Unexpectations -- Homelessness in Vancouver

Un-expectations

by Laurel Emery; Video by Matt Odom
 
VANCOUVER (HN) -- While moving around the downtown core of Vancouver, the homeless are as easy to spot as the coffee shops; there seems to be one on every corner.  Two blocks away, the Canadian hockey team is battling Norway but on East Hastings Street the struggle is more personal.
 
With eye glasses fastened with a unfolded paperclip and carefully rolled aluminum foil, Patricia Monty feels the defeat and affect of this long-term lifestyle.  Even her purported "good street cred" does not suppress her constant roaming eyes.  As we spoke, her attention swung back to the street.
 
Patricia has been struggling with homelessness on and off since 1972.  Admittedly, some of that time was self-imposed when she was a young free-spirited teenager.  With the safety net of her parents basement and fresh energy of the woman's movement, the street life decision was not permanent nor dire but an exercise of independence.  
 
Unfortunately, her current situation is a function of a debilitating disease, modest disability checks, and a government subsidy that does not cover the basic costs of affording a home. 

“I couch surf 50 percent of the time amongst friends,” she told HUM News. 

Patricia is not alone, the 2008 Metro Vancouver Homelessness Count enumerated 619 women, representing 27 percent of those on the street. It also found the number of homeless women had increased more quickly than men since the 2005 count.
 
When asked what it would take to get her off the streets, she momentarily jiggled a dance and fantasized about that potential:  “I want a home to set up in.  I am a grandmother.  I want to be in a garden with my grandson baking cookies and do all those stupid things ... I can't be a burden to my daughter.  It's hard enough for young people to make it,” she said.
 
“Once you are in the system, it 's hard to break out," she continued.  "You go for an interview and have no mailing address, you are turned away.  I used to be a biochemical engineer but developed fibromyalgia causing my memory loss.  I do web design now but have no office to set up a desk.” 
 
Patricia is an example of the expanding segment of homelessness in Vancouver -- women over 50 years old and grandmothers with no connection to their grandchildren.
 
In the early 1970s, the feminist movement was creating and launching independent women, liberated from the sanctioned path of marriage, the big house with multiple children.  Pioneers were afforded the possibility to set sail single.  The outcome of social movements have long term affects that may not have been fully forecasted.  Women are seemingly falling through the holes of the social fabric, according to various sources.
 
Now the notion of needing and wanting a “partner” is unexpected and essential.  Homeless women must partner with each other so that while one sleeps, the other defends their closely-kept personal items. 

“It is hard to stay awake all night long,” she said. 

Succumbing to drugs and/or exposure to the elements is likely and hard to repel. 
 
Gradually, government funded shelters and day clinics are being built to service female clientele.  Until recently, they have been such a small portion of the total homeless population that services were limited.  
 
As Vancouver presents its newly shined image to its international guests, the reality in some parts of Vancouver reveals a much different picture.  It is estimated that 3,000 people sleep in alleys and alcoves to 'bed down' during each night. 

Meeting Patricia put the crisis in perspective, giving us a glimpse into the lives of unlikely women in unlikely places.       

Comments

[Jill from Vancouver]

What a sad story about my home city! Shame on BC and the Vancouver political leadership!