Out of the Cold

If you were homeless, Vancouver would definitely not be a bad place to be considering all the various social services that are available in the downtown core and its vicinity. There are co-ed shelters, women only, and men only shelters. Who can forget the safety injection site? A safe place so that one can inject oneself with needles... (hmm..still a very strange and foreign idea to me)

I've only been helping out with the "Out of the Cold" program at Tenth Ave. Alliance since Oct. 06 and I already feel jaded towards the homeless. During Boxing Day, we were thrilled to pass out brand-new Roots bags that were stuffed with their everyday necessities such as scarves, mitten liners, gloves, deodorants, water bottles, etc. I thought to myself "Wow, it really isn't that bad to be homeless in Vancouver and boy, these are super nice bags. I would like one for myself". The homeless happily left the church with their new packs on their backs looking like excited school-aged children. I felt so joyous that the church could provide them not only with a place to stay for a night during the week but also very yummy meals...and indeed, I felt that I was making a tiny difference in someone's life.

Then came today, I went in at 6am to make breakfast and soon found out that a lot of the homeless no longer had their bags. Innocently I asked "Did they lose them already?", then one of the volunteers replied, "Probably not. Considering their situations, some of them probably sold the bags on the very same day to get money for drugs". I felt so devastated. I couldn't believe that one could do that...

As I brought the breakfast up to the pungent smelling gym, I couldn't bear the thought that one could just so easily sell their "gift" off and I began to ponder about homelessness and drug abuse. One of the volunteer's daughter is a drug user and she's been living on the streets for a very long time. She shared with us about how she still loves her regardless of her position but she has chosen a path that has no future. Sure there is plenty of help for drug abusers but they all seem to cure it for the short term rather than the long term. I really wonder what else we can do to help? Where do I draw the fine line of compassion and pity? How do I love despite knowing that they would sell off their "gifts" for their own drug satisfaction?

Just some questions to start off the new year.