Five! Effing. Years.
Unhoused struggling to survive the mean streets of Brutish Columbia (not a misspelling) since leaving Northern Ontario where poverty, the pandemic and ridiculous tenancy circumstances required leaping from frigid Parry Sound to at-least-I-won't-freeze-over-winter-out-of-doors Bowen Island, now known as Bully Island in my head.
Still impoverished. Still unhoused. Still appalled at the paucity of fucks given by communities, province, country despite the collections of statistics, words spoken, written in reports, recommendations even court rulings regarding the issues and the continuing mistreatment, lack of respect for human rights purported to be so and lack of support for the most vulnerable members of these communities.
As Brutish Columbia has no access to justice measures in place for those with low or no income, fighting back through the (in)justice system takes resources and time we at the bottom of the heap don't have. Antisocial local governments take advantage of this - enforcing their arbitrary bylaws with impunity and with intentional lack of respect for our humanity by stealing and disposing of our belongings and tools of survival requiring us to begin again (and again, and again!) from scratch in the same legal and social hellscape that's stacked against us.
My crime? Being impoverished. Well, being impoverished and not staying out of sight but choosing to stand up for my rights (everyone's rights) as well as I can rather than caving to unreasonable, unfair and some possibly illegal demands from local government agents and office holders.
Without access to legal representation in a timely manner I and others in same circumstance are and continue to be sitting ducks. Easy targets for local government bylaw officers and the affronted property holders who use them to harass by proxy.
Using public dollars to make life more miserable for the more vulnerable members of the public seems not just immoral, unethical but wholly dysfunctional - illogical in the short and long terms.
Yet tax paying residents in these communities rarely object in any substantial or effective manner. At least that's been my experience - so far.
Today I am wholly exhausted by this adventure and the harms it has effected and it's only just the start of the easier outdoor survival period.
Reading this article [via HomelessHub.ca] titled Life in the 'Hum': Belongings and Everyday Dispossession
( https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/ijoh/article/view/16988/16056 )
brought to mind all I experienced on Bully Island prompting a restart of posting my fury and perspectives as a person who, it seems, should not exist given the complete lack of safe, humane, dignity and mental health preserving supports available to non-addicted functional adults here.
But I do and intend to continue to exist. And intend to seek justice. Right after I find a safe and stable place to be. By safe I mean physical and psychological safety. One isn't much good without the other in my opinion and given my personal history being treated as an incompetent child/addict, sharing space with dysfunctional others (esp. male others) and/or subject to prison-like rules restricting movement etc is a non-starter.
My fixed income ( CPP + OAS + GIS ) wouldn't cover market based rent and allow me to feed, clothe myself at the same time. So social housing, with rent geared to income is the answer.
When I first landed in Squamish about a year and a half ago there was none available. Sincerely hoping the outreach worker who thought there might be something now is correct and I can avoid yet another relocation.
Five fucking years. C'mon, Canada. Do better. For all.
PS: I do hope certain BIMBOs read the article linked. Might instill a bit of self-reflection?