Other
Punishment for being myself - poverty. I is much misunderstood, and few have the I.Q. to understand my life - so here I is on the street again. No addictions, still kind, and generous, and easy mark though, but if you really need fifty cents, well what the hell.
As a reluctant participant in this grand human experiment I am ethically and idealistically opposed to the apparitions of private property and the aspirations for material abundance.
In particular, homes and "Real Estate" do not mix. It so happens that I believe in the anarchist axiom, that property is theft. But give them their property, for sake of argument...
They went TOO FAR when they made homes into commodities to be bought, sold, and traded for profit on the open market. What has been done to homes and we their inhabitants under the guise of free-market capitalism should be condemned and vilified. How many childrens' lives have been disrupted because of the "housing market"--as they are moved from community to community, school to school, leaving new-found friends behind while their parents "trade up"? How many people have been displaced by the hot market, or found themselves homeless or otherwise desperate for housing?
When the rude capitalist swine got bored of stock portfolios they set their sites on homes and mortgages, from buy low and sell high right on through to the complex sub-prime mortgage schemes that contributed significantly to our current economic crisis.
It could very likely even be an intentional disaster plan, to shock the general population into accepting more control, and less rights.
The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis:
http://vimeo.com/3261363
Make it known to everyone you know that to play in real estate is to fuck with our lives, with our very wellbeing. Homelessness is not a symptom of poverty so much as it is a symptom of capitalism and those who chose to participate and play the real estate market game.
I am a single 47 yr old woman transplanted from Oregon in 1991. I became a Canadian Citizen in 1993. I used to enjoy horseback riding (trail ride guide for several years), camping, walking, dancing and singing in a jazz orchestra (swing music). None of these things has been possible since my injury had a specyacular decompensation in late 2006. I am able to be up and about a total of 1 1/2 hours a day and cannot tolerte sitting upright at all!! This means, unless there is a stretcher, sofa or antigravity recliner at my destination, and it is within 20 minutes by car (my car has Recaro seats), I cannot go!! So much for a social life. All my focus is on trying to reverse at least part of my disability- if I could sit, I could probably earn at least a partial living. As it is now, I cannot even do my ADL's. There is no help available, so they just don't get done most of the time. Fortunately, I have not yet succumbed to depression, thanks to long term 20mg Celexa and my fabulously keen sense of humour.
While I have been disabled since 2002, and quite severely since November 2006, I stubbornly cling to the hope that this is not a permanent consdition. Between the time it takes to get a proper diagnosis and diagnostic procedures and waitlists to see specialists, they started calling it "chronic pain" before ANY treatments were tried beyond pain control. This bugs me, as doctors tend to write off people with chronic pain. I have prood that my pain is mechanical and no pain program can help, but I have not yet exhausted all potential treatments for the spinal problems.
Perhaps surgery or that new "Neuro-Oxygen Spinal Decompression" that recently came to Victoria. My stubbornness in accepting what some have already decided is a permanent condition has interfered with my ability to seek and get assistance, and I am having a heck of a time, given my immobility and particularly a complete intolerance to sitting upright, getting signed up for the different programs. One thing that particularly bugs me is realizing how hard it must be for anyone with developmental disabilities to possibly navigate the system.
I really don't want to be a participant who doesn't have anything to talk about besides my problems, so I can't say I expect this site to provide me with social opportunities. I'm just hoping I can get some questions answered and figure out how to navigate the system,
MyNameIs.ca is dedicated to putting a Name to the Homeless. Brought to being during a quick idea brief idea for a radio station contest. The interview changed my view and brought me to a reality that in Jason's owns words... "We are an intelligent society, it is time that we acted like one." http://www.mynameis.ca
Christian Street worker/preacher, looking for the lost to give them the cure, Jesus. If Homeless in Victoria and are looking for help send a message if you want, I live to help.
A visual artist who is active in the DTES community - a board member at Carnegie, a volunteer tutor in the Carnegie Learning Centre. Mother of three and grandmother of three and mentor in digital storytelling through the SHIRE Project.
names gentle ben, otherwise known as ben the townie. i hail from the west coast of bc, and am mostly interested in spending the warm months in the maritimes. i'd later like to become an ascetic monk of some sort, and deny myself of all desires... but for now i'm an alcohol/drug abusing hobo, and i justify that by saying that "the way of the drunkard is the perfect preparation for the life of a mystic". thank you, and peaceout.
was a picture painted by the x and y chromasones mixed with semen then sredded by some random government jig-saw left me puzzled in time just to place pieces that dont seem to fit snug enough along my path a few more pieces are added to this already messed puzzle a dog taken away then another which i'm holding untill she has lived her life no cop or gov't official could take this one away no way tring my damnedest to place the correct puzzle piece here to make the picture look like a picture get of the streets of canada and into a state of comfort for myself and a few others
Hey, My homebase has always been the island. I spent some time in the okanagan and in Quebec. I've been back and forth across the country for the last couple of years and running into people from back in the day everywhere. I'm on my way back to the island after a few year absence and I'm headed for University, who'd a thunk it eh. Glad to see that so many others are still kickin, and hope to hear from all of you.
I've owned a house, I've made my home in other people's houses, I've been a nomad in a van across the country meeting good people and celebrating life. I've been homeless and now I live in a house. When I had no house I knew what I had, now I feel homeless all the time because I could lose my house just like that because it happens.
