.. Caveman hunted for any and all food they could get, just like me, minus the killing, as well as the fact that we have no clothing that's clean, or anything to wash those clothes with, let alone wash ourselves, similar to how cave men only wore small amounts of clothing and likely didn't bathe often either, and yes i know we don't know exactly how they live, but we know enough to base things like that off of it, though it might sound stereotypical.

But i think the you could change the lives of us homeless, we could provide them with more than just soup kitchens, and spare change you found in your back pocket, give them some clean clothes, and a place to bathe, sleep, eat, so they could look like normal people, and with that go get jobs without being disconsidered because they are homeless. This could get them out of the loop! We can help all Homeless, including myself, we need to change our mindset, the government has more than enough to help pay the water bills for their showers, and money for clothes, the clothes do not have to be top of the line, buy them from Salvation Army or Value Village, it may sound like i'm proposing a lot, but it truly is not, it’s less than we deserve with the way the world has treated and cheated us time and time again.

Thanks for reading my post!

-Liam

JC Homelessness

Jonathan C

It’s hard being homeless. You have to struggle for food every day, try to find somewhere to sleep every night, and it’s just miserable. I’ll bet that a lot of you are thinking about how sad that is, then you’ll move on to do whatever it is you have to do. I’ll also bet that most of you have walked past a homeless person and either thought “Look, a homeless person. I wish somebody would help him.” then walked right by or “Look, a homeless person. He’s probably a crackhead.” or something along those lines. The first thought is wrong, because not all homeless people are ‘crackheads’. Some are good people who were put into a bad situation through no fault of their own. The second thought is just ironic, because you could have helped him yourself. And before you start making excuses think about it. We're humans too, not just some failures that can't do anything right

Put yourself in a homeless person's shoes. Imagine the amount of gratitude you would feel if someone gave you a little money to buy food, or even gave you a second  chance at life. That’s what I’m asking from you. Help change the lives of hundreds of homeless people. There are numerous donation sites around the world. Just a small donation will change hundreds of lives. If one million people give up $5, than you can make $5 000 000 and save tons of lives. Imagine the impact of 10 million people. Or maybe even 50 million people. It would make a giant difference.

AC Homelessness

Government Blog Post: Homelessness

I became homeless slow and sadly, can anything get better? Who knows. I had a home to go to a kitchen to cook in and a bed to sleep in. But now it's a crappy van, with a dog I bought with the little bit of money I have. In mornings the only warmth I have is my dog and blankets, thin blankets.

When I decide to get up I pack all of my belongings in a big black bag and leave, hoping nobody steals any of my belongings. When I leave I usually head to the nearest library to search the web for jobs and anything else I can think of to atleast give me some happiness.

When i'm done that I head to the corner that I usually sit at. In Toronto you think there is so many people you can make a lot, well not exactly. Most people look at me and walk away I only get maybe 2-20 dollars a day, the 20 is if i'm lucky enough.

When I get enough to eat at least something, I head to the nearest corner store. I usually get Mr. Noodles, but sometimes i treat myself with other things. But by not you are all probably asking, how does it feel to be homeless? Well by the looks of it, horrible. I say that it feels cold and lonely because I have nobody but my cat and the librarian and I have become good friends.

Also I think that the government could help us by maybe making a shelter area in cites for all of us homeless people to have some place to stay. What that could do is make all of us connect and do something like start a campaign or an awareness to get us off the streets and back to our daily hard working lives.

That really concludes my blog post, thank you all for reading it and feeling my pain.

-A. Cowen

FrF Homelessness

Blog Post draft 2           

To the Canadian Government

I hate it. Everyday we homeless people are suffering on the streets. We’re Tired of being referred to drunk addicts. Assumptions like that are the reason why most people like us are looked down, and hated by society, most people who end up on the streets like me, is mostly due to poor family, lost family member, injury, or other stuff. I’m saying that in order for us to get off the streets, I think some changes should be done.

We homeless people have come up with numerous ideas to help ourselves. One of those ideas is that you, as the government can  improve this by opening more homes for us, but also have jobs for us so we get paid, which can help, so once we get out on the streets again, we’ll be open to much more options than we used to have, including more food, clothes, shelter, and much more.                                            

I think this suggestion would be a good solution to our problem, because we were always living on the streets. We’d be struggling to sustain our life needs everyday, but with my suggestion, it solves most of our problems, so we can get back into our homes. With that, you will be a hero for a lot of us homeless people, so then people like me will be able to rebuild our lives.

Please take this into consideration.

 Fred F.

FaF Homelessness

December 17, 2016

Imagine yourself as a 19 year old, homeless. 19, being an age where it was only a year after you graduated high school and were going to go to college or university. Imagine yourself, walking down streets, getting looks from strangers that think you’re trouble, so they divert their gaze away. Ever since I was 16, my father passed away due to stage 3 cancer, my mother stopped working for a bit so we were struggling to feed ourselves. My mother was starting to get sick because she refused to eat. Everyday she apologized for not taking care of me. But by the time I tried to earn a little money she got very sick and we couldn’t pay the hospital fees so I tried to get my mother better, the best as I can. But one day, I went home after school to check up on my mother and she was more sick than usual. It was only moments before she passed away.

I went into foster care and it was a very tough time for me. It was difficult to get along with the other kids around my age and at school my foster siblings acted like they didn't know me and told other kids I lost my parents. That’s when I decided to run away shortly after I turned 17, which wasn't the legal age for me to live by myself. I never really thought of what I was going to do and where I was going to go after I ran away. I still remember the day where it was late at night, and I packed my bags with the money I have earned while I was in foster care, and left without a word. For a while it went well as it could for someone who ran away with nowhere to go. I was staying at a motel for the mean time, until I got a good job. I got a job at a gas station, but there were too many robberies and theft that occurred so I couldn't stay there for my safety. After that, it was really hard to get a job, because when I submit my resumé, there isn't anything I can put as a personal skill as I never had the time during foster care to work on my personal skills other than going to school.

I had to stop living in the motel because I was running out of money. I settled down on a park bench at night and slept there just for a while, and that's when I slept there night after night. Most of the time, I would be at the library reading and on the internet looking for jobs. Now for food wise, feeding myself was even harder. I tried to save up as much money as I can because the food was very expensive these days, and I couldn't buy myself a proper meal. All of my belongings were in my backpack that I had since the first day I ran away. It wasn't big enough to fit all my stuff in there so I kept half of my stuff in a plastic bag and carried that around with me too.

I always think that someday I'll be able to get off the streets again and be working and go to university and become the doctor that I always wanted to be. But of course, it's very hard to do it by myself and I need the support of other people to help me.

Now since the government is willing to let us speak about how they can make the situation better, I would like to say that there should always be somewhere where we could go if we are struggling financially or we don't have a place to sleep and homeless. They could also initiate homeless connect events, where homeless people can go and get free food and win money and get free pairs of clothing. There's many more ways for the government to help, but those are the ideas I have.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak out.

Fatima F

HF Homelessness

My blog post

How does being homeless make you feel?

Homelessness is the most stressful upsetting and embarrassing feeling while being only 13 in the 8th grade. This morning I woke up to the sound of crying rather than the sound of my alarm clock and on a bench rather than my comfy and cozy bed from the house we just lost. The crying I was hearing came from my mom. She was crying over the loss of my dad and her job (which she had lost because she missed too much work while grieving.) She was also crying because she felt sorry for me which made me feel bad because I know she’s trying her best and the hardest she can to put on a brave face for me as I’m trying to do the same for her even though sometimes it can be hard.

Going to school practically sucks knowing I’m leaving my mom alone while she struggles to find a job. I keep trying to tell myself she’ll be okay everything will be fine. Even though deep down  I know it’s not. My friends have been wondering why I’ve been ignoring their invites over and why I haven’t invited them over myself. “Come on we haven’t hung out in FOREVER!” They say but I’m just too nervous and upset to admit anything to them yet. Even though I trust them I’m just not ready to tell anyone yet. I’ll tell them when the time is right but for now, I am afraid.

How could we improve the homelessness problem?

I had a thought on something that could improve the homelessness problem and I thought we could have a day called Homelessness Awareness Day! On Homelessness Awareness Day, a small amount of profits from certain stores will go towards homelessness. Or there will be places where you can donate things that could be useful for a homeless person that you don’t use anymore! I think this could be something really fun to do once a month and a very kind gesture to participate for the 10% of Canadians who have to suffer this horrible situation. I hope you take the time to consider my idea because it would mean the WORLD to my mom and I. We really want to make this dream a reality and get back on our feet as soon as we can!

Thank you,

Holly F