This story was originally in our November 7, 2018 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs I know from my own history, it can be very hard to reach out, or even to accept help when it\u2019s offered. I couldn\u2019t help but ask Phillips if she would have taken it if proper support were in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in high school, yes,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was the first time. It\u2019s scary, so you don\u2019t want to be homeless. If there were more supports there I definitely would have taken it, and I would have taken it any time, but it wasn\u2019t there. When I moved to BC, my husband Jack and I were living on the streets. We moved from Vancouver to Victoria when I was 21, but that continued until I was about 24. We were completely entrenched on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips says that when she was pregnant she tried to use every resource possible, but it was still difficult to get help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still people who currently work in the system who wouldn\u2019t help us. It isn\u2019t until your second or third trimester that you will even get looked at. We still didn\u2019t get accepted. We couldn\u2019t get housing with anyone. We had to do everything on our own. I couldn\u2019t get into the Cool Aid system because I couldn\u2019t get my health care records transferred, so I have a pharmacy bill of over $10,000 for my methadone. I couldn\u2019t get into the clinic, and I have chronic health conditions. I couldn\u2019t get a worker, even as a pregnant young person. I was pretty pissed off. I don\u2019t think the services were helpful locally. Their judgment stopped us from getting help at a lot of places. It seems it\u2019s more about who you know than what you know. Not being from here didn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n
With no choice but to move forward, Phillips says that her family struggled through all the difficulties. She came back to school in 2015, enrolling in the Building Employment Success for Tomorrow (BEST) program at Camosun. At the time they were recently housed, and Phillips says that she and her family almost lost their tenancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we had a child, and I was going to Camosun,\u201d says Phillips, \u201cwe were able to use the ombudsman, and we used every Camosun resource possible to avoid being homeless. We really used every support possible that Camosun offered. We drained their resources. Like completely draining them, but they kept us afloat, and it kept me in school. I kept up with the BEST program, and then finished my upgrading, and now I\u2019ve gone into business. Being able to access those resources kept us from the streets. We were really, really close. They were helping us call shelters and everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPhillips says that investment that Camosun or the Camosun College Student Society\u2014she can\u2019t recall exactly who she got the help from\u2014put into her has returned double, as she now works in the community, helping others in the same situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a health education coordinator and an advocate. Because I have had to learn to navigate the system to stay alive and keep my family together, I help others by showing them what I did to get through the system and keep working through the legal, medical, and housing systems,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s therapeutic for me, and it\u2019s therapeutic for other people. It\u2019s really peer support and peer navigation to help people meet the social determinants of health. I learned it the hard way, but it all comes naturally now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
With her permission, I brought Phillips\u2019 success story to the attention of Camosun ombudsman Carter MacDonald. I let him know that she is now working in the community helping others in the same way that he helped her. MacDonald says that sometimes the work he does multiplies in the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI would call that a success story,\u201d says MacDonald. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it a few times. Sometimes if a student comes back and feels that they are at a point where they can stand on their own two feet they may not feel the need to come back and see me. These stories don\u2019t often come to my attention. I\u2019m pleased that you shared that with me because it encourages me to keep practicing being an ombuds in the way that I do it. I\u2019m a human being, and I very much care about the health and the success of our students. I don\u2019t have a magic wand. I can\u2019t solve everybody\u2019s problems, but I will do my best to try.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to helping students in the outside community, MacDonald says that he primarily uses the Bridges for Women Society\u2019s Bridges Community Handbook to refer students to the proper services.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of students who have been in dire financial need, and students who have racked up a tremendous amount of student debt,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t always get the opportunities, but you need to act on them when they present [themselves]. That\u2019s why I take the time I take with our students to make certain that they don\u2019t slip between our collective fingers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMacDonald says that his primary role is to ensure fair process for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to allow them the time and the space to be able to talk about their situation,\u201d says MacDonald. \u201cListening is the most underestimated communication skill that there is. If people feel that they are listened to, they\u2019ll tell you more. It\u2019s hard to help someone unless you have the proper information.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, MacDonald says there\u2019ve been some international students who have had landlord-tenant issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, there are some unscrupulous landlords, and students for whom English is not their mother tongue get taken advantage of. Over the past couple of years, three international students came to see me, and I put them in touch with an advocate in the community. The students all seemed to me to have acted in good faith, notwithstanding the fact that they were having trouble trying to understand the rental scheme. In all three instances, the adjudicator found for the students.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCamosun College Student Society (CCSS) executive director Michel Turcotte says that the CCSS acknowledges that there are affordability and capacity problems in the Victoria-area rental situation that disproportionately impact students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe CCSS believes that having a roof over one\u2019s head should be a right and people should not have to choose between food or shelter,\u201d he says. \u201cWe hope that the government will provide funding to Camosun to build affordable student residences to help alleviate this particular problem, because if we get some students out of secondary suites and things of that nature, that will also free up housing for more of the non-student residents of the capital region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turcotte says that the CCSS has a guide available at its food banks that lists non-profits and social-service agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur expertise is student issues; housing is not our area of expertise, so we would tend to want to refer them to others that have more experience in that area,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we do have some of those resources available at our offices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turcotte says that the CCSS has definitely encountered some Camosun students who are homeless, and has encountered a lot more who are in accommodations that are not ideal.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have to make choices nowadays, given prices and availability of accommodations,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you have more roommates than you may like, or it may not be as nice as you may want, or a lot of students would prefer a non-shared type of accommodation, but that\u2019s becoming increasingly difficult, given the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I\u00a0<\/span>would guess that many people associate homelessness with drugs, alcohol, whisker length, and clothing condition, and do their best to not think about the actual housing crisis. The truth is that, with vacancy rates where they are, much of the student population is vulnerable.<\/p>\nI sat down for a chat with August, a recent Camosun grad who is finishing up her final year of Nursing at UVic (August is not her real name, but she was granted anonymity for this story).<\/p>\n
August could walk through any west coast campus and blend right in. On the surface, she looks young, happy, healthy, and full of energy. So why is she different?<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, myself and my roommate, who is also in fourth-year Nursing, are both living in a 1975 Vanguard motorhome,\u201d says August. \u201cWe live in there together because we could not find a place we could afford. We are in school with a 100-percent course load, and that doesn\u2019t allow much time for us to work at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two of them had spent two years in their previous home, which August says was a decent place at a decent price, but they were asked to sign a lease for another year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause our program is ending in April,\u201d says August, \u201cand I\u2019m not even sure that I can get a job in Victoria, I can\u2019t commit for a whole year. So [our landlord] basically evicted us, and it was all of a sudden. Basically, we freaked out and started looking everywhere for places, but we could not find a single place that was within our budget that wasn\u2019t a rat\u2019s den.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAugust says that time was running out and they had to leave, so they started to look for vans. She says they found one that, at 21 feet, is big enough, so they moved in. Then the challenges began.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have running water,\u201d says August. \u201cI have to do my dishes at school in the bathroom. Everything is more of a challenge. Everything takes longer. We have to walk to a public washroom. We have to go and gather water about every three days. We have to be very creative with what we eat. We have a fridge, but we never know when it\u2019s going to go out. We can\u2019t really rely on anything. Not to mention I don\u2019t have Wi-Fi, which makes it a lot more difficult to do my homework. I can stay at UVic to use the Wi-Fi. I have to always think ahead to make it all work.\u201d<\/p>\n
August says that the most challenging part is finding a place to sleep, because it\u2019s illegal to sleep in a vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have, basically, been told by law enforcement officers to continuously move so we\u2019re not congregating,\u201d says August. \u201cWe have to vacate the park by 7. They hand us a pamphlet telling us we can go to the shelter, or we could build a home out of anything from 7 pm to 7 am. That\u2019s not going to work when we have class at 8. I\u2019m not going to take everything I own to school, participate in nursing and my practicum, and then go back and build my home again every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a full-time student, August is living off of student loans. She says that some of the money she had been spending on rent is available to improve other aspects of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been able to go to yoga and have a gym membership, and I have been able to spend my money on more healthy things that are supporting my lifestyle,\u201d she says. \u201cIt can be intense to be doing this alternative living, but this experience has changed my whole outlook on life. It has pulled me or physically removed me from society, and I\u2019m grateful for that. As shitty as it is sometimes, I am so grateful, because it has opened an incredible can of worms.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAugust says that she hopes that the recent civic election brings some changes to the housing market. She says housing seems to be on every candidate\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and my roommate are not an anomaly at all,\u201d says August. \u201cThis is the way the world is going. Alternative living, tiny homes, van life\u2014it is what is practical right now. It\u2019s too expensive out there. It\u2019s not feasible for students, and we really, really, really need to look at providing a different source of housing\u2014not just affordable homes that we have been talking about forever here. We need to do something different, because this just isn\u2019t working.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Working in the support field, I am regularly in direct contact with the homeless population. There\u2019s one person I\u2019ve overheard talking about returning to school whom I was hoping to get a chance to talk to for this piece. He seems intelligent, fit, and enthusiastic, but from what I can see in passing he lacks the support needed to get his feet under him. I don\u2019t know him by name, but he agreed to talk to me.<\/p>\n
The young man doesn\u2019t have a phone, but I see him from time to time on the street. We have to reschedule on more than one occasion and our meeting doesn\u2019t seem to be happening. Then, on a Saturday night, I run into him on Pandora Avenue. I walk up and ask him how he is doing. He is clearly not at his best, but he says he\u2019s fine and asks me if I\u2019m ready to do the interview. We walk down to a Tim Hortons; as we choose a table and start talking, I can see immediately that we should have picked a better time, but he insists that he wants to do the interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe 23-year-old, who we\u2019ll call Steven, tells me he has been homeless as long as he has been living in Victoria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI live wherever I rest my head,\u201d says Steven. \u201cSometimes I am lucky enough to stay with friends, but I can\u2019t rely on them to house me. I had a place lined up for October, but I couldn\u2019t come up with the money, so I didn\u2019t get the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the struggles a homeless addict faces, Steven has a brain injury. I couldn\u2019t forget the promise I had seen in him in our prior visits, so I asked what he thought he would be doing if he weren\u2019t caught in this lifestyle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to work, man,\u201d says Steven. \u201cI have a bachelor\u2019s of the job site, because no matter what you need done, I can do it\u2014except for plumbing, pipefitting, or electrical. It\u2019s easy to find work, but it\u2019s hard to want to get there every day. I know nobody wants to go to work, but it\u2019s different when you\u2019re on the streets. I used to do it every day, but it\u2019s different now. I don\u2019t have a sigh of relief when I close myself off to the outside world\u2014it\u2019s a constant state of regret, but I can\u2019t get out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steven says he knows he needs a change, but he doesn\u2019t know where to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to go to Camosun,\u201d says Steven. \u201cIf I\u2019m not going to be working in construction, then I need to bump up my education big time. I was thinking about taking a mathematics refresher before I go back. Honestly, it\u2019s myself holding me back. It\u2019s not like there is a big bully standing in front of me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI can almost see his thought process at times. Steven\u2019s energy moves in ebbs and flows, to the point of him nodding off once or twice. I haven\u2019t quite got the story, so I asked if it were up to him, all barriers aside, what would he like to do next. Instantly, Steven stated that he would go to a treatment centre that is focused on sober surfing. The only thing keeping him from going is the $3,000-a-week tab. Steven is very adamant about the fact that he doesn\u2019t want to live like this anymore. Then, I ask another question, and\u2026 silence.<\/p>\n
Steven has fallen asleep at the table. I wait a minute and call to him again, but he doesn\u2019t respond. I start to pack up my things and put my coat on. I turn off my recorder, and the beep makes him jump a little. I watch for a moment, but he seems to be asleep. I stand up and pat him on the shoulder to see if he was okay to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in,\u201d Steven says. \u201cCan you fast-track me? I need help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On September 15 of this year, a letter from a Camosun College instructor was published in the Times Colonist; in the letter, the instructor told of a \u201cdedicated student\u201d who had been evicted from Saanich\u2019s tent city and faced challenges that most of his peers likely haven\u2019t considered. My initial response was strengthened gratitude for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-november-7-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16669,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16668\/revisions\/16669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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