Keira-anne.com

Yesterday I rolled out of bed just minutes before noon and stretched out my legs before making my way towards the kitchen. I filled the kettle with water, ignited the stove and went to look out the window at the day while I waited for the water to boil. Down below on the street, I saw a woman. She was most likely in her 40s but appeared much older. She shuffled down the street in a pair of jeans and a tan-coloured jacket with a coffee cup in hand. “I wonder where she’s headed to?” I asked myself, feeling slightly guilty at the notion that I could be back in a warm bed in less than 30 seconds.

My eyes darted to the left of her and saw two men walking together. One dressed entirely in black and bald-headed, the other hiding behind a baseball cap and a tri-coloured windbreaker. They travelled in the opposite direction of the lady with the coffee.

As my water boiled, another handful of people passed by on the sidewalk below the window that I peered out of. It was only then that it struck me…

Photo courtesy of The Blackbird on Flickr

I finally understood why the homeless population in Vancouver is getting not even a fraction of what they need. They are generalized; they are one face. Instead of scanning a street corner and seeing three, four or five different faces, the homeless are seen as one - as an “it.”

“It” has become a cancer that’s “infected” our city, robbing Vancouver of what some would like to see this metropolis thrive to be. So instead of looking at each individual face, each different story, those in City Hall attempt to surgically remove the cancer by operating on “it” as a whole. Quite obviously, the basics of food, shelter and healthcare are a universal need for those on (and off) the streets; education, life skills, counselling, psychiatrics and help for addiction are only a few of the other resources desperately required and which need to be fine-tuned to what is essential for each person.

However, I also came to another very real conclusion. Those who are in a place of power - the ones that can make the decisions that ultimately control the fate of thousands of very real and very individual people - will never see the homeless as faces. These people are, unfortunately, seen as nothing more than a bothersome problem rather than part of a community that includes each and every one of us.