I Hate Street People 1

Expo was when Vancouver began to change for the worse and one of those changes was a huge jump in the homeless population. Good old Premier Gordon Campbell exacerbated the situation by closing what was then called Essondale, which meant mentally ill residents were thrown onto the street with no plan to help them cope. ("Churches and other community organizations will take up the slack" was Campbell's criminally stupid and self-serving rationale) Don't get me started on those who say the mentally ill who live on the streets shouldn't be forced into care because it violates their rights. Yeah –  their right to be thirsty, to starve, to be cold, wet, confused, preyed upon and afraid. All the time.
I won't say I have a love/hate relationship with street people, it's more like a sad/pity/curiosity/hate relationship with street people. I'm sad for and pity those who have miserable lives on the street. They live outdoors in wet, cold or sweltering weather, filthy all the time, being preyed upon by other street people or thugs who make sport of setting them on fire.
The ones I hate are those who steal, litter, shit, yell and generally put the rest of us on edge and high alert. I hate the ones who make a business of thieving and drug taking/selling. And I hate those who defend and enable them to continue like this.

But there are others I'm curious about  –  what happened to them in their lives that led them to be homeless on the street? How do you wind up on the sidewalk with no shoes? Who were they, once?  I've had some interesting exchanges with this particular fringe over the years. Maybe I'll draw their stories some time.