The Hook

Where's Suzie?

I live on Alexander St, one block east of Gassy Jack. Since the day I moved in, a woman who introduced herself to me as Suzie, has been sleeping on the sidwalk a few doors down from my building. I work the evening shift, and ride the bus to within a few blocks of my place five nights a week.

I donate money I earn from my Downtown Eastside photo work to the Evelyne Saller Centre meal support program. They give me vouchers I can hand out to people who might need them, turning a $2.00 subsidized meal into a free meal. Shortly after I moved in there, I left a few vouchers near her things as I passed her regular spot on my way home. I did this a couple of times before I caught her awake and introduced myself as a neighbour. I handed her a few more and she smiled on realizing it was me who had been leaving them for her.

She looked to me to be about 60 years of age and in relatively good health. We struck up a conversation and I asked if she would rather stay in a shelter or if I could get her in touch with people who can find her housing as there are new spaces opening. She refused both suggestions and offered reasons common to many who choose to sleep outdoors.

She told me the Ministry had cut her off welfare after she refused to sign a form that said she was 65 (retirement age), because she's not 65 and it would have been a fraud. So, she says, they cut her off. She told me she's been sleeping on the street for years and she was comfortable right there in that spot. The block is quite safe.

I asked her again as the cold, wet weather started coming on and, again, she refused. She told me the police had been by recently (a few weeks ago) and asked if she wanted to go to a shelter and she refused. They didn't force her, but said they would respect her right to decide for herself where she wanted to sleep.

Last Sunday night, as I was returning home from work, I noticed Suzie was gone. Based on what she told me, I can only assume she was taken away by force.

Today, I visited two nearby women's shelters, the offices of Pivot Legal Society and the Carnegie Community Action Project seeking advice on how to deal with Suzie's disppearance. I intend to file a missing person's report with Vancouver Police.

Here is a photo of Suzie in her spot on Canada Day last summer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbird_hollow/3678052312/

She is Caucasian, slender, grey hair, about 5'4"/100 lbs, and sleeps under a green, camouflage tarp. I didn't take a photo of her face.

I know it's not much to go on, but if anyone knows where she is, please reach me on Flickr. She's my neighbour and I want to know that she is safe.

Here's what I believe happened

The police came by, as Suzie told me, and gave her a false sense of security by informing her that her right to sleep outdoors would be respected if she didn't want to go to a shelter. She told me this about a month ago, before the bill became law.

The legislation has a January 1st effective date, even though it recently passed into law. Perhaps this was so no one would pay close attention right now. If you've walked through the Downtown Eastside this week, you will notice a huge reduction in the numbers of people sleeping on the street. They have become virtually invisible. When I see one, there's a Downtown Embassador on the radio or phone nearby.

The sheer drop in visible homeless people has to be down to more than so many coming in because it is getting colder. The city doesn't have enough shelter space to accomodate the great numbers, which is why the law was enacted, not out of any sense of compassion as Minister Coleman would put it. If her was so concerned there would have been more shelter space available a long time ago. The funding for those that have opened since Vision Vancouver won the civic election apparently runs out in March of next year and the decision to close them at that time has already been made.

Let there be no doubt. This is social cleansing. The apprehensions have started. The streets are being swept before the official Games period begins on New Years' Day.

Where's Suzie? Knowing her as I do, I believe that wherever she was taken, it was against her will.

[MODERATOR NOTE: VANCOUVER POLICE CHIEF JIM CHU SAID YESTERDAY POLICE WON'T FORCE HOMELESS INTO SHELTERS. FULL STORY HERE: http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Housing/2009/12/07/Vancouver-police-wont-force-homeless-into-shelters/]

Nonesense

Homeless can be taken to a shelter but they cannot be compelled to stay.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Where are they being taken?

The law doesn't indicate how far away the homeless may be displaced. Since there are not enough shelter spaces in Vancouver, some will be taken elsewhere. Where is elsewhere?

Look in small towns

I was told by someone far from Vancouver that properties there were being prepared for what she suspected might be shipments of homeless!

Another olympic legacy

This act is nothing more than social cleansing Just think about how it is written. What is the point of forcing someone to be delivered to a shelter if he or she does not have to go in, or is that just a ruse and the subject is basically intimidated to the point that they have no choice but to comply? Are the subjects taken to the closest shelter from where they are contacted, or being driven across town so that if they refuse to go in, they will either be disoriented or have a difficulty returning to their normal hangout?

If I was a taxpayer in Vancouver, I would be questioning the use of the VPD as nothing more than street cleaners. If they are occupied carrying out the wishes of Mr. Coleman, then who is maintaining law and order?

I, as many of us would like to see homelessness become nothing but a distant memory, but sweeping the problem under the carpet will solve nothing.

Now all Vancouver needs is some shelters????

So I wonder where the police are going to be taking the homeless? Stanley Park? As I can just see the homeless eyes light up as some burly facing officers who just beat the crap out of them last week is now here to rescue them. Talk is cheap and when its out of the mouths of Liberal Ministers you just got to know its a lie.
The police are a bigger threat to the homeless than the weather and that is a given. Just ask the homeless. Oh thats right they don't have any "Rights" as BC openly discriminates against its poor.

The homeless are all mentally disabled?

Talk about discrimination as Coleman takes away the rights of Canadians siting the homeless are all mentally ill and need help. Maycourt's a big loser as maybe we should have all gays picked up and taken away to some island because its to dangerous with all that gay bashing and violence and the deaths because of it. Remember the loser when Liberals first started to put people to the streets with a little help from the Fraser Institute as Maycourt takes to the streets saying its perfectly safe to eat and sleep on Vancouver's streets without fear. How many have been slashed, burned, beaten, robbed, robbed, frozen since that time? Not enough obviously as BC government rids itself of its poor in a most inhuman and undignified manner.
How about doctors, and nurses and social workers instead of police who have no compassion and little understanding and a record of violence, especially to the down trodden as the Liberals make the homeless the problem of the cop on the beat as the institutions that used to house those in need sit empty. The homeless are people in need of a home and with the Olympics approaching and costs of shelter escalating its almost impossible as the disabled,elderly and young are left without enough to eat or for shelter as its a recipe for homelessness and death. Also government employees do their level best to ensure clients don't find accommodations because don't contact landlord in time for consideration forcing many disabled clients to the streets.