The catch phrase from Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming,” has taken on an ominous new meaning, to anyone concerned about the folks camping in parks.
What seems to be a somewhat viable solution to homelessness on a warm summer afternoon, is something else in the icy rain, when even the squirrels that have been all over the place gathering walnuts, have taken shelter.
Communities that never had visible homelessness – people sleeping in doorways and panhandling on street corners – have it now.
There are as many stories of why they are on the street as there are individuals. Some have mental health issues, addictions, or both. Some have pets and are unable to find accommodation that allows them. Some have lost their jobs due to ill health or fallout from the pandemic. Some have simply had a run of bad luck – got into financial trouble helping family members, had a relationship break up, made bad investments and/or got ‘renovicted’ – or had tenants refuse to pay rent or move, and ended up losing the house.
Add a global pandemic, an increasingly toxic illegal drug supply, and social services that are overwhelmed, to decades of government neglect of both housing and welfare, and the result is the encampment no one wants in their neighbourhood.
Want them or not, they are here, and they are not going to disappear anytime soon, if the present pace of government action is any indication.
Granted, both province and federal government are making promises. If kept, they may show results in a few years. Building more million-dollar homes for the wealthy may eventually result in more housing for lower-income people. Logic says it is more likely to give only the wealthy more housing options. A million-dollar house is still a major financial stretch for middle-class earners, and totally out of reach for people in encampments.
Even if the long-term plans of federal and provincial governments do eventually increase the number of available housing units, it will be of little help to the folks risking death and serious illness in tents right now – or to the municipalities that are stretched to the limits trying to provide housing for the homeless.
As winter sets in, the cold and wet will inevitably take their toll. Local emergency rooms – at least, the ones that are open – had better have staff brush up on treatment of such conditions as frostbite, hypothermia and trench foot (yes, the latter is the same condition that plagued soldiers in the First World War) because they are going to see them. Hypothermia can kill. Eventually, so can frostbite and trench foot, if tissue becomes so damaged and gangrenous that even amputation is not enough.
The best cure for all three conditions is prevention – frequent changes of dry, clean socks; protection from the elements; and warmth. Try those three when you have no income and live in a doorway. Proper nutrition is also important because the body needs a lot more fuel in cold conditions than in warm.
Unfortunately, the only comfort available to those living on the streets may turn out to be alcohol and drugs, both of which make cold-related injuries more likely – unless someone accidentally sets the tent on fire in an effort to get warm. In that case, add burns and smoke inhalation to cold-related injuries and drug overdoses.
Let this be a massive thank you to those striving to help those who desperately need it – the people who donate even a few tins of food or a couple of pairs of new socks; the municipal officials who do what they can with limited resources even as the lists of people needing help skyrocket; the people who lobby for better access to mental health and addiction treatment; and the first responders on the front lines of the homeless crisis.
They cannot do it alone. They need help from both senior levels of government, and from the general public – because winter is indeed coming, faster than we would like to think.
