Homeless - Again

It did not look it, but my old VW was a lot roomier on the
inside as a place to live than my current home, my ’87 Duster. I do count my
great blessing that although cramped, it is dry.

The new month of October has found me once again homeless in
abbotsford. High housing prices, tight housing market and the limited funds
available to be spent on shelter defeated my efforts to find suitable
accommodation to move into before October 1. At least this time I do have
experience with the organization and planning required to at least have a
chance to continue to search for a healthy place to live.

The next time you see a homeless person do not be quick to
assume they are living homeless because they choose to – it just may be me and
it certainly is not my first choice to be living in my car on the cold, wet
streets of Abbotsford once again. It is just the reality of affordable housing
in Abbotsford and cities across Canada.

Making my current homeless state more frustrating to me
personally is that outside of housing my life was and is in many ways, starting
to come together with some very interesting and challenging opportunities on
the horizon. However it is now going to require a great deal of effort just to
continue to move forward rather than just giving up in defeat. I have no desire
to join the ranks of those beaten down to the point they have moved from
homelessness to hopelessness

There are some places that would fall within my limited budget
had they been able to meet my one must requirement for a place to live; with my
one requirement for housing for myself being that it be healthy. I have had the
maddening and sad experience of watching those striving to get their lives back
that made the mistake of thinking that having a roof over your head was worth
living in an unhealthy environment.

I would see them come out of treatment or off the street
full of energy and plans to get back their lives. In their desperation with the
lack of affordable and healthy living space they would take whatever they could
get. A few weeks (or less) later I would see them again – back into addiction,
mental illness, despair and hopelessness.

My mental health and wellness is far to important to me,
having taken years of hard work, to put it at risk in an unhealthy environment.
I know from previous experience that I can maintain my mental health better
living in my car than in the unhealthy housing situations so many of the
homeless are forced to accept and then regret. What good is a place to live if
it is going to rob you of your mental health, your future and dump you hopeless
into homelessness.

City hall, city councillors, our mayor and the social
development committee may be comfortable speaking so glibly of years before we
can get anything concrete accomplished on the affordable housing front. This
was an unacceptable attitude to me last month and the only difference this
month is that the need for affordable housing NOW is more urgent to me in a
personal manner.

So if you see someone who is homeless do not jump to the conclusion
it is by choice. It may well be a reflection of the economic reality of
prohibitive housing costs making healthy, secure affordable housing a dream to
be chased for the poor and homeless. At least until people demand politicians
act, not just flap their jaws in dealing with the affordable housing crisis
before it becomes a disaster.

I know for myself that if preserving my mental health and
getting more stability and control of my life requires another stint of living
in my car for a period of time I will do that. I just hope it proves much
shorter than the near two years of my last character test by homelessness.