To see Mike (not his real name), he looks like a man who has had a hard life. Many of us encounter people like Mike every day. They are the homeless who live among us. We shy away from them, but we don’t know their stories. Many of them have found themselves without a place to call home because of financial insecurities precipitated by illness, disability, addictions, job loss or family breakdown.
Mike has spent the past six years without a roof over his head. He has lived in Edmonton, stayed at the Bissell Centre and also lived in the North Saskatchewan River Valley. Today he calls St. Albert home, and for now at least, that home is out in the bush where he shares space with the owls and coyotes. Mike has made it through cold winters where temperatures have dipped below -35C in the shelter he has made for himself. His main distraction is listening to CBC radio where he keeps up on current events.
How did this 57-year-old former heavy equipment operator find himself in such dire straits? His downward spiral began as a result of having his driver’s licence suspended for a civil matter and without a licence, he soon lost his oil patch job. Mike has suffered multiple physical and mental issues. He has chronic injuries to both of his hips as well as one shoulder, which make it almost impossible for him to secure lasting employment.
Mike says that there are times when people call him a “homeless bum” or “thief” or even worse, they look right through him as if he didn’t exist.
“Not everyone who is homeless is a drunk,” he says. “We have family and friends. We have wants and desires just like everyone else.”
Even with his many challenges, Mike’s spirits are lifted through his relationship with his children and grandchildren.
Mike demonstrates empathy toward others even though he has enough of his own issues to worry about. He talks about one young man with a meth addiction who he tried to help. He said the man wanted someone to give him advice about life on the streets. He says he told him, “You can go out and experience it, but you will have to come home sooner or later.” He has also shared his story with some of the youth in St. Albert, encouraging them to stay in school and “not end up like me.”
“Everyone just wants to have a place to go home and hang out, a place where you can hang up your jacket and know that you are going to be safe and nothing is going to happen to you,” Mike says.
He says he has found that “safe place” in the St. Albert Community Village. “I’ve gotten more help here in five months than I did in three years in Edmonton. Thank God for the ladies at the Village.”
Mike generously agreed to do this interview because he believes the homeless have not been given a voice. He says he wants to do his part “to change the system because it’s broken.”
The Community Village would especially like to recognize St. Albert Affordable Housing, the S.A.I.F. Society, Salvation Army, Alberta Works, and Alberta Addictions and Mental Health, the community partners we regularly call on for assistance with our homeless clients.
Suzan Krecsy is the director of the St. Albert Community Village and Food Bank.
