Yesterday, the 2015 version of 5 Days for the Homeless kicked off at the University of Regina. For five days, five students will sleep and live outside in an attempt to stimulate conversations about homelessness in our community and to raise valuable funds. At Carmichael, we have been the recipients of these funds since 5 Days for the Homeless began. We wanted to supplement the fundraising efforts at the University by offering a series of blogs titled, “Five Days, Five Solutions” in an effort to have a broader conversation about what the event is truly focused on.

It is important for us to note that we do not believe that this event represents a picture of homelessness. One cannot replicate the experiences faced by those who weather a night at -40 in a parkade, or face the vitriol and scorn that comes with stigmatization of “street life”. We are reminded daily, through the experiences of our many friends at Carmichael, that homelessness is more than a five day issue, and that the complexities rooted in social policy, social inclusion, our province’s history, addictions, mental illness, and the effects of extreme poverty cannot all be addressed in one neat, five day window. We are also aware that most of us working at Carmichael come from a place of privilege where we can’t possibly understand the emotional, psychological, and physical experiences of wondering where our next meal will come from, or where we will sleep at night. For us, and the group of students who organize this event, it is not about the five students sleeping outside. It is about using their visual presence to invite our city to come together and end homelessness in our community.

At Carmichael Outreach, our work is two-fold. We work within our community to facilitate services that the community expresses they need, and we work with policy makers of various levels to generate effective social policy. We are guided by two key principles – respect and dignity. They are the map and the framework for everything that we do on a day-to-day basis. We are adamant that those asking for our service do not need to prove their poverty, and personal information (identification, financial information) remains in the control of those accessing our service. We believe that we overcome community and individual challenges together as a community, and having relationships of trust with the many members of our community that we serve is perhaps our most important value.

Two areas of our center that exemplify this value are our Food Security and Nutrition Program, and our free clothing boutique. Last year, we served 53,689 meals to members of our community in need, and an additional 30 individuals participated in our nutrition program. These programs are dedicated to providing food to those who cannot otherwise afford it at a time where they cannot get a hot meal elsewhere. Additionally, we seek to provide healthy, fresh ways to prepare food within the constraints of a tight budget. In both elements of programming, we work to make sure that each person in our community is able to have food in their belly and options for preparing food within their budget. It’s not perfect and we certainly cannot meet everyone’s needs, but we work to the best of our ability and the limits of our budget.

Our free clothing boutique offers much more than clothing. Imagine moving into a new home after living in shelter, couch surfing, or living on the street. You have no clothes to call your own, no shower curtain, no dishes for eating or preparing food, or really anything else we easily take for granted – this is where our clothing boutique comes in. We receive donations from the community, organize those donations and make sure they are in good condition. Donations are then placed in the boutique where people acquiring housing, needing new clothes or shoes, or looking for kids toys or books are able to access those and many other items free of charge. These programs are accessed by newcomers to Canada, single parent families, young mothers and their babies, seniors on fixed income, and members of our community experiencing addictions and mental illness.

For day one, we offer solution number one to overcoming systemic poverty and homelessness in our community. We must treat members afflicted by these socio-economic circumstances with the same respect and dignity we want to be treated with. By providing necessary base-level services with no barriers and limited requirements, we recognize the empowerment and resiliency that many in our community have while hoping to provide small opportunities to reduce expenditures while still accessing basic necessities. We believe that this is necessary in order to de-stigmatize the experiences of homelessness and poverty within our community by acknowledging that different circumstances can lead to different outcomes. This de-stigmatization will enable us to implement collective solutions to ending poverty and homelessness and to remove barriers for the individuals in poverty who are looking to end poverty and homelessness for themselves.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of George Palmer, the original Executive Director and founder of Carmichael Outreach Inc.

George was one of Regina’s best, and a man who embodied the values of the organization that he spent 20 years of time and effort on. George was a champion for individuals and families facing the challenges of extreme poverty and worked tirelessly and to his limit to meet the needs of the community to the best of his ability. George was generous and faithful, persevering through the difficult early years of a fledgling organization, often working without pay to ensure that the members of his own community would be able to access vital services each day.

In June 2013, when we celebrated our 25th anniversary, we were able to see George at Carmichael Outreach one more time. He remained the same man we remember fondly today – generous and faithful, never ignoring the challenges and inequalities faced by the members of his own community living in extreme poverty. It was a bright, sunny day as George spoke with fondness of his many memories of Carmichael Outreach, and is fitting that today we remember him as a man who spent his life bringing some light to dark and hidden injustices in our own community. It is fitting that as he spoke that day of a lifetime of memories about Carmichael Outreach that Carmichael Outreach owes George a lifetime of gratitude for his efforts, and for sharing who he was with us.

George is a man we will not soon forget. His fingerprints are all over what Carmichael Outreach has become today, so we say thank you to George and celebrate his life.

Our deepest sympathies are extended to Dorothy, to his daughters and his son, and to his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Thank you for sharing your husband, father, grandpa, and great grandpa with us. It was our privilege to know him, and we will remember him by carrying on the work he started.

Together in Community, Together as Community,

The Carmichael Outreach Team

** This blog post contains the thoughts of our outgoing Food Recovery Coordinator Nic Olson’s personal blog and is used with his permission **

Dear Mouse,

Dear Mouse, You probably don’t remember me, and I don’t blame you. We likely never had a full conversation, except that time on Christmas Day that I picked you and Leon up at the bus stop and drove you to turkey dinner at the Marian Centre. But even then I didn’t know what you said when I asked you your name. I thought you said Leonard. Although I didn’t know you as well as I would’ve liked, I can say that I think of you often. I hung your name on my bedroom wall.

I can also say, however, that there was a time that I forgot you. I forgot your name and your face and how you talked. I forgot how you died and I forgot what reserve you were from. I forgot who your family was. I forgot your real name. Linden. All I remembered was this faint vision of a man I knew that had died last winter, and that was about it. When your name, ‘Mouse’ finally surfaced in my brain I wrote it on a sticky note and have kept it since. A pathetic monument, to be sure, but better than the alternative of me permanently forgetting.

That is what was supposed to happen. You were to die and your case file was to close and the $459 that the ministry gave you would be swallowed back into general funds and used to finance interest free/tax free rental developments and that was that. Your home at Detox would fill your bed in a matter of hours and after a week they’d neglect to mention your name ever again. All levels of government would continue to stage press conferences with scummy developers to show their commitment to you, although they deny your existence outright, even aloud to the media. Community organizations would trod along in their busy, busted down buildings and wait for the next death to sombre things up. You’d be forgotten by the world except by the family who would feed you while you’re on the other side.

There are campaigns for your sisters and aunts and grandmothers and daughters who have gone missing or were murdered, and the spirit of these rallies and vigils also reaches to you. Because although you’re a male, and although we know where and how you died, you’ve been brushed aside and purposely forgotten by a brutal system of murder and assimilation.

We’re all eventually forgotten, Mouse, that much is certain. In 100 years no one will know my name or remember that I can’t make a decision to save my goddamn life. But I’ll be forgotten simply because time has passed. They won’t remember you and how you said, ‘Softly,’ with a grin when you put out your closed hand for a fist pump. But you’d be forgotten because multi-million dollar government policy was designed for your culture to be destroyed and your life to be ripped apart. What I can try to do, in some way, even as simple and degrading as a sticky note on my bedroom wall, is to ensure that in 100 years, you’ll still have family on this earth that will at least have the chance to remember you and their other ancestors.

The government’s denial of your existence isn’t a slip of the tongue, it is long-standing, ingrained belief. Because to acknowledge your existence is to acknowledge that you deserve to be remembered. I won’t forget you and I’ll do my best make sure no one else does either. Because once we forget you, the system is winning and the people are losing. Eventually, the people always win. And we’ll win remembering your life. It was a pleasure, my friend.

Softly,

Nic from Carmichael

Written by: Tyler – HIV Strategy Housing Support Coordinator at Carmichael Outreach

As a recent graduate of the University of Regina, I recall all of the discussions that would come up around the time 5 Days 4 the Homeless each year. Generally, narratives began with, they’re just playing homelessness, or they’re just sensationalizing homelessness. These narratives then followed with critiques of where the dollars went, asking questions like, why not just give the $25,000 to homeless individuals?, and why give money to organizations that don’t provide service with respect for individual’s dignity? Each of these questions or possible critiques is absolutely worth consideration, and yet, having now worked in human services outside of the sterilized environment of a university classroom, I have a few thoughts to share that may answer some of these concerns.

First, 5 Days 4 the Homeless only sensationalizes, or plays homelessness if the greater dialogue about homelessness and the social issue of poverty do not become a part of the discussion during the 5D4H event. As the participant organization, our comments and interviews during this time focus on the inability of a 5 day event to replicate homelessness, and the need to continue these conversations in the media, classrooms, and board rooms year-round. Each participant this year had several conversations with members of the Carmichael Outreach team, conversations about homelessness and our experience as staff. They even met some of our clients, who were able to share lived experience and educate them about what homelessness really looks like. None of this was done to make it a viable event, but because the participants actually cared about understanding homelessness in its context. It becomes paramount then, to push for coverage that doesn’t merely celebrate the nobility of participants, but instead highlights the social immorality of enabling homelessness and poverty to perpetuate in a social construct of moral and ethical choice instead of trauma, opportunity and humanization. This is a constant struggle of any discussion around poverty and community engagement of the privileged, and one not limited to 5 Days for the Homeless. This is also the desire of the organizers as documented in the University of Regina newspaper. Intention isn’t everything, but it’s clear the breakdown is not in the creation of this event.

A second critique that I heard last week was that organizations restrict service provision and don’t respect the inherent dignity of clients. I can confidently say that this is not descriptive of Carmichael Outreach. We provide services within a harm reduction framework; a framework centred in the inherent worth of a human being their humanity, not their ability to socially and economically commoditize their life for some type of profit. In fact, all of our services are provided free of charge, and outside of a milk program and food bank orders, require no identification to participate. It is safe to say that service provision is not restrictive, and is in fact focused on meeting the needs of individuals without pre-condition or expectation of “personal improvement”. Any critique of our organization as restrictive, or lacking respect, is spoken by someone who has never entered our doors or participated in what we do. That is not to say that we are perfect, because we most certainly are not, but we are in regular interaction with our clients, discussing how our service delivery can improve in meeting their needs and respecting them as individuals. We work with them, support them, do whatever we can for them when they communicate what they need, and on top of our service delivery, we are advocating for the very social change that critics say gets missed by 5D4H.

Lastly, I feel the need to highlight one specific critique that I read last week during this year’s week-long event. It questioned why the $25,000 dollars raised didn’t just go directly to homeless individuals. A valid question, but it is again reflective of critical thought being employed without context, understanding of welfare policy and systems, or even the circumstances that surround an individual experiencing homelessness. Homelessness, largely, is connected to past trauma, the breakdown of support in an individual’s life, and an economically disadvantaged position among other circumstances and barriers. Many homeless individuals are experiencing stigma and discrimination because of their position, and are using coping mechanisms that do not enable them to move to the position that they want to. These are very real concerns that should force open the doors to greater conversations about addiction and mental illness as health issues instead of as career choices that are easily taken up and easily put down. Should we homeless individuals receiving assistance with $25,000, they will immediately be cut off of assistance (depending on how much money they are provided).

This generates new/greater costs, including:

• Housing
• Transportation
• Utilities
• Food

These hypothetical costs are limited and assume that they are able to access the food bank for some of their food costs, have furniture available to them through a furniture donation program, are able to find housing, don’t have any medical issues, and that they access quality housing that does not force them into sub-standard living. Housing costs roughly $850 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment, meaning to get an apartment and be in it for one month is an up-front cost of $1,700 with an ongoing cost of $850 per month. Transportation (buss pass) costs $62 monthly, and I can safely say as a home owner that utility costs, generally power and telecommunications are not covered in rental, would be between $100-$175 for basic telephone service and water. Food costs, having seen the little amount of food that the food bank tries to stretch between all of its clients are based on someone’s inability to access food programming due to insufficient transportation and the requirement of working a low-wage labour position now that they do not have access to assistance. That cost can be assumed, on the absolute, bare, subsistence level to be about $50 extra per week on top of food bank food. So our monthly costs are up to about $1,100 dollars per month, with no additional costs or emergency expenditures. What this means is that we would help a maximum of 25 individuals for one month and then effectively harm them because $25,000 does not solve homelessness. Even if the money was distributed amongst many in need, we would effectively be throwing a cup of water on a forest fire.

On top of the financial issues stated above, this post does not, nor can it even begin to address how addiction and mental illness may wreak havoc with an idealized “working poor” plan. Sub-note: A valid conversation would discuss why assistance forces those in need into even greater poverty to get service, pays nearly $2100 per month for an individual to live in shelter, but pays $459 in rental allowance to the same person seeking private housing. Or perhaps, a discussion around food security and the rising cost of living that drives an individual to have to use the food bank would be beneficial. These systemic critiques and questions are valid and must be addressed as a society.

What is missed in the critique of these events is this: Criticism is laid at the feet of those who participated by those who did not and who criticize the campaign from a distance without clarified knowledge of its goals, effects, contributors, and benefactors. If engagement is limited to critique of other’s engagement, how is that any more beneficial to pushing for the social change we all recognize needs to happen?

Yes, we must push for social change. Yes, poverty is perpetuated by a breakdown in community. Yes, social assistance imprisons individuals rather than supporting them. Yes, those fighting addiction mental illness are often treated as lacking moral capability to meet the social constructs of citizenry and the rights it entails.

These issues are major, systemic issues rooted in racism, stereotyping, economic discrimination, and pre-conceived notions of the “proper” community member. As an organization, we experience and fight against these constructs daily. We demand dignity for community members and figuratively (and sometimes literally) fight for their lives. This is both in immediate action, and our struggle for long-term, positive social change. Our participation in 5D4H does not contradict these goals, but in fact delivers $25,000 into our hands to help move these goals and services forward. We do not function as a paternal entity, but a lifeline to clients who are looking for the support and empowerment they need to make the changes they desire.

We owe it to homeless, marginalized, oppressed individuals to demand change in how events like these are covered, the conversations that surround these events, and the social constructs that lead to the creation of charity and all its’ hypocrisies and contradictions. However, this isn’t the fault of five students, an organizing committee, or Carmichael Outreach and other Carmichael-like agencies fighting for their lives. We enter into this event with our eyes wide open to the struggles our community faces, and we fight for them.

It is my opinion that we live in a world where media coverage is dictated by the interest a citizen has in a particular story. Short stories that are unable to provide proper context dominate the framework in which we receive our news, along with advertisement revenue. Conversations with volunteers, organizers, department heads highlight that 5 Days for the Homelessness is not and never has been an attempt to replicate homelessness. It’s an opportunity to push for more awareness about the incredibly problematic social narratives that enable and perpetuate homelessness while raising vital funds for us to help sustain individuals’ survival and empower them to make the changes they desire. I’m able to view this critically and recognize problems that should be addressed regarding this yearly event, and I aim not to further harm those who have already faced so much oppression.

I invite critics into participation in this event and constructive input for the purpose of eliminating both oppression and opportunities for sensationalized representation. It is only when we build community together with respect and understanding of our common humanity that we will overcome issues far greater than a 5 days fundraising event.

Tyler

It’s -40 with a windchill. Not uncommon to see vehicles running for 20 minutes while their owners wait for them to warm up. Bundled faces hide behind toques and hoods, big mitts and parkas.

But what if you live in abject poverty?

What if -40 doesn’t mean you pull your winter parka, toque, and mitts off the shelves?

What if it means you just become more and more cold?

This is the reality for our clients. Today, we provided sleeping bags to clients who are still struggling to survive, sleeping outside. We saw blue hands, cracked hands, frozen faces, and chattering teeth. It’s not right, but it is reality.

We are desperate for winter outerwear. Anything and everything. Please bring us parkas, toques, gloves, long underwear, and sweaters. We will give it to people in need. To our community members struggling to survive, fighting against death by freezing. This is our reality.

We are open Monday-Friday from 9:00-4:30, and we will take any winter outerwear donations. Please bring them by our building at 1925 Osler St and let us clothe the needy.

Thank you,

The Carmichael Outreach team