Homeless – Lost In A Society With Limited Compassion

Homeless or unhoused? Although they are used to describe the same thing, there is quite a difference in the meaning of these two words. Homeless means lacking the physical and psychological necessities of life. But unhoused, which means lacking consistent shelter, seems somewhat less tragic. So, unhoused is commonly used to soften the seriousness of the situation. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone to think that homelessness is a terrible lifestyle.

Disclaimer: I write this as a layperson and about things I have witnessed. I don’t pretend to have any solutions to the problem. I am not a professional on this topic, only a concerned citizen.

Life of the Homeless

This essay specifically refers to those living on the streets. Living the life of a homeless person is a challenging existence at best and a life-threatening one at worst. It is an unpleasant, unhealthy, and unsafe lifestyle with no end in sight. There has to be a solution to the misery of these less fortunate people, but no one seems to know what it is.

Many people in today’s society live from paycheque to paycheque. It’s just the Western way of life: Live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself. But usually, people have choices. With the homeless, choices have been taken away. They have no choices! Their lives are the same every day: thinking about where their next meal is coming from and where they will sleep that night. There’s not much in life for them to look forward to.

A History of Homelessness in Canada

Homelessness was not a social problem in Canada until the 1980s. Two major government decisions and two more recent happenings have significantly changed the situation of homeless people in Canada.

Government Cuts to Housing Subsidies

Up to and throughout the 1970s, housing was considered a basic need for survival. Governments and society were responsible for supplying that need. In the 1980s, housing became less of a priority for Canada and other Western countries. While these countries were becoming wealthier, the general public was not necessarily. Governments began to cut housing programs. By 1987, there was significant demand for affordable housing for low-income families, but government funding was no longer available.

At this time, many people who had never experienced homelessness before were about to. The Canadian government’s answer to this increasing problem was emergency shelters and soup kitchens. Not only had housing become unaffordable for many, but so had the cost of food. These problems have increased dramatically over the decades, which has brought us to where we are now.

Closure of Mental Institutions

Mental institutions had gone through significant changes over the years. Based on today’s standards, early institutions were equivalent to dungeons of horror, where doctors and caretakers committed gruesome experiments on inmates in the name of medical science. The institutions were forced to stop using these cruel “cures” due to public outcry when they were exposed.

Even though these types of treatments ceased, many felt that mental institutions were not the best choice of care for their loved ones. Mental institutions all over North America began to wind down as early as the 1950s. The idea was that patients would readily integrate into society, and many did. However, not enough consideration was given to this integration’s effect on the patients’ families or society at large. And what about those who didn’t integrate or didn’t have families or anyone to ensure they took their medication? Many of them are now living on the streets. And the younger ones have never known an institution or the care needed.

Drug Addiction

Drug addiction has always been a problem in most Western societies, with what some might consider softer addictions, such as nicotine or alcohol, compared to what’s on the streets now. The opioid crisis began in Canada in early 2016, and there has been no let-up since. Alcohol addiction, the slow killer, was bad enough, but this new addiction can and does snuff out a life with one encounter.

Renoviction

Renoviction combines the two words renovate and eviction. It is a term used to evict tenants from their rented housing for renovation reasons. The proposed renovation would be so extensive that the inconvenience to the existing tenants would be unbearable if they stayed. The owner or landlord must give the tenants appropriate notice of the eviction so they can make other living arrangements.

Unfortunately, many owners and landlords have taken advantage of the renoviction concept to increase rents on low-cost housing, downtown hotels, or rooming houses. Many jurisdictions have laws about rental housing, such as how often the owner or landlord can raise the rent and to what maximum percentage. However, the law usually refers to an existing tenant, so the specific laws may not apply if the tenant changes. The new rents are often not affordable, putting more people on the streets.

The Homeless Epidemic in the DTES

In my late teens and early twenties in the late 1960s and 1970s, I often went to downtown Vancouver on a weekend afternoon. There were interesting restaurants, record stores, novelty shops, and two good pawn shops that I liked to check out. I even bought a pretty good twelve-string guitar in one of the pawn shops. The area was completely safe, with people everywhere. There was nothing to be concerned about.

I hadn’t been in the area for quite some time. In the late 1990s, I took a post-graduate course at VCC (Vancouver Community College) Downtown Campus. It was on a Tuesday night from 7 to 10 p.m. I remember walking from the College to the bus stop after class. In those three blocks, I was accosted five times by people trying to sell me drugs. It was no longer the Vancouver of my youth.

This area, now known as Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), is no longer safe. It is estimated that there are almost 2,500 homeless people currently living in the DTES. About a quarter of them sleep on the streets in doorways or back alleys—the rest sleep in temporary shelters or other facilities. For a decade, from 2013 to 2023, up to 80 tents, lean-tos, or other temporary structures accommodating the homeless lined both sides of West Hastings, the main street going into downtown Vancouver. Finally, on April 5, 2023, city workers, with the aid of Vancouver police, removed the structures. So, the tents are gone, but the homeless people are still there.

Homeless Encampments Appear in Most Cities

When I first came to the West Coast of Canada from Regina at 16 years old in 1966, we lived in what was known as the Whalley Corner area of North Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. We lived in a small house on 135A Street, just one block off the main drag of the King George Highway. It was a bedroom community with houses along the street, each on fairly big lots. It was a safe community with all the necessary conveniences within walking distance.

Sometime in 2017, I drove down 135A St. with my family just to see what it looked like. I was surprised to see that the houses were all gone, and it had become a semi-industrial area. More surprisingly, it had become a homeless encampment, with about 40 tents lining the east side of the street. In June 2018, over three days, city workers, with the help of Surrey RCMP, removed the tents and moved the homeless people into temporary modular housing. The tents had been there for about two years.

Homeless encampments keep popping up in cities, large or small, all over the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. They appear in public parks, near freeways and highways, or anywhere else with open space. Depending on each city’s bylaws or the inconvenience caused to the public, they may remain there indefinitely or only temporarily. The problem is, where do these people go if they are moved out? There has to be a reasonable alternative.

Reasons People Remain Homeless on the Street

There are specific reasons that keep people homeless:

• poverty: living on social assistance with little or no money for shelter
• lack of employment opportunities: no way to advance financially
• lack of low-cost housing: not enough affordable housing available
• racism: a disproportionate number of homeless people are Indigenous men
• mental health issues: unable or unwilling to take their medication
• drug and/or alcohol addiction: limited opportunities and long waiting lists to get straight
• no family or nowhere to go: unable to get a new start on life
• unacceptable shelters: afraid of being robbed of their only possessions
• lack of real help: NGOs spinning their wheels with little to no help from governments

The dangers of living on the streets are too real to ignore, especially with mental health and addiction issues. There have been many fires and even deaths in homeless encampments due to cooking or gas heaters in tents. Authorities have seized many weapons from various encampments, and violence is rampant. These tent cities or encampments are far from an ideal solution for the homeless. But what is the solution?

The Effects of Homelessness on Society

In the title of this essay, I referred to a “society with limited compassion”. Of course, most people have compassion and empathy for the homeless and their stressful lives. But patience is wearing thin. This level of homelessness has been going on for decades, and we know it wasn’t like this in the 1970s and before.

As in the example above of Vancouver’s DTES, the homeless have taken over the main street, adversely affecting businesses and intimidating customers and passersby. Whether or not the area is dangerous is irrelevant when the general public senses and feels the danger and stays away. People are tired of homeless people taking over public parks. They don’t like the idea of their young children witnessing someone shooting up near the playground area and leaving used needles or other litter all over the park. It wasn’t like this in the past, and it shouldn’t be like this now.

The above essay is for entertainment and English language study only. For suggestions on how to use this post to improve your English reading and listening comprehension, click here.

Vocabulary

• tragic – adjective; sad; calamitous; greatly distressing; heartbreaking, unfortunate
• priority – noun; something that is given prior or special attention or considered more important; most important
• gruesome – adjective; horrible, grisly, disgusting; very unpleasant; shocking; bloody
• integrate – verb; bring or come into equal participation in or membership of society, a school, etc.; to fit in
• opioid – noun; any compound resembling cocaine and morphine in its addictive properties; a very addictive drug
• let-up – noun; a reduction in intensity or severity; no significant change for the better (in this context)
• snuff out – verb; kill; put an end to; kill
• renovate – transitive verb; remodel or install new fixtures, etc. in (a building or part of it); major repairs or changes
• eviction – noun; expelling (a tenant) from a property by legal process; requiring a tenant to leave your rental property
• extensive – adjective; covering a large area in space or time; a big job (in this context)
• jurisdiction – noun; the administration of justice and the territory it extends over; justice in a specific territory
• lean-to – noun; temporary shelter consisting of an inclined roof supported on one side by trees or posts and covered with canvas, branches, etc.; temporary shelter
• accommodating – transitive verb (accommodate); providing lodging or room; making a living area
• main drag – noun; main street; a main street
• encampment – noun; a place where troops, etc. are encamped; an area where a group of people camp out (homeless people in this context)
• modular – adjective; of or pertaining to modules or moduli; made of prebuilt sections
• indefinitely – adverb; for an unlimited time; for an unknown length of time
• disproportionate – adjective; relatively too large or small, long or short, etc.; too many compared to the percent of the general population (in this context)
• NGOs – abbreviation; non-governmental organization; often a charity
• rampant – adjective; unchecked, flourishing excessively; uncontrollably
• shooting up – verb; injecting oneself with illegal drugs with a needle (in this context)

Comprehension Questions

1. Do the terms homeless and unhoused have the same meaning?
   Yes or No
2. Is living on the streets a pleasant lifestyle?
   Yes or No
3. Was homelessness a social problem in Canada before the 1980s?
   Yes or No
4. Did governments cut housing subsidies and close mental institutions?
   Yes or No
5. Is drug addiction a problem in your country?
   Yes or No
6. Have you ever heard of the word renoviction?
   Yes or No
7. How long were there tents on West Hastings in Vancouver’s DTES?
   (a) 3 years, (b) 5 years, (c) 7 years, or (d) 10 years
8. In what year was the homeless encampment removed from 135A St.?
   (a) 1998, (b) 2008, (c) 2018, or (d) 2028

Resources

• Wikipedia

And Now For Your Listening Enjoyment

This Phil Collins song is very appropriate to the subject matter of this essay. A homeless woman calls out to a man passing by, asking him for help, but he just walks on and ignores her as if she doesn’t exist. Here is “Another Day in Paradise”.

Lyrics

"Another Day in Paradise"
performed by Phil Collins (1989)
written by Phil Collins

She calls out to the man on the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for you and me in paradise
Oh think twice, 'cause it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise, think about it

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise, think about it

Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh Lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been moved on from every place
Cause she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice, 'cause another day for you and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise, just think about it, think about it

It's just another day for you and me in paradise
It's just another day for you and me in paradise, paradise
It's just another day for you and me in paradise
It's just another day for you and me in paradise, paradise
It's just another day for you and me
It's just another day for you and me
It's just another day for you and me in paradise
In paradise