Homeless Awareness Week

September 27, 2002
Anti-poverty activists made national headlines in three separate events this week, bringing attention to the plight of Canada's homless.
In Vancouver, residents of the gritty Downtown East Side tore the plywood from the windows of the abandoned Woodward's building and attempted to establish a squat. The former department store has stood vacant for ten years, and community activists have long been calling on the government to turn it into affordable housing. The government has said it will hand the building over if the community can raise the funds nessasary to renovate it; an empty promise considering that the residents of Canada's poorest urban neighbourhood are hardly in a position to raise the $20 million dollars required to covert the property. The squatters didn't get much of a chance to settle into their new home before the stormtroopers charged in during the middle of the night to haul them out. Woodward's is once again vacant.
In Toronto, mega-hardware store Home Depot decided they'd had enough of the 150 street people living on one of the store's vacant lots, and called police in to evict the residents of Tent City, a one and a half year old community of street people. Tarp homes and make-shift shacks were torn down, as the residents, and members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty cried "SHAME!" Residents and activists then marched down to City Hall and disrupted a council meeting before heading to a nearby hotel where Home Depot was supposed to hold a press conference to explain their actions. Alas, when the residents and activists reached the hotel, there were no Home Depot reps to be found, and the press conference had been cancelled.
One hundred and fifty men and women are now scrambling to find accomadation within the city's overcrowded shelter system.
In Calgary, a Sleep-In and Vigil was held in Central Memorial Park to commemerate Homeless Awareness Week, and to pay tribute to all those who have died on the city's streets. The event, which wrapped up just over an hour ago, is being hailed as a success by Alberta Coalition Against Poverty co-founder Daniel Defresne. Over two hundred people gathered in the park at dusk to hear speeches from some of Calgary's homeless and to watch a performance by Calgary's Radical Cheerleaders. Earlier in the week, City Hall had refused to issue a permit for the event, claiming that in no way would camping in the park be tolerated. Just prior to the event, Defresne spoke with the police officers in attendance and assured them that the vigil would be peaceful, and that the park would be clean and empty by 7 a.m. In return, the police told him that if they saw anyone who appeared to be sleeping (a misdemeaner offense), they would just assume that they were 'resting', and not take action.
The gathering started to thin by around 2a.m., by which time the police had already slipped away, and by 7 a.m., as we picked up trash and scraped candle-wax off the pavement, a head-count revealed that over 30 people had stayed the whole night.
Defresne sees the event as a water-shed for the ten month old ACAP, and hopes that the positive media garnered by the lack of police intervention will be instrumental in his efforts to create a national coalition with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and other Canadian organizations.
September 25, 2002
It's Homeless Awareness Week here in Calgary. To mark the occasion, the Alberta Coalition Against Poverty is holding a sleep-in and vigil at Central Memorial Park. The city has refused to issue a permit and have informed the media that they'll be using a 'gentle, non-confrontational approach' to persude us to leave the park. Yeah right. Out comes the pepper-spray when saying please doesn't work, eh? So I'm planning to go down there (luckily I have the day off tomorrow) and I'll let you know how it goes.
I'm moving next month, from my $800 (after bills) per month apartment into a $400/month garage, slashing my living expenses in half. I'm looking forward to getting a nice loud stereo, something I couldn't do in this apartment where I have to share a wall with people.
It was just announced that the rumoured Chris Cornell, and ex-Rage Against The Machine members project will be releasing an album Nov. 19. The band, once called Civilian, is now called Audioslave. Can't wait.
And Gwar is coming to Calgary in late October. Yay!!

Links to other sites on the Web

Cortes Island!
Activist Network
Calgary Drop-In Centre
Star Trek Homepage
Art Bell's Homepage
Bob Marley's Homepage
Hippie Discussion Forums

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