A Needs Assessment of Poverty and Homelessness in

Transcription

1
A Needs Assessment of Poverty and
Homelessness in a Resource-based
Community:
Stoney Plain, Parkland County,
Alberta
2
Coding Frame
Theme
1. Contributing factors
2. Perceptions of Homelessness
3. Barriers to delivering care
4. Strengths within
5. Gaps in services
6. Populations at risk in Stoney Plain
7. Impact of housing issues on
Stoney Plain’s populace
Subthemes
1.1 Shortage of housing/effect of industry
1.2 Lack of financial sources/employment
1.3 Affordability and suitability of housing
1.4 Drug and alcohol abuse/addiction
1.5 Poor mental or physical health
1.6 Family struggles (abuse, divorce, conflict)
1.7 Lack of education/mentoring/life skills
2.1 Magnitude of the problem
2.2 Defining homelessness
2.3 Cyclic Nature
3.1 No place to go
3.2 Hidden problem
3.3 Coordination of services
3.4 Unpredictability of the population at risk
3.5 Lack of time, crisis mode, urgency of needs & no
fixed address
3.6 Funding
4.1 Quality of services
4.2 Availability of resources
4.3 Resilience of the people/community
involvement
4.4 Accommodating Landlords
5.1 Shortage of services
5.2 Lack Transport
5.3 Shortage of long term affordable housing/shelter
6.1 Teens/Youth
6.2 Single parents
6.3 Seniors
6.4 Immigrants/Migrants
6.5 Working Poor
6.6 First Nations
6.7 Families /Returning Families
6.8 Divorced
6.9 Detached Individuals
6.10 Retired Individuals
6.11 Uneducated/unemployed/Unskilled
6.12 Mixed
7.1 Stigma
3
7.2 Lack of social support (bounced around,
schooling, belonging)
7.3 Social problems
7.4 Health problems ( physical & mental)
7.5 Transient lifestyle ( no roots)
7.6 Unsuitable housing/ “Housing trap”
8.1 Centralized services
8.2 Education/Awareness/Information sharing
8.3 Need for different types of housing
8.4 Improved resources/supports
8.5 Building Relationships/Partnerships
8.6 Employment opportunities
8. Needs
9. What keep you in Stoney Plain
9.1 Family/support system/safety
9.2 Opportunities
10. Industry support
10.1 Support to find housing
10.2 Role of industry to address the problem
11.1 General Demographics (age, origin, family
employment, etc)
11. Demographics
Coded Transcripts
Twelve transcripts were coded using the coding frame noted above. It should be mentioned
that codes maybe difficult to interpret in isolation (without the surrounding text). For this
reason, an asterisks (*) and a number indicating the transcript from which the text originated
was used. A blue line seperates the individual text and is coded according to themes.
1. Contributing Factors
1.1 Shortage of housing
R:
R:
I think they have the resources but our resources can’t do anything with it because
there’s no housing.
There’s no um no low affordable housing. Uh we have new places coming up just
outside of Stony which is in Spruce that’s called affordable um but we’ve talked about
that at a meeting again this week and it says it’s affordable but it’s not affordable.
What is affordable? Uh affordable to me is subsidized housing that looks at their
income and takes a percentage of their income to go towards the, the rent of their
house. Like a subsidized accommodation for seniors. We have those so they look at
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thirty percent of the seniors income and that’s what they pay for rent. So that they can
still can continue living um these affordable places they opened up and yes we can
have the single mom in a home or someone who domestic violence and we were
putting ‘em into an affordable place because that’s all we could afford. But in the last
year they did a study and said, oh our rates are really low, and increased the rent. Now
all the people that we had moved into the brand new affordable place are all homeless
because they can’t afford the new rent prices. So the community really, it it we’re
lacking. There’s definitely definition lacking as well but again service providers know
that there’s this out there but hands are tied. I don’t think it’s lack of information or
resources in the community. It’s period, lack of housing.
R:
I would agree with that, lack of.
R:
It’s an important clarification.
R:
Yeh ‘cause we’re all knowledgeable on what’s here. But there’s nothing I can do
about it.
R:
And I think for lots of rural ah seniors that I am in contact with, their ah once their
capacity to have home help um is exceeded. You know people come out and clean the
house once a week or remove the snow then they will need to go to seniors housing but
for lots of the, quite rural people, they don’t want to go to town or the city. And
Spruce Grove being the city and so they stay out longer and longer until they don’t
really have any choices, even if they are available so they don’t see somewhere that
they can really go either. *1
R:
Um well the youth clients are more already here and just because they can’t move
farther than their own community so their couch surfing. But when it comes to seniors
I’m finding their coming out from the county. Um and because there’s no places in the
county ah like subsidized homes. Because you go from ah and I know our Ministry is
looking at this right now is you go from living in a home and most of them are
farmers. Um from there when you sell your farm, what are your next alternative and
it’s not sell the farm and still live in the county with my neighbours and everything but
live in a subsidized or lodge. ‘Cause there is no lodges in the next available lodge for
some of them is Stony Plain or Onoway.
R:
Or Evansburg.*1
R:
I would say lack of affordable housing.
R:
Um hmm.
5
R:
And there’s not a large number of rental properties. And when the costs keep going
up, people have to move out of the community.
R:
It seems to be more expensive to live in.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Than like I know you can, you can rent in Edmonton cheaper than.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
You can rent out here.
R:
Yeh.
R:
That’s what I would.
R:
Just say no rental, low, like all these buildings that are coming up are condo. They
look like apartment buildings but when their up it’s not apartments, it’s condo. So you
can’t rent you have to purchase. Um one of the large condos just out of town couldn’t
fill so their starting to rent.
R:
Oh they are hey?
R:
Which is kind of funny but. No affordable and no rentals. *1
R:
Um it’s perhaps, perhaps a lack of housing overall that the growth just simply hasn’t
kept up. And I think for um parts of the county like a, the people that Acheson would
attract as they put more and more industry into that um most of those people tend to be
better paid. Their tradesman or labourers in that and as soon as you add it’s like a
tri…diamond shape, as soon as you have people at the top part of the wage of
diamonds you know there’s the ah administrators and the tradespeople and the well
paid labourers. Then you also have your um Wendy’s popping up and your Home
Hardware and your other stores that where people make less and I think somewhere in
there there’s a band where it starts to get really difficult for you to get ah, ah
appropriate um ah housing relative to your total income. So it ah then it just gets
harder and harder as you get to the less paid service.
R:
(inaud).
R:
Type jobs and that’s where we get the working poor.
F:
So I guess.
6
R:
As the triangle gets pulled, like as it gets pulled up there this way the diamond it also
gets extended down that way but it gets more and more people into it.
F:
So you’re finding similar to what was being said earlier about ah once leases are up
and they bump the rental costs because they can.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
So you’re finding that those well paid industrial park type workers are bumping out
those who can’t afford?
R:
Well.
F:
The rising cost of rent?*1
R:
Crowded houses. Over populated ah I see some of the like he was talking about you
know relationships going to the garbage and going on their own way and living with
maybe their sister or brother for awhile and then they end up living there for a year.
Then their kids come move in with them. Just no balance.
Right, so when you say over populated ah can you explain that a little bit more? Do
you mean that there’s not enough housing for the amount of people in your area?
F:
R:
Yeh.
F:
Or, okay.
R:
Not enough housing, period.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m I don’t know if there ever will be enough housing for the people but, you know
where I’m from there’s not enough housing, period. I mean like I said about the
houses we have, they go through shreds ‘cause of booze and alcohol and drugs.
*2
F:
Right. Okay. So you see a lot of lack of housing in your area?
R:
Yeh.
F:
And drug and alcohol problems.
R:
Would you say that, oh sorry.
7
F:
Go ahead.
R:
Would you say the houses that do get dilapidated, is it because they don’t have the
income to keep it up?
R:
Well they, they they live on um Social Services there for numbers of years and then
they end up you know going down the tubes, into into a rut I guess I should say.
R:
So like if the windows get broken, they wouldn’t have the funds to replace those
windows would they?
R:
Well there it you fix one window you gotta fix the whole nation, right? So you just
can’t you know, if somebody wrecks their house it just gets wrecked (inaud) they can’t
afford to fix it because they don’t have a job. *2
1.2 Lack of financial sources/employment
R:
And ah I mostly just stayed with him ‘cause I was uh I took sick and I didn’t want to
trying raising them alone.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I was in ah the same house as my parents and we kind of teamed up. I just paid
them rent but then I realized because I’m on AISH when it come time to leave them
‘cause the kids were older there’s no where to rent when you only have AISH. And I
can’t, I’m not always in functioning shape to work.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And even when I am AISH lets you make eight hundred and I haven’t found any work
to get off AISH and ah it’s not enough to qualify for an apartment on your own.*6
F:
So you said for income right now though you’re working part time at the liquor store?
R:
The Liquor Depot? Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
And I hate that, I really like all the girls there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I hate the responsibility like someone could come and you don’t know whether
their drunk or not and you serve them.
F:
Yeh.
8
R:
And you could get sued if they were and you can’t tell whether anyone’s drunk or high
I mean sometimes I mean it’s completely obvious you turn ‘em down. But even when
you have to do your job and turn ‘em down how scorned is this drunk gonna be? And
it’s not nice work. So but I there’s an opening at the Mac’s Store and it’s just around
the corner so I I might try to do that but then that’s night shift too like twelve to eight
so but that’s only four hours earlier than what I do right? Because if I get up at four.
F:
Yeh. So how long have you been at the liquor store?
R:
Just since December 10th.
F:
Okay.
R:
I was in the, in the fall I was at Mama Donair’s but I only had to train for the job and
then cover for a girl on holiday. So it wasn’t a job and and like that work is way
easier, you don’t have to deal with anyone drinking or needing booze or.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it’s way more light hearted, so I took to the work way better but they just didn’t
need anyone.
F:
Yeh.*6
F:
So, but I’ve started for jobs this year ‘cause I just wasn’t well enough to work. I ah
two, one day I was at one shift and I couldn’t retain anything and at a Buck or Two I
got on there, and before that I was at Super Store but they changed my job because I’d
been there for years, they wanted me to take on more responsibility and they wanted
me to drive, it’s not a tractor it’s sort of like a fork lift.
F:
Okay yeh.
R:
You kind of sit on it and it drives but I was, I was debating whether or not to keep my
driver’s licence and I wasn’t in any shape to drive. So I got a note from the doctor not
to drive that thing and then I felt too guilty like ‘cause I didn’t even keep the job and it
was like my favourite work.
F:
Yeh.*6
R:
Both Stony and Spruce Grove have all these little jobs where people are not making
much money and so the jobs get bought out but now everyone has a car to do these
jobs and they need housing and and that’s what there’s so many rooms for rent. That’s
why people had, the public looked after everybody by renting rooms and if they can’t
do it well.
F:
Yeh.
9
R:
Those people can’t live here.
F:
So you’ve had to do the private room rental, pretty much?
R:
That was literally the only the only option, yeh, because of the wages. *6
R:
Um I was injured at work uh back in 2001, 2002, and slowly began a medical process
that.
F:
Oh no.
R:
Ended up in my memory is kind of faulty, very short term um and and yeh I’ve been
off work unable to work for.
F:
The last five to eight years?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Really?*5
F:
That’s your whole AISH cheque.
R:
Yeh, and so yeh it was pretty bad and going out and putting in applications, people
would ask about employment and well I don’t have that and rental information. Well
I can give you that but I’ve been living the past five years with my sister and brother in
law.
F:
Family.
R:
Yeh and their just, and so they get a little. I never hear back from anybody even
though people were like, okay maybe. But even the cheapest one there I think was
eight hundred or nine hundred dollars.*5
F:
So what um, what do you feel need to do, or what kind of supports would you need to
be able to find your own space if living here you kind of said isn’t ideal.
R:
Yeh.
F:
But what would, what would it take what changes would you have to make? Or what
supports would you need um to be able to do that? Like the ultimate goal.
R:
The ultimate goal, um well if ever I reach the point where I feel confident and in my
abilities that to afford a place I would need a part time job at least um because right
now really my rent, the few bills I have and I, I have about two to three hundred
dollars to play with for groceries.
10
F:
Yeh.
R:
And that’s it that’s with my rent being what it is so anything else pretty much.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Take all of my income. So a part time job would definitely be needed.*5
R:
Yeh it really is because and when I talked to AISH last about it their like well you can
earn up to eight hundred dollars a month part time and I’m like but if I can’t work part
time then then how is it because I know that well even if I could I know I’m an
unstable employee now because I get sick a lot. If I get hurt I’m out for weeks at a
time and there’s just like, like I was fired from a part time, just before I ended up not
being able to work. I was fired from a part time retail in a job, in a mall store.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because their like we can’t rely on you. Like you’re absolutely right you can’t and
that was so hard for me because I, I know that I am reliable and punctual and all that
but because now I don’t have control over that it just I’m not.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’m not reliable anymore. Like I can’t I just can’t control that.
F:
Yeh.*5
F:
Yeh. Well how about education, employment, how do you, how do you afford the
housing that you’re in right now?
R:
I’m on income support and I get fifteen, sixteen twenty seven a month and my rent is
twelve eighty four. They won’t, I was gonna transfer to Edmonton because it was
cheaper and you can get a townhouse for less.*7
F:
How did you find your ah the fourplex?
R:
Um geez I can’t even remember now I think it was just driving around and saw a for
rent sign.
F:
Saw a sign, how long have you been there then? Sounds like a little while.
R:
Um just over a year.
F:
Okay, nice. Um how much are you paying for the fourplex?
R:
Thousand.
F:
For the basement suite?
R:
Yeh.
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F:
Is it shared kitchen, laundry, anything?
R:
No.
F:
It’s, okay.
R:
It’s a full basement suite.
F:
Well that’s pretty good, pretty nice.
R:
Yeh.*8
R:
Well it is right and I’m just casual working at the Good Sam so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know.
F:
On at the Good Sam.
R:
Here in Stony Plain.
F:
Oh nice.
R:
Yeh.*8
F:
And it would be hard I’m assuming if you have your bills set up.
R:
That’s right.
F:
For the job that you’re currently working and that changes.
R:
Oh yeh.
F:
But your bills, how do you?
R:
Like it, it got to the point where I actually didn’t want to go to work because I got
depressed about it. Because it’s like why am I, I’m sitting here making what, ten ten
fifty an hour. When I’m used to making almost thirty.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Do you, or twenty five you know what I mean? It’s like wow. Like how do you you
know and then having kids going mom I want this, I need that, you know or mom I
gotta do this at school. It’s like I can’t do it bud.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I just can’t do it.
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F:
So when you left working at the Good Sam for your health reasons. That was the
COPD (inaud).
R:
Yes.
F:
Where did you work in between?
R:
I ended up going to the Dollar Store.
F:
Okay.
R:
And that was very, very belittling.
F:
That was the?
R:
I, I.
F:
Ten fifty an hour?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Job?
R:
Yeh I think I did it for one day because mentally, physically it was draining.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like I give those people credit for working there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause it is the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life.
F:
Really.
R:
And.
F:
Did you head right back to, were you able to get right back into working at Good Sam?
R:
Yeh, I ended up going casual with them, um like I took five years off work just I had a
spouse at the time. He was kinda pay, helping pay for things right? I couldn’t do it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And now I am back to work and it’s like wow you know it’s a big difference.
F:
I bet. It must be nice to be back at.
R:
Oh it is.
F:
A place that you enjoy though.
R:
Oh definitely.
F:
Good for you.
13
R:
Definitely.*8
R:
At forty years old if you don’t, pardon my language if you don’t have your crap
together with credit you don’t have anything. You know and that, that’s the hardest
part. Like I’ve been to my bank, I’ve been with my bank for probably fifteen years but
they still won’t give me a credit card. You know what I mean? Their looking at it
going okay well you gotta put in before we’ll give you this and it’s like I understand
that but that’s not what I’m looking for.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know what I mean?
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’m looking for some credit that will help me like I can’t even get an overdraft.
Because of years, years ago when I was younger and didn’t have the financial planning.
You know what I mean?
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like itn.
F:
It’s scary that an eighteen year old can apply for some of these credit cards and
sometimes they’ll have just these outrageous thirty percent interest because you don’t
need much to qualify.
R:
That’s right.
F:
And their gonna hit you on the interest.
R:
That’s right.
F:
And it can have real long term affects that kids don’t know about.
R:
That’s right, I had seven credit cards by the time I was twenty one. And I didn’t
realize. Nobody told me. Like you know that’s another thing like I swear by trying to
teach my kids finances, like yeh okay if you have a few dollars you don’t need to go
blow it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s not gonna burn a whole in your pocket.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Right. Because of the way I grew up. Nowadays it’s not like that. Like I don’t know
why they don’t teach kids that in school, that and driver training. To me it should be
mandatory. You know there would be a lot less poverty and a lot less financial
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problems in the world if kids were in high school having to take financial planning.
Having to you know.*8
F:
Yeh so how long has your husband been out of work?
R:
Quite awhile like nine months. He qualified for like fifteen weeks of sick EI and
that’s it so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um.
F:
Oh no.
R:
Yeh. So it’s been our bills are more than our rent, or more than our income right now
so it’s pretty rough.
F:
No kidding. How long ah do you anticipate he’ll be out of work still? Is he gonna be
able to go back at all or is he gonna have to look at getting on some kind of benefit?
R:
Um he’ll be able to go back but maybe not the same um he’s a truck driver and he
may not be able to do that so, yeh.*9
F:
Okay well here’s hoping everything works out with EI.
R:
Yeh I hope so.
F:
And you get he’s able to get back to work.
R:
My husband did get in a car accident which is why he has a bad back.
F:
Was it while he was driving truck?
R:
No it was before that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But um he like that was the thing he told them when he go on to driving the truck that
he has a bad back but the chains and stuff are really heavy and he must have just
thrown it on there wrong and hurt his back.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But he does have a claim out on that which is gonna be settled before summer so that
hopefully I don’t know how much it’ll be but it should get us through for a little while.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I mean that could be July, August so.
15
F:
The old waiting game hey?
R:
Yeh. So we still have you know four or five months to get through there and then
once that’s gone you know if he’s hopefully he’ll be back to work.
F:
Yeh. Fingers crossed for you. That would really make things a lot easier.*9
R:
I did find like ‘cause in the sum…last summer we almost split up. And um there was
an apartment which was cheaper than most and I did get approved to go in there. I was
gonna leave him because he had some behavior issues I guess like tinge of we ended
up finding out I was because of his health issues so I ended up staying and we worked
through it but um I would have had to get rid of my cat. At that time it was just the cat
so and uh um guinea pigs but we would had to get rid of them to go in there. I mean
we almost had to but we ended up staying but that um even that’s still a thousand
dollars so that was like low income, lower income.
F:
I know.
R:
So that was insane.
F:
I’m shocked by.
R:
Especially if I didn’t have like right now yes I’m ah I’m doing it by myself anyway
but my you know it’s tough.
F:
Yeh. *9
F:
At least they had those experiences and I think once ah if you guys are able to get the
career back on track.
R:
Yeh once that gets going then it’ll be fine, we’ll be good again but.
F:
Good. Okay.
R:
I make fairly good money just alone like when I’m working but right now I’m only
getting sixty percent of that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So.
F:
So what do you do with AHS?
R:
I work for um Supportive Living.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m a Clerk Four so yeh yeh.
16
F:
So do you anticipate you’re going to be able to go back to work after.
R:
I don’t know.*9
F:
Rural? Nice. How long have you been on disability for?
R:
Ah seven years.
F:
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. Where you working before you had to go on disability?
R:
Oh, I took legal assistant program.
F:
Good for you.
R:
Um but I never worked for a lawyer. I worked for the Police, um I work for the
hospital in administration and I work for Legal Aid, um I guess my last employment
was here in the hospital at the after hours clinic.
F:
Okay.
R:
And then um that only lasted about five months, five, just about six months I guess.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then I realized I’m not a nurse. Which is.
F:
Not the job for you hey?
R:
That’s the position and I was like, I’m supposed to be here to register the patients.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Not be a nurse. Um and then seven years ago I was in home, home oxygen therapy.
CPAP Clinic, allergy clinic.
F:
Yeh.
R:
In b…in Ontario.*10
F:
Yeh have you found it to be more expensive here than say it was in Edson or in Ontario
or where your family lives a little bit west of here? Or is it the same the general cost of
living in say Alberta or in Canada?
R:
I don’t even know um in Ontario when I lived there I was renting privately first and it
was, it was all right it was a decent amount um I can’t remember what it was. And then
I moved in to affordable housing so it was.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’d say it was a hundred and fifteen dollars a month for a three bedroom.
17
F:
A hundred and fifteen?
R:
That was nice.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know it reflected on the income that I brought in through disability that you know
but at least it was affordable and I could manage everything else.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
It wasn’t paying eleven hundred dollars and then having you know a thousand dollars
to pay bills and food out of so.
F:
Um hmm well the going idea is no one should be spending more than thirty percent of
their income on housing and it sounds like your well above that.
R:
Way above that like it’s ridiculous so.*10
F
Yeh. Excellent. So um what about education, employment, income.
R
Um I went to Grade 11 part way through Grade 11 I got pregnant with her
F
Yeh.
R
So I kind of quit school and then I went to on line schooling and I got my early
childhood education.
F
Oh cool.
R
So I have my Level One.*11
F
Oh nice. So have you been able to use that in work or have you been home with the
girls?
R
Yeh. I’ve worked in day care and then I got pregnant with my second one and I had
lots of issues with her so when she was born she was always in and out of the Stollery
and I couldn’t go back to work ‘cause I would miss way too many days.
F
Yeh. So did you have trouble throughout the pregnancy too or was it just after?
R
Um hmm.
F
She was born?
18
R
No I had trouble throughout the pregnancy and then when she was we were about a
week away from my actual due date they took her out because they thought my heart
would give out.
F
Really? Wow.
R
I was hospitalized for a week before they took her out. Yeh.
F
So are you um with either of the dads or with a partner?
R
Uh the dad is the same dad for both of them.
F
Okay.
R
And yeh we’re engaged.*11
F
Yeh to start a new career you need more money. That’s a, that’s a catch twenty two.
That’s tricky. What um, so what um what have you already done to improve your
housing situation. I know you’ve looked into the LPN and that’s just with the funding
piece not working out at the moment. What have you already been able to do or have
you been able to do anything to improve it?
R
I haven’t really been able to do anything to improve it because all the jobs that I’ve
ever tried to apply for like they basically say no because all the time because I could just
leave at the drop of a hat and be gone for weeks at a time. And also to find somebody
to be specialized in order to sit with Alana, even for four hours out of a day would cost
me twenty dollars an hour. *11
So I rented a log cabin versus house out at Seba Beach and I live there for eight months and
at that time I was working two part time jobs in Edmonton. And then I moved from
there to a small holiday trailer in Spring Lake and that kind of became my story of
trying to find harder, harder to find places to live but ah.
F:
Okay.
R:
For up until that time I had always rented since I was eighteen so from ah you know
since 1977 I guess until around 2006 I didn’t have not necessarily basically any
housing problems. I lived in the YWCA apartment buildings at one time.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I also lived in Metis housing for two years so I had had some kind of subsidized
housing. But um like I just found it being out of town and I have had jobs where you
know where they were not that the jobs didn’t last long but I ended up having some
health problems in the last few years here.
19
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so that meant I didn’t have like a steady income.*12
R:
And ah then they garnished my wages for the next year and so I still owe her two
thousand dollars which I’m not like attempting to pay I guess now. We’ll see in the
future but I paid back the seven thousand dollars rent that I owed ‘cause I was in
arrears of seven thousand dollars rent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And the last month that I lived there I actually wasn’t really living there anymore
‘cause my stuff was there but I was working at a cell building at a live in with the
youth.
F:
Okay.
R:
And they allowed me, I had a dog at the time and they allowed me to bring my dog but
ah I ran something like a two hundred dollar heat bill or two hundred and fifty dollar
heat bill and I wasn’t even living there. So like it one of the problems that I seen too
was that it was highly overpriced the rent that the woman gave me and then the idea
that it was kind of way out so it wasn’t really easy to just move out. She did give me
an option in October of the just before like the problems I started having were in
February and ah she gave me the option in October to move out but you know I was
unrealistic I was working two jobs. I figured I could handle it and then I was working
for Catholic Social Services and Sprit of our Youth. And then I let go of the Catholic
Social Services job which I really didn’t have to I guess seeing looking back it was not
a good thing to do that if I didn’t have housing. But I really hadn’t had too many
housing problems. So I didn’t anticipate.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So once I went to the hearing there um my wages were garnished and.
F:
And that was the landlord took you to the court.
R:
Took me to court through a telephone. Like I also figured like I’d been through
Residential Tenancy Hearing in fact I lived in Garner Towers at the U of A for three
years. I took them to court and I won my damage deposit back ‘cause I had water
damage.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I used a student legal from U of A as a lawyer, a law student so the risk I took this
time was because I worked. I worked for Native Counselling in the ah Parkland Link
Building.
F:
Yeh.
20
R:
Or Parent Link Building. Not Parkland but Parent and I took the risk of doing a
telephone hearing.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I learnt like I learned you know I kind of answered questions and the person seeing
this stable woman with a house, a husband and a couple kids and then myself. So what
ended up happening is I did take her to Queen’s Bench ‘cause I was living in Spring
Lake in a trailer.
F:
Yeh.*12
R:
And I was starting to get depressed on the system so I was garnished at eight hundred
dollars a month. So what my case did when I took it to court is I got it reduced to six
hundred so then from there I lived in Spring Lake for the summer at ah paying for a
power hook up.
F:
Were you renting an RV or did you own it?
R:
No it was only just a little holiday trailer.
F:
Okay.
R:
Like an old ah what would you call the kind.
F:
Tent trailer?
R:
No it was a trailer but it was an old an old one like a TravelAire kind of trailer.
F:
Oh okay yeh.
R:
And so I moved from there to an apartment in ah the industrial part of Spruce Grove
and that’s when I incorporated my job loss I guess as per, no I didn’t I think I still had
my job anyways I’m not sure.
F:
With Native Counsel?
R:
Yeh I had a job for Native Counselling for fourteen months.*12
R:
And so after that I went on EI and I went to work and a cell building so what I did do
in that time of yeh the very end of working for Native Counselling I moved to where I
live today.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And thought I would get out of there in ah short period of time and I’ve been there two
and a half years now.*12
21
R:
That’s probably why I decided to do part of this study because I in some ways it was
good ‘cause I did get, I had work for um Spirit of our Youth as a Youth Worker and
Native Counselling so I was given the maximum as far as like I had an existing EI
claim ‘cause I was off. I think I started my job like in May.
F:
Yeh.
R:
For the Youth Worker job in the city and I was off March for Native Counselling so I
had a couple of months that I was on EI but I hadn’t you know I had just about two
years consecutive work over the part time work I had. And so uh what I know is that
um I didn’t anticipate the problems with the living.*12
But one of the things with it is that a lot of people like in order to kind of get out of the
situation I needed to work and I had done that treatment in 2004 so my physician was
like very adamant that I didn’t work ‘cause I had went through the side effects before
and this was my one chance too because the time before I wasn’t working but this is
kind of my last chance Blue Cross would pay for this treatment for me.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I am hepatitis free today like I had four blood tests.
F:
Good. *12
F:
So are you paying anything to stay in the shop right now?
R:
Four hundred dollars.
F:
Okay. And where does that come out of your, what’s your income right now?
R:
EI.
F:
Ei?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m on medical EI just as of this week. This week and last week I went to my liver
specialist and he thinks I may I gotta make a turn to lose some weight because I have a
potential of having a heart attack so I am a client at the Weightwise Clinic.
F:
Okay.
R:
Even though he doesn’t suggest any kind of bariatric surgery but because like I worked
at Fort Edmonton last year I’m looking to work there again starting in May.
22
F:
Oh good for you.
R:
But because I have these appointments to finish like I’m still in assessment phase my
doctor felt I should, my other doctor, Dr. Johnson felt not my liver specialist thought I
should stay on a medical side and finish my phase that I’m in kind of of trying to look
at my weight before I try this city job. And the hours are a lot less than like the youth
worker jobs and stuff like you start out at five hours and then you go to eventually
seven right at the city but until it opens.*12
F:
So are you a registered Social Worker?
R:
No I’m an Addictions.
F:
Or you just have lots of experience?
R:
Counsellor.
F:
Oh okay good for you.
R:
Yeh and I am I’m actually not registered in the sense they didn’t have accreditation
when I started but I finished there and I got a diploma in 2000.*12
F:
Okay that makes more sense now.
R:
And I tried to be a postal worker like a letter carrier and physically it was too
demanding. I ended up with the flu and I didn’t pass their test to you know keep going
but um I did drive truck for a month in December with another guy and we loaded
parcels so that put my EI like I didn’t use up EI hours ‘cause I claimed that money so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My fourteen weeks of EI extended through you know end of September ‘til now they
just finished now because I was on ah working for Canada Post and I had done some
work in the group home in November.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So by getting other work I wasn’t, like I’d be on EI one week and not on EI and then
on EI.
F:
Jumping back and forth. Gotcha.
R:
But I think that the problems you have renting when you’re doing that is you don’t
have a stable enough income to know how much rent you can pay.
F:
Right.
23
R:
So probably the feasibility is anything is over seven hundred and fifty bucks a month
for me wouldn’t be something I could afford*12
F:
Exactly. Did you ever look for work around here um where you might not have as
much gas or vehicle expenses? Or?
R:
Well I don’t really, like I have used the work source but I know that ah like my
experience has been in child services and like I don’t really see that many kind of jobs
for that around here so what I know that I might have to do is like I can look at maybe
living on AISH and working part time but I’m not in a place that it’s kind of I’m still
in a place to see if I can deal with a few of my health problems if I come down in my
weight a little bit. I might now have as much trouble at work so that’s sort of what the
doctor’s are looking at and the other part about working around here is that ah you
know ‘cause I kind of specialized in something. Like I worked in a certain field I
might have to expand and take some more training in order to get a job around here
which I don’t see that I couldn’t do. You know like I even had hope for that with
Canada Post if I would have stayed there maybe I could come to work out here. But
even persay that kind of job if I would have stayed on with Canada Post ‘cause they
will let me go back next year and do the letter carrier training again.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But you have to work like in the city for a year anyways before you can transfer,
union, that’s a union thing for them you know like your contract kind of driven. So I
have never really seen anything that I could work around here like for ads or whatever
I have no waitress experience, no secretarial experience. Like kind of the only things
that I did do is I did some hotel experience in the past and um I worked in chid
services type places like I I worked the detox at George Spady before at downtown in
inner city I worked two summers in the Boyle Street Coop in the inner city in the drop
in.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I worked for Boyle Street Coop two and a half years I was in the receiving and
reassessment home for small children that were taken out of their parents homes and
then I worked for the different agencies like I’ve for Bencalf a little bit and ah Catholic
Social Services in the youth homes like the halfway house for youth. And then Spirit
of our Youth I worked three and a half years in their home so I’ve only worked with
kids and youth. So like I don’t have a wide range of job experience and I am getting
older so there is a competition of the younger people taking the jobs that you know.
Not to say there isn’t gonna be something for me.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like I have a lot of life experience.
24
F:
Yeh no kidding and you’ve done a lot of youth work, social work kind of thing so now
you had mentioned that when you left, you left Edmonton because you were living
downtown and you were you weren’t comfortable downtown. Is that to do with your
addictions history *12
R:
I’m not sure but the thing you know coming today to even do this right I guess one
thing that I look at with everything else it’s like um like when I went to work for City
of Edmonton you know it’s kind of a good job for someone that’s like I’m just about a
senior. So like if I could find something to do the other six months of the year like that
would be really good. Like I could stay working for City of Edmonton so like I have
the City of Edmonton to go look forward to and I think like they told me I should
apply for some internal postings once I’m inside in Community Services.
F:
Well good.
R:
I knew one woman with a degree she went to become working in a library. Now you
never think you’re gonna take an anthropology degree and go work in a library but like
when you’ve looked hard enough you kind of go, the library’s better than nothing.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And she’s making like ten bucks an hour more than she would make for City of
Edmonton and I’m getting a retro active raise from them and I’m going back at a raise
even though I don’t know if It’s fifty cents or a dollar or two dollars.
F:
Every little bit helps.
R:
But I have had a raise from the City of Edmonton and I guess the thing I’m gonna try
is staying out here like even though I don’t know how that’s gonna look yet. But the
thing that I know like even with Kyla like she’s given me a couple of gas vouchers to
drive to my doctors appointments.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like there’s things that I believe that I don’t really have to leave if I absolutely don’t
want to leave.
F:
Yeh.*12
1.3 Affordability and suitability of housing
F:
You um. No that’s all right. You have looked for somewhere else to have your own
space?
25
R:
Yes.
F:
How has that gone?
R:
Badly.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um there, I would follow up on KIJIJI and in the paper and just actually the best luck
I’ve had was driving around in Stony and Spruce looking for places with signs in the
windows.
F:
Okay.
R:
Because in the paper there would be one and KIJIJI maybe a couple but they were all
super expensive like fifteen hundred dollars was about the going rate and that’s, that’s
my income right there. So.
F:
That’s your whole AISH cheque.
R:
Yeh, and so yeh it was pretty bad and going out and putting in applications, people
would ask about employment and well I don’t have that and rental information. Well
I can give you that but I’ve been living the past five years with my sister and brother in
law.
F:
Family.
R:
Yeh and their just, and so they get a little. I never hear back from anybody even
though people were like, okay maybe. But even the cheapest one there I think was
eight hundred or nine hundred dollars.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And most of the others were about twelve hundred.
F:
So were they mostly homes or apartments like?
R:
Apartments.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh I never found a house.
F:
Fifteen hundred for an apartment rental?
R:
Yeh. Bachelor to one bedroom ah and then the low income or whatever their calling it
in?
F:
Yeh the affordable.
R:
Yeh affordable yeh.
F:
Affordable.
26
R:
Yeh it was eight seven five, nine fifty for a one bedroom. They had a waiting list up
to three months even and then they had two new buildings coming in August,
September last year.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um, put my name on the list. I’ve yet to hear back anything.
F:
Really?*5
R:
Yeh even calling, they’re like well we have this waiting list. Always the same story.
Um.
F:
So you followed up and their not?
R:
Yeh.
F:
You’re not getting any different answers?
R:
Not getting any different answers.
F:
Wow.
R:
However, since going there I just keep hearing the worst things that like, their, they
um, they don’t give you a copy of the lease and then suddenly come at you and say
like this is the rent it’s increased. Or that you need to get out. So people were
transferring, some of the places I was looking at were saying that they were getting
people from there in emergency situations. Like I just found out that I have to leave
my apartment, it’s the sixteenth of the month, and their just telling me that my lease is
up but like I don’t even have a copy of the lease to go back on and so yeh it was pretty
crazy some of the stories I was hearing about affordable.
F:
Yeh. Yeh if those stories are true that’s a, that’s a tough situation.
R:
Yeh. Well and I mean one may be gossip but yeh random places and people who are
also saying the same thing but yeh, that’s my thought if it’s true do I really want to be
there?*5
R:
I am retired, not by choice. I have severe migraine headaches. It took me off the ah
work force and I have cataracts in both eyes. So I need cataract surgery, I can’t see the
fine print.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I used to work at Canadian Tire part time.
27
F:
Yeh.
R:
I couldn’t see ah the stock numbers anymore. So they had to let me go.
F:
In Spruce Grove here?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I worked with them for was it, 2005 I believe it was until I was there a year and a half
to two years.
F:
Okay. So that finished around 2007?
R:
Around 2007, yeh.
F:
Somewhere in there? And have you worked since then or then?
R:
No.
F:
So what did you do after Canadian Tire?
R:
Well I had no choice.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I mean you couldn’t get employment anywhere because of the simple fact you,
without being able to read the fine print they wouldn’t even hire you.
F:
So is that when you went on AISH?*4
R:
Yeh and even on that you know so the one bedroom for nine hundred or nine fifty with
the mom and the child and she’s on income support she’s lucky if she gets a thousand
and eighty dollars, right? And that’s to cover her shelter, her food, everything right?
So you know that’s like more than eighty percent of her of her income and if it’s
because she’s fleeing abuse um for the time that it takes for her to be able to get back
on her feet, there just isn’t that I mean there just isn’t that support there right? And it’s
just not finan…like just not financial but I mean that’s a huge you know that’s a huge
part of it right so.*3
R:
For me I see I mean it’s it’s a provincial issue as well as just a regional issue and that
Alberta’s population just is growing and growing and growing and the services can’t
keep up. Um you have people coming for good high paying jobs and it doesn’t always
pan out uh and oil prices drop and things change awful drastically. But uh also with
28
with the high paying jobs comes high rent, comes low supply of of rental properties um
and so affordable housing is pretty much non-existent. Um when you look at a
community like Spruce Grove, Stony Plain where you know the cheapest two bedroom
apartment is still probably about twelve hundred dollars a month that’s enormous and I
mean for for many people even holding decent jobs that’s virtually impossible to
manage. So in domestic violence we see it quite a bit right. We see women who um are
leaving looking at a single income family now um or perhaps they are not employed and
trying to find housing and it just doesn’t exist. So definitely we see women that don’t
leave because there aren’t any housing options. Um I also think for a you know like a a
community like Spruce Grove, Stony Plain that the invisibility if that’s a word, of it is
very true your definition people in in I find in communities kind of you know your
bedroom communities tend to define homelessness as the people that are lying on the
cardboard on the street corner. Um and not as the broader picture, you know is it
appropriate housing, is it safe housing, is it affordable housing um you know are people
living day to day wondering if they are gonna have a place to sleep. Um and that is
something I think as a community you know we’re missing because people look around
and say, I don’t see anybody sleeping on the street corner or there’s one guy that sleeps
in the park in Spruce Grove that’s it we don’t have a problem. Um but it’s definitely a
bigger picture ah also there’s, there’s lack of emergency shelter uh in our area um I
think a big part of that is that you know we’re almost too close to Edmonton we’re so
people think they can just go to Edmonton to access the service. And people can’t, this
is their home we’re still a half an hour from Edmonton um we’re still our own
community, people should be able to access emergency housing and shelter within their
own community and not having to go somewhere else. So those are the biggest things
that I see.*3
R:
Do you mean, are you asking the root causes? Or you know like low income and
subsidized housing isn’t the root cause of homelessness. But.
F:
But it contributes to it.*3
R:
I would agree like anybody living in, in poverty we have no, we have no subsidized
housing. We have no low income housing. We are our affordable housing isn’t
affordable for anybody that ah is living in, is living in poverty you know. I think, I
think on that you know um I agree with Ky what Ky was saying too is that you know
both of you, that their more (inaud) to being homeless but they’re the ones that we can
actually get ah services for pretty quick, right. So compared to compared to others. So
I would also say the other population would be ah anybody with a disability. Um and
um and mental health. People with mental health ah um issues*3
29
F
…the main contributing factors to homelessness in the Stony Plain area?
R:
Well, lack of affordable housing.
R:
No subsidized or low income housing.
F:
We keep hearing that. In every Focus Group.
R:
I think again in part it’s due to the mental health. To the addictions but just health
issues in general as well as the mental health or the disabilities.
R:
Family violence.
R:
And um maybe lack of job skills, or their job skill or what their trained for is not in this
area. They’d have to go elsewhere.
F:
Okay.*3
R:
Only inexpensive there’s a lot of hidden costs. And then I think that’s where it gets
rolling and you can’t afford to miss much work or anything else or you start getting in
a jeopardized situation.
R:
Well and sometimes people looking for housing don’t come to me, until after it’s done.
R:
Hmm.
R:
And I’ve fallen into that too. Ah seniors gave their farm to their children.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So came with just the minimum, moved into the trailer parks ‘cause that was the more
affordable places that they could afford.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Once they moved in and they started paying then in the last three years some of those
mobile parks have gone up so high that the between the lot rental and your taxes it’s
almost more than the mortgage on the trailer that the senior has.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So now their hidden costs have are more than their mortgage and those hidden costs
aren’t anything they had.
R:
Anticipated.
30
R:
Anticipated at all because and again like Cindy said what’s happened is it’s been
turned over and there’s really nobody there’s really nobody there to stop it from
happening. Um to really put down the foot and say hey you need to lower it because it
needs to be lower in some of the parks right now but.
R:
And those are private
R:
It just keeps going.
R:
Businesses so they on their own land basically.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So they can charge what they want.
R:
And you can’t pick up your trailer and move.
R:
No.
R:
‘Cause the cost is another ten, twenty thousand dollars to just pick up that mobile
home.
R:
And there’s no.
R:
Even buy your own land and put it on your own land it’s gonna cost more to do that so
people have walked away from their own homes in the village I know in some of
mobile home. Even this one across the highway here ‘cause they can’t afford it. But
then they have nowhere else then their we’re trying.
R:
And.
R:
We’re trying to get them in lodges.*1
R:
Or like it’s it’s sporadic so in a lot of the smaller communities um they have no choice
but to move into our community. But then it becomes an issue because again like I
said there’s been this well you know there’s a check list for all these facilities. You
know, how long have you lived in the community? Do you get Alberta Seniors
Benefit? Do you get this do you get that? So some of the seniors who don’t have the
point system are homeless. Like so then if they have no choice but to sell their farm
then we’re really in deep trouble, we’re trying to find them rental properties or
something um in a lot of cases some of these seniors who are coming outside of the
community to move into our community are living with family. ‘Cause they have to
live with the family for one full year before they can even try to get into some of the
waiting areas. Now that’s changing or some of it has changed. Some of it is in the
31
midst of changing and some is just being talked about in some of the facilities right
now. Depends on who owns the facility.
R:
And when they people sell their farm often what they do is they subdivide off a small
like five acres around the house and they keep that and live in that and sell the rest of it
or it goes to their kids so they really don’t really have a lot.
R:
The money to move out.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Like to, yeh it do…no cash exchanges hands.
R:
Right. Yeh.
R:
So they move off the farm but they have to start all over with the mortgage.
R:
Right.
R:
At a senior age. I mean that’s a choice they made but it’s still.
R:
Yeh.
R:
It’s something that’s been happening for years and years and years and years but as
things have changed in life that never changed. So all these families who have always
just handed down, handed down the farm handed down the farm, it’s now going well
that’s great but. Where are you going and how are you gonna pay for the next step
because now there is nothing that is affordable for you. You’re housing is high
because we’re a high demand here. We’re a neighbourhood community so it’s not like
you can find a place to rent for five, six hundred dollars like you used to. You’re
looking at a thousand plus. So now they’re going oh well that’s like all of my pension,
yeh, so then you’re trying to explain ‘kay but you left everything behind so what are
you gonna? Like you’re trying to help them budget. So I’m finding a lot of our
service providers are starting to be budget people which they sh…I mean it’s not part
of our jobs but you’re trying and you’re not actually giving them a budget but you’re
kind of giving them ideas of what you need to look at right?*
R:
Um it’s perhaps, perhaps a lack of housing overall that the growth just simply hasn’t
kept up. And I think for um parts of the county like a, the people that Acheson would
attract as they put more and more industry into that um most of those people tend to be
better paid. Their tradesman or labourers in that and as soon as you add it’s like a
tri…diamond shape, as soon as you have people at the top part of the wage of
diamonds you know there’s the ah administrators and the tradespeople and the well
paid labourers. Then you also have your um Wendy’s popping up and your Home
Hardware and your other stores that where people make less and I think somewhere in
there there’s a band where it starts to get really difficult for you to get ah, ah
32
appropriate um ah housing relative to your total income. So it ah then it just gets
harder and harder as you get to the less paid service.
R:
(inaud).
R:
Type jobs and that’s where we get the working poor.
F:
So I guess.
R:
As the triangle gets pulled, like as it gets pulled up there this way the diamond it also
gets extended down that way but it gets more and more people into it.
F:
So you’re finding similar to what was being said earlier about ah once leases are up
and they bump the rental costs because they can.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
So you’re finding that those well paid industrial park type workers are bumping out
those who can’t afford?
R:
Well.
F:
The rising cost of rent?*1
R:
It’s called living, living wage. But even at that there’s some businesses, especially
right now that can’t afford to say yes I’ll live with a, I will hire everyone at a living
wage. ‘Cause with the way the economy’s going and the lack of work more people are
getting laid off than getting hired. And if you hired someone you’re definitely not
gonna, most of the businesses out here aren’t gonna hire them at thirty-five an hour
unless they’re a set business and they have their business almost paid off. They don’t
have that money to start someone off.
R:
And.
R:
At a living wage.
R:
And there’ll be at time lag as wages or people get laid off.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And then re-hired and when the rents might drop because your rent is a year long
contract or something so.
R:
Yeh.
33
R:
It probably doesn’t coincide very well.
R:
And some of them who have rent like that year lease and they signed a year lease
because the business. I mean in October, November most of these businesses were
booming still, September, August, August, September everyone was fine. And it
wasn’t until De…end of December and now January that a lot of the businesses
because of the oil going down um all of a sudden it’s like oh oh we better start
watching ‘cause in the next six months I don’t know if we’re gonna have our business.
Right? So then you’re looking, not just the person who owns that business but all
those employees.*1
R:
Yeh and lots of ah eviction prevention, I mean we there’s lots of people coming in
with eviction notices and so we’re addressing those concerns. Yeh.
R:
Lots of people who are unable to work.
R:
Yeh.
R:
For, if it’s illness, mental illness, physical illness, whatever it is. *2
F:
R:
Yeh.
F:
R:
F:
Go ahead.
R:
R:
R:
windows would they?
R:
34
F:
So you see families who have hit a rough patch or.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Have undergone some kind of.
R:
And can’t get through.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they actually have it within them to get through it but it’s but she wants to stay
home. Well that’s not gonna happen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like that’s not how it, what needs to happen. So it’s a, about looking at alternatives
and getting them to look at those too. It’s a tough one but um my successes that I’ve
see is those ones that come to the realization would want push it is both of them to
make ends meet. ‘Cause at fifteen hundred dollars a month rent, and that’s a norm.
Plus all utilities so water, gas, power. You’re looking at two grand at least just for that
ap…that house.
R:
That’s one of the biggest factors.
R:
And I always say I couldn’t afford that on my income. So no, it definitely takes two.
And yes he may have made huge money but there is no saving, there is no putting
away, it was like get it and spend it. *2
R:
It’s more the gap between what you earn working full time and low wage jobs and
what rent costs that cause the problems.
R:
Right.
R:
Like, there’s there’s no housing that is affordable for low wage earners in this area.
That’s I guess the biggest contributing factor that I see.
R:
It’s the cost of living in general.
R:
Even if you’re working full time.
R:
Even with the food and you throw the whole cost of living in the area.
35
R:
Yeh.
R:
It’s a high cost of living area.
R:
Yeh, but you still need people to work on the low paid jobs around here, but there’s no
work that really doesn’t support there isn’t a way for them to have a decent life on the
wages that they earn on those things. *2
R:
And while the employers are hiring part time.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
That’s like a huge issue and low income so we could put something out to the
employers out here. *2
R:
I don’t think we talked about ah mismanagement of funds. I think there’s a lot of
people that are on the verge of homelessness because their used to living a certain
lifestyle on a certain wage and especially in the oil fields, not everything’s guaranteed.
And as soon as they get laid off they’re in crisis.
F:
So Susan kind of talked about that.
R:
Yeh I talked about that.
F:
With one part (inaud).
R:
I think that, that’s that’s a huge thing is.
R:
That’s an Alberta issue.
R:
Highest income and highest debt load.
R:
I lived up in Fort MacMurray, it was a good time. We were in poverty but we had
more.
R:
They’ll be coming your way here soon ‘cause their cutting jobs there now.
R:
But the reality is they can’t come our way. We can’t even begin to help them and so
they need to go through EI and then they need to, I’ve had that conversation you need
to look for any reasonable job, Walmart’s hiring.
R:
Come see me.
36
R:
Go see Kurt.
R:
So really like guy working the patch making gross amounts of money, goes stock
shelves at Walmart.
R:
Yeh how many of them are saving?
R:
Really, none.
R:
R:
There’s.
Well maybe there’s a few but.
R:
Yeh.
R:
The problem that becomes though that their debt load is just so high they can’t sell
anything.
R:
No.
R:
Because they still would be paying payments on it.
R:
I usually send them to money mentors.*2
F:
There you go. There you go, so you haven’t worked since 2007. How has AISH been
for you? N How has it affected your housing?
R:
Well it’s been a little balky.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause I’ve had to move a couple of times for the simple fact they rent up the rent,
and it was more than I could handle.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I had no choice. When I moved out of the last one in Stony Pa…Plain that’s when
I was homeless for two and a half years.
F:
Two and a half years?
R:
Two and a half years I it, I was homeless. Ah.*4
R:
You couldn’t hang a picture up on the wall and it was dark and dingy. The walls were
grey, dark, black cupboards, black appliances. It wasn’t the apartment so much, it was
37
you weren’t allowed to go have any visitors. You weren’t allowed to have company
stay over.
F:
So were you and your mom both living in that apartment in Spruce?
R:
Yes. We were.*4
R:
There’s no um no low affordable housing. Uh we have new places coming up just
outside of Stony which is in Spruce that’s called affordable um but we’ve talked about
that at a meeting again this week and it says it’s affordable but it’s not affordable.
What is affordable? Uh affordable to me is subsidized housing that looks at their
income and takes a percentage of their income to go towards the, the rent of their
house. Like a subsidized accommodation for seniors. We have those so they look at
thirty percent of the seniors income and that’s what they pay for rent. So that they can
still can continue living um these affordable places they opened up and yes we can
have the single mom in a home or someone who domestic violence and we were
putting ‘em into an affordable place because that’s all we could afford. But in the last
year they did a study and said, oh our rates are really low, and increased the rent. Now
all the people that we had moved into the brand new affordable place are all homeless
because they can’t afford the new rent prices. So the community really, it it we’re
lacking. There’s definitely definition lacking as well but again service providers know
that there’s this out there but hands are tied. I don’t think it’s lack of information or
resources in the community. It’s period, lack of housing.
R:
I would agree with that, lack of.
R:
It’s an important clarification.
R:
Yeh ‘cause we’re all knowledgeable on what’s here. But there’s nothing I can do
about it.
R:
And I think for lots of rural ah seniors that I am in contact with, their ah once their
capacity to have home help um is exceeded. You know people come out and clean the
house once a week or remove the snow then they will need to go to seniors housing but
for lots of the, quite rural people, they don’t want to go to town or the city. And
Spruce Grove being the city and so they stay out longer and longer until they don’t
really have any choices, even if they are available so they don’t see somewhere that
they can really go either. * 1
R:
People who rent are renting with more long term. I think rental house, houses who
used to rent were either on a year basis and that was it or a two year basis or three. But
I’m finding some people in the community who are renting have been in that house for
five to ten years already. They’re not moving out.
38
R:
Um hmm.
R:
They’re comfortable and they can afford it and their staying renting. So therefore
when other people are moving into the community there’s no rental ‘cause their being
used a lot longer.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Or there’s that competition. Like rent goes up because there’s people moving into the
community who are willing to pay so other people are having to leave because.
R:
Low income.
R:
Rent is going up.*1
R:
I think that ah it, it may that lack of affordable housing makes anything that happens to
you once you’re down in the living wage where if you move from ah relationship
‘cause of abuse where there was wage and now there isn’t wage it just makes it so
much more difficult and your so much more vulnerable the moment something does
happen. Whether it’s family violence or it’s.
R:
I think one of.
R:
The loss of a job or anything.*1
R:
The affordable ho…affordable housing has not been a solution to the housing crisis in
our community. The affordable housing is not affordable. So it’s a, it’s a wrong term
for it. It’s only ten percent below market value so the problem is that people get into
that housing and they cannot afford it. And their coming in with eviction notices for
that affordable housing so I don’t know if it can be renamed but I would totally rename
it, it’s not affordable.
F:
That’s difficult. That’s what we’ve been hearing. So.
R:
Yeh.
F:
That bring us.
R:
It’s really like.
F:
Go ahead.
39
R:
Sorry like it’s really like if their gonna call if affordable it should be based on someone
earning like minimum wage.
F:
Yeh.
R:
If it’s affordable for someone at that wage then it should be affordable but there’s no
rents like that in this community at all.
F:
Right.
R:
It’s not affordable.
R:
It’s a bit frustrating because they think that they’ve gotten into a place that they can
afford because we call it affordable. And ah no it’s not and I’m constantly dealing
with that building.
R:
I hear you.
R:
I totally hear you.
F:
Common sentiment hey?
R:
I do not agree with that (inaud) terminology is contradicting.
R:
And then there’s misuse of that term too.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So some agencies some people call it low income housing and so then their coming in
to me and their like, well you told me that there’s no low income housing. Well I
don’t consider ten percent below market value low income.
R:
It’s not low income no.
R:
Or affordable housing.
R:
No.
R:
So there’s a real misuse of terms and that creates a huge issue for me. I’ve been yelled
at over it.
R:
It creates expectation.
R:
Absolutely.
R:
And then there’s nothing to deliver that so.
40
R:
There’s nothing, yet.
F:
Yet. That’s a good point. That’s a good point.*1
F:
Nice. Um what’s your current living situation like?
R:
Um, I rent. I’m a renter. Um it’s very unaffordable, it’s very hard to actually even try
to afford to buy my own place. So yeh that’s pretty much it.
F:
Where are, are you renting an apartment, a house, a condo?
R:
Ah a fourplex actually, a basement suite.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Nice. With the one dependent, how old’s the one dependent?
R:
Thirteen.
F:
Boy, girl?
R:
Boy.
F:
Nice, you’ve got your hands full.
R:
Oh yes.
F:
How did you find your ah the fourplex?
R:
Um geez I can’t even remember now I think it was just driving around and saw a for
rent sign.
F:
Saw a sign, how long have you been there then? Sounds like a little while.
R:
Um just over a year.
F:
Okay, nice. Um how much are you paying for the fourplex?
R:
Thousand.
F:
For the basement suite?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Is it shared kitchen, laundry, anything?
R:
No.
F:
It’s, okay.
41
R:
It’s a full basement suite.
F:
Well that’s pretty good, pretty nice.
R:
Yeh.*8
F:
Good for you, good for you. So have you had any other issues with your housing?
R:
Just affordability and actually finding a place that is acceptable for me and my son,
right?
F:
Makes sense. Um have you ever had to move because of.
R:
Oh definitely.
F:
Housing issues?
R:
Definitely. Affordability, definitely.
F:
Really, in just here in Stony or?
R:
Just here in Stony.
F:
How many times would you say?
R:
Probably twice.
F:
Now was that a change in your situation, like your hours at work dropped or was that a
change in the landlord um somewhat on his end like he upped the rent and that (inaud).
R:
No I’ve never had that where a landlord has upped my rent like that. Um I think a lot
of it was just working as far as much hours I did receive.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay. So you’ve had to move about twice for that?
R:
Yes.*8
R:
There’s no way he could ever get into anything ‘cause I just couldn’t afford it. There’s
no way.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know, so yeh.
F:
Yeh that’s a, we keep hearing that.
R:
Yeh.
42
F:
It’s sort of the same, and even you have a family with two parents and their both
working minimum wage or close to minimum wage jobs.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Just by having that extra person you need a bigger space.
R:
Um hmm, definitely.
F:
So we’ve had people mention that that second, that spouse whose also earning
minimum wage their what they pull in a month doesn’t really make up the difference
between the one bedroom versus the two bedroom.*8
F:
In the mobile home right now.
R:
Absolutely no yeh.
F:
Have you guys had any difficulty any other difficulties with um like adequacy? Like
has it required many repairs to meet health and safety or?
R:
No. It’s actually it’s small, like tiny but it’s um it was fine for me and my husband
and the two younger kids but then when my daughter needed to move home ‘cause she
was living with her boyfriend and they kinda broke up for awhile and she couldn’t
afford the rent and stuff so she had to go somewhere and of course the doors always
open right?
F:
Yeh what are you gonna do, yeh.
R:
So um I mean eventually she’ll probably move out and get her own place again but
that could be awhile.
F:
Yeh. So it sounds like your issues have mostly been with the space and the
affordability. Um do you see yourself having to look for a a more affordable place in
Spruce or Stony?
R:
It would be nice but the only one that I found is non-pets.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And you know we could downgrade some but like the cat and the dog are really old so
I mean their you know if you brought them for example to like you know a pound or
that kind of thing their gonna get put down. And not very many people want to adopt
a you know an eleven year old cat.
F:
No.
R:
And a nine year old dog right?
43
F:
So between the pets and the stairs it keeps you a bit limited.
R:
Yeh.
F:
It sounds like.
R:
Yeh.*9
F:
Yeh. And now is that as far as transportation, lack of anywhere else to go? Or
affordability?
R:
Affordability, um.
F:
Availability?
R:
Availability, I don’t know where I would move to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um right now we’re just kind of here.
F:
There you go.
R:
Paying extreme rent, but, what do you do?*10
F:
Yeh. There you go. So you had you didn’t have difficulty finding housing when you
first moved here but you mentioned that that’s changed and now you’ve looked for
somewhere else that might have a bit more room or be a bit more affordable and it’s just
not happening?
R:
No, there’s nothing unless I moved to to um Spruce Grove into that affordable housing
but there’s a wait list and I’ve been on the, what’s that called? Rent subsidy list?
F:
Yeh.
R:
Since I moved here in August so like two years, three years ago.
F:
Yeh just about three years.
R:
Yeh. So I don’t, I don’t qualify for that yet, so and they said that could take even a
couple more years so.
F:
Really? And do you hear from them or do you check in with them?
R:
Every year.
F:
Every year?
R:
Um hmm.
44
F:
So how, have you gone and looked at any other places for rent like you mentioned in
Spruce Grove or?
R:
No.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause that’s the only place I would move into is into the affordable housing.*10
F:
Can you think of any services that aren’t available in the Stony Plain area right now?
R:
Low income housing.
F:
That would be helpful, yeh. Yeh I hear that one.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
For sure.
R:
You know I, I do see that their building move over at Spruce Grove and I was gonna
look into that but.
F:
Yeh with the waiting list uh I know a number of people that are on the waiting list for
the low income housing so it’s a it’ll be really nice once people are able to find
somewhere.
R:
Is there anything like that coming to Stony Plain?
F:
That’s actually why we’re doing this study.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh is sort of figuring out what the needs are for this community um so it’s
conversations like this and like the survey you filled out that are really gonna help us
decide where to put our priorities.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
So.
R:
Well Stony Plain’s growing and if you you know younger community, younger people
coming here and staying here and then we’re gonna have to have something.
F:
Um hmm yeh you can’t continue growing.
R:
Or you’re gonna cap on the rent because every time your lease comes up it goes up a
couple hundred dollars.
F:
Is that what’s happened to you with the apartment:
R:
Yeh.
45
F:
What were you, do you know what you were originally paying two and a half years
ago? Just for curiosity.
R:
Hmm.
F:
Of how much it’s kind of gone up every year?
R:
I’m trying to think of what it was.
F:
I know it’s asking a lot, what were you paying three years ago?
R:
I don’t remember three years ago but I know um I signed a six month lease ‘cause I
wasn’t sure what was going on.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And then after that six months it went up fifty dollars I think a month and then I signed
a year contract, a year lease and then that went up another I think it was a hundred and
then again I signed another, another one.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Another year and it went up again so my contract is up in June again, the end of June.
F:
And it’s gone up.
R:
And it’ll go up again.
F:
At least a hundred and fifty dollars since.
R:
Two fifty.
F:
A month, two fifty a month.*10
F:
So do you feel like anything besides the income piece is preventing you from finding
more appropriate housing or more affordable housing or improving your situation?
R:
Well I’ve looked and there’s just nothing here. So I really haven’t been able to think
about moving so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause of one that’s a cost I can’t afford and it’s not like you’re gonna get moving
expenses paid for by the company you’re working with or whatever so.*10
F:
That’s good to hear. So what a we’re getting pretty close to the end here. So we can
wrap up right away but what would need to happen or what supports would you need in
place in order for you to improve your situation?
46
R:
Rent cap would be nice um income geared housing would be good, um affordable
housing in Stony Plain. I know their trying to get more in Spruce Grove but I really,
one I can’t afford to move there but if I had to I guess I would.
F:
Yeh.
R:
If I was on the, if I was able to get in there and have decent rent.
F:
If that would make the difference yeh. So for you mostly it’s been the availability and
affordability.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Do you think there’s anything else that we should know for addressing housing issues
in this community?
R:
I can’t think of anything.
F:
Okay. Fair enough. I think we’ve driven the affordability and availability right home
so no that’s a really important.
R:
Unfortunately it takes a long time to build that kind of stuff so.
F:
It does but that’s why we’re looking at it now. I know for a lot of people it couldn’t
come soon enough.*10
F
Awesome. So ah what’s your current living situation like you’re on an acreage?
R
Yeh we’re on an acreage ah the, the I can’t remember his name but my landlord’s dad
lives on the property and then they have a mobile home on the property as well that
they’ve rented out. But um they are going to be moving because I guess there’s a
divorce going on and the dad’s gonna have to live in our house and move it off the
property. So that will come within the next six months to a year.
F
So you’re gonna be living with the landlord’s dad?
R
No we’re gonna be moving out. Right now we’re on the same property.
F
Yeh.
R
And he’s living in his house, we’re living in ours but when he has to move off ‘cause
he’s selling the property.
F
Yeh.
R
We’re not gonna be in that house anymore.
47
F
Okay all right you guys are gonna be. So right now you’re in a house and the landlord
or the landlord’s father is in a mobile home on the same property.
R
Um hmm.
F
Um what how did you find this rental house?
R
It was in the paper, lots of people don’t put much on KIJIJI but you can find a lot in the
paper as well.
F
Okay.
R
And then we phoned him up, we went for meeting and I told him about Alana and how
I had to be close to the Stollery and she didn’t have her surgery yet. And we’ve been
living there for a year in almost three months now.
F
So a year and a quarter. What so that’s this summer that you guys are gonna have to
move out. What’s um what’s your plan from there?*11
F
It might happen yeh. So have you had to? So you said you had to leave your first
home in Stony because of the it was condemned the mold.
R
Um hmm.
F
What exactly went on there?
R
We the church ‘cause they found, they knew about Alana and everything. The church
had a house and they were renting it to us for seven hundred dollars a month.
F
Okay.
R
And which was. And they were renting it to us for seven hundred bucks a month right,
and my husband figured went he had one of these masks on and he’s like, it’s really odd
‘cause the floor was starting to lift and stuff and he was like it just melt like moist and
stuff all the time. So he went up to the attic and there was literally going down. They
let us rip off the floor ‘cause we got laminate and we were going to put in laminate
flooring. And literally ‘cause they were going to let us rent to own and literally all
down the wall and across the kitchen floor was all black mold.
F
That’s scary. So it was condemned and you guys were out of there.
R
Yeh.
F
And that’s what led you to the acreage?
R
Then we went to another house in Stony Plain but we couldn’t afford it and then we
went to the acreage*11
48
So I rented a log cabin versus house out at Seba Beach and I live there for eight months and
at that time I was working two part time jobs in Edmonton. And then I moved from
there to a small holiday trailer in Spring Lake and that kind of became my story of
trying to find harder, harder to find places to live but ah.
F:
Okay.
R:
For up until that time I had always rented since I was eighteen so from ah you know
since 1977 I guess until around 2006 I didn’t have not necessarily basically any
housing problems. I lived in the YWCA apartment buildings at one time.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I also lived in Metis housing for two years so I had had some kind of subsidized
housing. But um like I just found it being out of town and I have had jobs where you
know where they were not that the jobs didn’t last long but I ended up having some
health problems in the last few years here.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so that meant I didn’t have like a steady income.*12
F:
So is that the apartment in the industrial part of Spruce?
R:
No I moved out of the apartment I live in my dad’s yard where his equipment is?
F:
Yeh.
R:
I live in part of his shop.
F:
Okay. In part of the shop and that’s in Stony here or?
R:
Outside of Spruce Grove.
F:
Okay.
R:
I lived in the trailer for two years and that’s when I went through my medical. I did a
liver treatment for interferon for hepatitis C when I lived in the trailer through the
winter for.
F:
Yeh.
R:
For two winters.
F:
Like a mobile home or a travel trailer?
R:
No the same, the same travel trailer.
F:
That one from Spring Lake?
R:
Yeh and ah.
49
F:
On your dad’s property?
R:
Yeh and I used an outhouse as my bathroom and I went to the swimming pool to
shower when I wasn’t allowed in my sister’s place but she moved out in November so
now I’m in a better living in the sense that I’m in part of the shop.
F:
It couldn’t have been.
R:
So I have a bathroom and a tub now.
F:
It couldn’t have been easy to be going through liver treatments and.
R:
No.
F:
Living in a holiday trailer.*12
R
I’m still temporarily on but what I see now is I will eventually get off the property, like
I will get myself somewhere.
F:
Out of the shop?
R:
Yeh.
F:
You’re saying?
R:
Yeh out of the shop.
F:
So does your dad, is his house on that property too or is this a?
R:
No he lives in Spruce Grove, he rents the property there.
F:
Okay.
R:
He owns his house in Spruce Grove but he rents this.
F:
He rents the shop for like for storage or for work purposes?
R:
Well he has equipment and ah two bays.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That they can fix things in and then one bays been made into like there’s a fridge and a
stove and a tub and a bathroom and and so it was like they had to fix it up a lot. Like
there was no furnace in there but it’s like not adequate the furnace ah went out a year
before last year so I used electrical heaters.
F:
Okay.
R:
Through the cold months so there’s still problems like because he’s a senior not, he’s
seventy five going on seventy six he doesn’t want to spend the money to put a new
furnace in there ‘cause the person who owns the property is a man. I’m not too sure
50
too much details other than their potato farmers and they’re you know their rich right?
Like the owner of this property never sets foot on the property, they do farm around
there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So we see the combines when they put the crop in and take the crop out we see people
but we never interact with the owners of or people that are in charge of the property.
F:
Yeh I know there’s some big potato farmers around Spruce so I bet yeh. Okay.*12
R:
So you know my kind of things of property are I did when I was at the Parent Link at
Native Counselling one of the women from APFA she gave me like on the new low
cost apartments that were coming and stuff. She gave me an agenda um of what you
needed to do to rent but one thing I found with it was like so many you know so many
criteria that I didn’t think that I would meet the criteria. Right? And one of the things
I’ve had problems is ‘cause I’ve a student load that sits because of my medical
condition they are no longer pursuing it.
F:
Okay.
R:
But it is active on my credit rating. So I’ve tried to get a couple duplexes in different
places, like I tried to get into the San…Santera Setara?
F:
Senora?
R:
Senora.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Senora apartments I tried to get into there and that’s when I still had my Youth Worker
job and I never got in there and I’ve tried to get into a duplex and never passed the
credit rating.
F:
So what makes you think you wouldn’t get into the affordable housing because I think
they, they probably deal with a lot of people with poor credit ratings. What was it
about the affordable housing criteria that you thought you.*12
1.4 Drug and alcohol abuse/addiction
51
R:
Yeh I was going to say mental health and additions. People with those issues are kind
of struggle quite a bit. Um I know in ah in the community we have ah well that I know
of we’ve got three or four you know the actual homeless, live in the tent in in the
woods and addictions and mental health are the reasons why they’re there.
R:
Right. And that’s such a good example ‘cause then they walk into our offices and they
say I’m ready to go to detox right now. So you get on the phone, there’s no beds right,
so ‘gee do you think do you think you can handle one more night, ‘cause maybe
there’s an opening tomorrow’. Right? You know so and that and that happens um a
lot with people just walking in and saying or they come in for some other thing and
you talk to them for five minutes and say ‘would you like to go to detox’ you know
and their like ‘yes, how do I get there’. Right, so we bus people to Gr…we’ve bussed
people to Grande Prairie wherever that is, I think it’s Grande Prairie.
R:
Near Grande Prairie.*3
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Who don’t, like have mental issues or.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Or health issues, or addiction issues. So their losing the housing um so when we’re
finding families like that ah I’m finding that it’s hard to find them housing ‘cause they
just were renting from this one and this one said, hah like the lease is off and they’re
gone. Like there is no way I’m extending it. So then you know they find the next
place and the next place says oh my god they’re counting down the days too. So you
know that family’s gonna be homeless again. After a twelve month or a six month
lease or whatever. But even though you point them in the right direction, those parents
because like I said most of the time quite often it’s a mental. They can go for help but
it just doesn’t click in or it doesn’t, nothing happens. So it’s just a revolving like every
twelve months it’s a revolving circle your finding that family a home.
R:
Um hmm. *1
R:
Like and I mean yeh we work with the youth um and aboriginal particularly would be
a population, a sub population of that, that would definitely at risk. Um abuse,
absolutely if their abusing drugs, alcohol, that tends to lead to conflicts at home and so
it tends to lead to them getting kicked out of the house. So that’s definitely an issue.
R:
I would think that you could put all the populations together and say does it matter if
your youth or aboriginal or senior, maybe seniors may be different but people that
have some mental illness or substance abuse problem. It doesn’t matter across the
board, that’s whose gonna be most at risk I think.
52
F:
Okay so you see that mental illness and addiction is sort of the.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh. It’s all ages.
F:
The key chain.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Of all of the.
R:
All ages. *1
R:
I’m not sure what the main contributing factor to the homelessness for the kids is. Part
of it is their own substance abuse problems, part of it is their parents substance abuse
problems. Part of it is their being abused in their homes, part of it is because they don’t
want to be accountable and follow anybody else’s rules.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Um ‘cause our youth, not just our homeless youth are just a tiny bit entitled and out of
control.
R:
Tiny bit. That’s well said.
R:
Is there a tiny bit of sarcasm there?
R:
Right like, I don’t know if that makes sense.
R:
That makes sense, no it makes sense.
F:
So the circumstantial or the personality.
R:
There’s so many and quite often we’re not really even privy to why they’ve, they
sometimes they don’t want to share. Um so it’s hard to know. I know an awful lot of
them have addictions issues.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And I don’t know if that’s the symptom of something else.
R:
Um hmm.
53
R:
Like it’s hard to know which came first.
R:
Yeh, what the underlying issues are.*1
R:
Well because addiction can cause homelessness or if their already homeless they may
be.
R:
That can cause addiction.*1
R:
I mean it’s the drugs and alcohol they they go into play after, after the sun goes down
‘cause of the homeless and there’s no place for them to rest their heads or live
appropriately like you were saying in some of the questions that I was reading there.
And their health deteriorates because of that because they don’t get enough rest. And
then the kids as, the kids ‘cause it’s such a small small community. The schools over
here and the homeless are not too far from there. You put two and two together and
eventually it’s gonna snowball into broader addictions and. So it plays a big role in
our community and and something has to be done about appropriate housing.*1
R:
Because of their addiction problems, nobody, nobody wants them around so when they
fill, they fill out the forms they got no place to put their address down and like I tell
‘em, you need to put down an address ‘cause we can get ahold of you. And it’s very
hard to try to help them that way. So I really can’t say too much to them but try to
comfort them and tell ‘em look you need to find an address ‘cause there’s not much I
can do.*1
F:
R:
Yeh.
F:
R:
F:
Go ahead.
R:
R:
54
R:
windows would they?
R:
R:
So like on top of everything it’s, my life is a Jerry Springer show. Like my sister was
married and had three kids and I was she had postpartum depression after Liam. And
she was a junkie before so I helped her get off Oxycontin like three times.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then she got pregnant, she stayed off and then she had Liam and she started
again. So I was raising her three kids plus mine and then taking care of her house and
everything and then she got us into cocaine.
F:
Oh no.*7
R:
With a roommate and he was a man who I had met through a 12 step program and ah he
wasn’t abstaining from drugs and alcohol so that became an issue with our living
arrangements*12
1.5 Poor mental or physical health
R:
So yeh my brain I know I’m older but my brain is stuck at twenty five.
F:
Really?
R:
Where it just ended like I can remember everything quite well before and afterwards
it’s kind of fuzzy. Yes why don’t you colour?
F:
Cool. So what happened? How did you get injured at work?
R:
Um I was actually promoted. I was working in their treasury department.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And there was no step up to supervisor or manager from there so they moved me into
shipping, receiving.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And my first week, they, all the staff quit and I was working on my own and. And I
ended up hurting my back trying to lift a very heavy box.
55
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um because they wouldn’t provide dollies or anything like that. And so this huge box
four times the size of this ottoman um and I was trying to push it across the floor and
then I’m pushing and all of a sudden I feel two spots in my back, one twists and one
kind of adjusts. Like that’s not good so I went home and had a bath hoping that would
help.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And by the next day I, I was having to move my right arm ‘cause my right arm
wouldn’t move.
F:
That would be scary.
R:
It was very scary and they’re like, you probably just strained something and then
when I went to the doctors.
R:
(Conversation with young male)
R:
So yeh I went to the doctor and they they thought it was all in my head, they couldn’t
find anything wrong but in, in less than a week I went not just from my right arm, not
being able to move. But I couldn’t walk and there’s like, this is all in your head there’s
nothing wrong and they were prescribing anti-depressants and muscle relaxants.
F:
Oh.
R:
Yeh which just complicated matters.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so my whole body just kept trembling and such and finally I was diagnosed with
fibro, acute fibro myalgia that had been triggered.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um because of this and it took five years to even, more than five years to just get a
diagnosis and by that time it was just out of control.
F:
Wow.
R:
So yeh, it was pretty crazy.*5
F:
No kidding so and your memory problem stems from that?
R:
Yes.
F:
That back inujury?
56
R:
Yes, yeh um yeh people used to get so upset with me because I remembered the
craziest details and it got to the point where I couldn’t remember what happened five
minutes ago.
F:
Really?
R:
To even like what day of the week it was or what year it was.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It was just yeh, so I have even now I have the briefest flickers of memories*5
F:
Ah so how would you say your housing situation affects your life? Does it affect your
physical or mental health? Or your relationship with friends or family? Anything
else?
R:
Ah well, it definitely affects the physical and mental both um location ah like I can’t
do a lot of stairs and a lot of older buildings don’t have the elevators.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um so at my old, my old apartment I was on the third floor so it would take me like
ten, twenty minutes to get up the stairs ‘cause I’d have to I’d get so many of them like
okay I need to stretch.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um here thankfully I just have the one set but even that can be like there’s some, a
few days sometimes I just, I stay downstairs because I can’t get up the stairs. Um and
then of course living in the house with family and and depending on their relationship
like I said before with my brother or my sister and brother in law their fighting would
take a tremendous toll.
F:
It would.
R:
And yeh I’d be like why can’t these guys get along but just all around like anything
you can possibly imagine ah now with them being separated there’s still that to some
extent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But not as much however, now now I get to hear the one sidedness so like something
happens and it’s, it’s just bitter talk and I can’t do it. I understand you need to get it
off your chest but I’m not the person to do it with.
F:
It would wear on you for sure.
R:
It really does.
57
F:
Yeh.
R:
It really does. And pardon me, they um yeh so a lot mentally for sure.
F:
Yeh.*5
R:
fine print.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I used to work at Canadian Tire part time*4
R:
Well I’ve been.
F:
After Canadian Tire?
R:
I’ve been on AISH since 1997 and that was a result of a car accident.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I wore a thomas collar for six months.
F:
Oh.
R:
Two days before Christmas.
F:
Oh.
R:
An accident was and it was a hit and run. And that’s when I worked at the
International as a Security Guard.
F:
Were you a pedestrian or were you in a vehicle?
R:
My own vehicle I got rear ended. So that.
F:
Is that when the migraines started?
R:
Yeh.
F:
So is the AISH, is the reason behind the AISH the migraines?
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Doctor put me on because I can’t work. I have to be able to support myself and have
housing.
58
F:
Absolutely, yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
One of the basics.
R:
Yeh, it’s not by choice.
F:
Yeh.
R:
When you don’t have a choice you have no alternative.
F:
It’s true.
R:
Um hmm*4
R:
‘Cause they wanted us to move down to Calgary and I don’t feel comfortable in
Calgary because of the winds.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
It changes too rapidly. And I have enough trouble up here.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Without being down there, ‘cause I lived in.
F:
So how did, how does that affect you? Are you talking for your migraines?
R:
For the migraines.
F:
Like the pressure?
R:
Air pressure, yeh. I know three days in advance what’s coming.
F:
Wow.
R:
Always I can tell Josh better than he can tell me.
F:
Josh Classen?
R:
Yeh. Because I mean.
F:
The weather man.
R:
Atmosphere it’s atmospheric pressure hey.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Is what, what it is.
F:
So did you find that it affected your health at all or your mental health when you were
living in the van or trying to find a place to live when you were homeless?
59
R:
Well it was stressful let’s, let’s put it that way.
F:
Right.
R:
It’s very stressful.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You’re searching and searching and searching and nothing’s happening. You know
you’ve felt like you were at a standstill.
F:
That must be frustrating.
R:
That’s an understatement.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That really is an understatement. Those who haven’t gone through it don’t know what
the hell.
F:
I believe that.
R:
Their going and trust me we know. *4
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Who don’t, like have mental issues or.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Or health issues, or addiction issues. So their losing the housing um so when we’re
finding families like that ah I’m finding that it’s hard to find them housing ‘cause they
just were renting from this one and this one said, hah like the lease is off and they’re
gone. Like there is no way I’m extending it. So then you know they find the next
place and the next place says oh my god they’re counting down the days too. So you
know that family’s gonna be homeless again. After a twelve month or a six month
lease or whatever. But even though you point them in the right direction, those parents
because like I said most of the time quite often it’s a mental. They can go for help but
it just doesn’t click in or it doesn’t, nothing happens. So it’s just a revolving like every
twelve months it’s a revolving circle your finding that family a home.
R:
Um hmm. *1
R:
60
R:
F:
R:
Um hmm.
R:
F:
The key chain.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Of all of the.
R:
All ages. *1
R:
R:
Lots of people who are unable to work.
R:
Yeh.
R:
For, if it’s illness, mental illness, physical illness, whatever it is. *1
F:
Um what about issues with addiction or mental health, do you see those?
R:
Well.
F:
Connected with homelessness?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Or at risk in this community?
R:
Yeh. I do.
F:
You do? For sure?
61
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh definitely the clients that we have that do have those issues are definitely the ones
that are at risk even if they previously had it.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
If they’ve maybe, there they’ve moved past that stage in their life right now their doing
better. It’s still really affecting their, well what they did what they got in their career.
Kind of stuff, what their opportunities are now.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
So it’s easy to get pulled back in. *2
R:
I think mental health is always a huge factor, depression is huge. And there’s not
enough being done to help people that suffer from depression and that sort of thing
‘cause those people a lot of times they they’re in a spot where they can’t work right
now or they’re they can’t hold a job until they maintain their mental illness. And
that’s a huge factor in homelessness.*2
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
can’t, I’m not always in functioning shape to work.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And even when I am AISH lets you make eight hundred and I haven’t found any work
to get off AISH and ah it’s not enough to qualify for an apartment on your own.*6
F:
So when um when did you get sick?
R:
Oh back like ah after my second child and my first boy was only four and my second
son was just new. And I, it was sort of like after baby uh baby blues.
F:
Um hmm.
62
R:
And I just didn’t come out of it. So I’ve been on some, some a bunch of different
med’s since then and ah sometimes I function okay and sometimes I don’t.
F:
So you’re on AISH for the?
R:
So I’ve stayed I’ve been on AISH.
F:
For depression or the?
R:
I think it’s been ten years that I’ve been on AISH.
F:
Wow. So when you said you moved here from Whitecourt. Whitecourt?
R:
Yeh. *6
F:
And then you were renting so not in the same house as the kids?
R:
For, for the most part the times that I wasn’t physically or mentally capable of working
I think were two years really bad and a portion of this year.
F:
Yeh.*6
R:
But I just wasn’t in any shape to work so like ah I’m not in denial that there’s all kinds
of handicaps between being lame or blind or deaf or something but I’m just wondering
if all those people from Spruce Grove and Stony Plain had to go to Edmonton.*6
F:
Um how about, so you’re on income support now? Have you, are you looking for
somewhere to work or have you been working in the past? How’s that going for you?
R:
I’m currently trying to get on AISH because I am unable to work. I was diagnosed
with bi-polar and border line personality disorder which makes it really fun.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And PTSD. So it’s a challenge to do all that and make all my appointments*7
F:
I yeh no kidding. So how do you feel that your housing situation um affects your
every day life? Do you find that it affects your mental health? Or your physical
health, your relationships? Or ability to?
R:
It affects my mental health because I get stressed out and then when I get stressed out
it affects my physical because I have PTSD and I IBS so that makes me puke and I get
really sick and I can’t do anything.
F:
Yeh.
63
R:
So I have to stay on my medications and try to keep myself calm all the time
otherwise I’m down and out for days.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I can’t be like that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I always have to be raring to go.*7
F:
Well it sounds like you’re doing the best you can so that’s important. What ah what
have you already done to improve you housing situation? Have you been able to do
anything yourself?
R:
I’ve been looking for places but if I move I lose three hundred dollars a month. Off
my income.
F:
How come if you move you lose?
R:
Because of my stress level and my anxiety they’ve my psychiatrist wrote a letter
stating that if I moved it would be detrimental to my health because I get, it takes me a
long time to be comfortable so if once I get to my anxiety gets really high. I’m on
adavan for like months to get back and adavan makes you feel really high so I don’t
like it.
F:
So your psychiatrist doesn’t want you to leave the apartment that you’re in now?
R:
No she thinks that it would really hurt me.
F:
But you you said you kind of do want to leave the apartment that you’re in now?
R:
Yeh I’m stuck because if I leave I am probably going to be paying the same rent but
then I lose three hundred dollars a month and to get, then I have to go on.
F:
Sorry what does that three hundred dollars, where do you lose that?
R:
Ah from income support they give me additional shelter cost because of that.
F:
Okay, okay. So if you go against what your psychiatrist’s wishes are then you’ll
forfeit that extra shelter money? Okay gotcha.
R:
And that screws me even more.*7
R:
Very. I have COPD, emphysema. So it’s very difficult. If that, if that option was not
there to have those SFI benefits I would be paying three hundred dollars a month just
for inhalers. That’s just me.
F:
Yeh.
64
R:
That’s not even my son.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My son’s ADHD and there’s you know always he’s on three different forms of
medication. There’s doctor’s visits you know the whole nine’s right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So it’s pretty tough.
F:
No kidding.
R:
Yeh.
F:
It sounds like those medications would add up pretty quick.
R:
It would put me over the edge definitely.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Definitely.
F:
Yeh that uh that sounds like it, that’s a lot of stuff.*8
F:
That’s awesome. So how would you say the housing situation, we talked a bit about
how working and using Income Support affected your every day life. But how would
you say that the housing issued affected your every day life. Did it affect your mental
health?
R:
Oh definitely.
F:
Your physical health? Your relationships with your friends or family?
R:
Definitely. To me in my opinion Stony Plain should have low cost housing here. I’ll
be very honest I know we have the Habitat for Humanity behind the George Henning
there. I’ve tried over the years, my mom said to me for years when I was single.
F:
Yeh.
R:
She’s like try for that. And I’m like mom I won’t qualify ‘cause you need so much
money down.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Right and then you gotta put time and effort into it which wasn’t a problem but at my
age my credit is shot from years ago when I was younger. So to not have any credit you
know and to be trying to afford my own place it was very difficult as a single mother.
Very difficult. Like I know I’ve went to Income Support, I’ve come to FCSS, I’ve been
65
to the Food Bank you know what I mean. And those are things years ago I had too
much pride I never would have done. Now it’s like if I need it, I need it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So yeh.
F:
It’s there. And it’ll help you out yeh.*8
F:
Yeh so how long has your husband been out of work?
R:
Quite awhile like nine months. He qualified for like fifteen weeks of sick EI and
that’s it so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um.
F:
Oh no.
R:
Yeh. So it’s been our bills are more than our rent, or more than our income right now
so it’s pretty rough.
F:
No kidding. How long ah do you anticipate he’ll be out of work still? Is he gonna be
able to go back at all or is he gonna have to look at getting on some kind of benefit?
R:
Um he’ll be able to go back but maybe not the same um he’s a truck driver and he
may not be able to do that so, yeh.*9
F:
So what’s your um your current living situation like?
R:
Um well my twenty two year old daughter has health issues like bipolar and severe
depression and stuff like that so she just moved back home and we are living in a three
bedroom trailer right now so she’s, my living room is her bedroom.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So it’s pretty cramped.
F:
Yeh no kidding. And you said you were in um in Parkland Village so that mobile
home?
R:
Yeh.
F:
There right? Excellent. How long have you guys been in Parkland Village?
R:
A year now exactly.
66
F:
Okay. Where were you before that?
R:
Edmonton, um actually it’s terrible because we were in um ah Capital Region
Housing.*9
F:
Okay well here’s hoping everything works out with EI.
R:
Yeh I hope so.
F:
And you get he’s able to get back to work.
R:
My husband did get in a car accident which is why he has a bad back.
F:
Was it while he was driving truck?
R:
No it was before that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But um he like that was the thing he told them when he go on to driving the truck that
he has a bad back but the chains and stuff are really heavy and he must have just
thrown it on there wrong and hurt his back.*9
F:
And his behavior changes were because of the brain condition?
R:
Um hmm. Yeh. He just like lost it a few times and yeh just got really angry.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I guess you could say yeh.
F:
Isn’t that crazy that that can.
R:
Yeh.
F:
That can all be connected.
R:
Yeh , he’s on medication and stuff and things seem to be going better so um they
think it was a little bit of a combination of he had like a, we’re not sure why but a
blood vessel was swollen and stuff but they think it might have to do with migraines.
F:
Okay.
R:
So he’s having like migraines without the headaches but he’s having all these
symptoms that go with it. It’s really weird yeh.
F:
It is weird.
R:
Seeing these neurologists and stuff so he’s had a lot of tests done.
67
F:
No kidding.
R:
Yeh but major migraines but no headache so he’s getting like the vertigo and the
blurred vision and all that kind of thing and mood swings and stuff like that but, but no
headache, yeh.
F:
And you said they found something on the MRI?
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Was that the blood vessel?
R:
The swollen blood vessel yeh and it’s gone down now so they don’t know if it’ll come
back or and that could have to do with the mood changing too because it was on the
left side, the left frontal lobe.*9
F:
Yeh. How do these medical issues that yourself and your husband and your son and
your oldest daughter have?
R:
Oh and my youngest daughter.
F:
Really?
R:
She has ADHD and high anxiety and yeh we all have medical issues.
F:
So how do they affect your like are are your medications covered?
R:
Yeh no I have eighty percent coverage through work so.
F:
Okay.
R:
So we still pay twenty percent which is it doesn’t sound like a lot but it is.
F:
Yeh when there’s five.
R:
Mine alone I think I pay a hundred dollars for my twenty percent ‘cause I have a lot of
medications. My daughter’s um.
F:
Per month?
R:
Yeh.
F:
A hundred dollars per month?
R:
My daughter’s is like sixty, my youngest daughter.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My son’s just that pekosylix is twenty five dollars a week. And then the powdered
stuff is about forty, fifty dollars a month so yeh. And then my husband’s, my
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husband’s is actually really cheap, fairly cheap. He’s like twenty thirty dollars a
month or something but.
F:
The MRI’s and whatnot are covered so.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Through Alberta Health Care.
R:
Yeh my oldest daughter has a hundred percent coverage ‘cause she’s um she is on ah
some sort of disability so.
F:
Okay.
R:
And she has a hundred percent coverage I think through her dad or something.
F:
Well that’s good I suppose. So how are your experiences navigating through the
system? Through the different resources that you access like the food bank, FCSS,
what was your experience with them like?
R:
Awesome.
F:
Good?
R:
They are awesome, both yes.
F:
Good.
R:
FCSS was wonderful and the food bank too they just been my life savers really.*9
F:
Yikes. So with these housing issues um they are having with affording the full cost of
the rent, would you say that’s affecting your physical health, your mental health, your
relationships with your friends or family?
R:
Um definitely relationships with friends and family ‘cause I can’t do things or go out
and when they invite me because I can’t afford it. Um I think it affects mental health
for sure because it’s kind of depressing. You know not depress per say but it’s for sure
depressing.
F:
Stressful.
R:
Yeh it’s stressful and you get sad sometimes ‘cause you can’t do things you know I’ve
always been, take the kids to the zoo, take you know I’ve always been that kind of role
and yeh. And we can’t do that right now. We can’t afford any extra things right now
so.
F:
Yeh, it’s hard but at least at least they did get that. It’s important that they got it when
they were little and what not so.
R:
Yeh.
69
F:
There is that side of it.*9
F:
Like is this sleep apnia something you’re getting treatment for?
R:
The sleep apnia will be treated, is treatable.
F:
And then it’s the neuropathy.
R:
The neuropathy um is controllable, not necessarily treatable. So um it’s there’s no
cure it’s just it’s a progressive disease so and I have two different types. I got in a car
accident um ’97 I can’t remember quite a few years back.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And because of the car accident I ended up getting neuropathy. Very severe
neuropathy. And then um I um ended up going to Nova Scotia a few years back you
know on holidays and I came home and I couldn’t breathe and I ended up in the
hospital. And then I got diagnosed with asthma and I think it had a lot to do with the
climate change and stuff too.
F:
Really.
R:
So yeh it was weird because the climate there is very moist.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And humid um and then they had me on like IV steroids like constantly um and
because of that I ended up getting diabetes when I was in the hospital ‘cause of the
high doses of steroids yeh so. Now I’m diabetic and ah asthma and I also have the
diabetic neuropathy so. So I have two types of neuropathy.
F:
Lucky you. Oh my goodness.
R:
Yeh so the asthma’s under control, the diabetes isn’t yet so because of the sleep apnia.
There’s a lot of times I sleep through meals and stuff like that so.
F:
Okay.
R:
I did have the test done where you sleep over and whatever and you get the results on
the 15th but.
F:
Okay.
R:
I ah yeh they woke me up as soon as I fell asleep and they gave me oxygen ‘cause
they said the second I fell asleep my oxygen went down to eighty five, so. I was fine
and then as soon as I fell asleep yeh.
F:
Yeh.
70
R:
So I’ll need some sort of machine so that’s cure the apnia at least I won’t be falling
asleep at work.
F:
Yeh. You’ll be able to rest.
R:
Yeh.
F:
For the morning.
R:
So as long as we can get the pain and stuff under control then I should be able to go
back to work. I hope, I’m praying. I love my job too so.
F:
That’s good.
R:
Yeh so I’m hoping.
F:
You’re lucky, not everyone gets to love their job so good for you. I hope you get to
get back in there soon.
R:
Me too.*9
F:
Yeh that’s a tough situation. So how would you say this housing situation, especially
with you possibly having to switch buildings or have to move to Spruce Grove or some
other community uh in the summer. How would you say that affects your everyday
life? Does it affect your mental health?
R:
It does.
F:
Or your physical health, you relationships?
R:
It affects all of it because I physically cannot move that’s why I get the little bit of help
through AW because physically I just I’m I just can’t do it. So I’d have to hire it out
um which I can’t afford.
F:
Right.
R:
Mentally like I said I haven’t thought about August and it’s coming really quickly so I
just take it day by day.
F:
Just the stress of it?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh. So would you say it affects your relationship with your friends or your family?
R:
Of course, because I’m stressed and they’re they can see that I’m stressed and it takes a
toll on them too.
F:
Right.*10
71
F
Oh nice. So have you been able to use that in work or have you been home with the
girls?
R
Yeh. I’ve worked in day care and then I got pregnant with my second one and I had
lots of issues with her so when she was born she was always in and out of the Stollery
and I couldn’t go back to work ‘cause I would miss way too many days.
F
Yeh. So did you have trouble throughout the pregnancy too or was it just after?
R
Um hmm.
F
She was born?
R
No I had trouble throughout the pregnancy and then when she was we were about a
week away from my actual due date they took her out because they thought my heart
would give out.
F
Really? Wow.
R
I was hospitalized for a week before they took her out. Yeh.
F
So are you um with either of the dads or with a partner?
R
Uh the dad is the same dad for both of them.
F
Okay.
R
And yeh we’re engaged.*11
R
I really hope that there’s lower income ‘cause really with all of Alana’s medical bills
we,we chalked it up to how much her medical costs is ‘cause we have to do her blood
work and everything every three hours plus her medicine plus all of her medical
supplies. It costs us around a thousand five hundred a month for her medical supplies.
F
Blood tests every three hours.
R
Yeh we do um because she walks around hypoglycemic all the time. So we have to
take her blood every three hours and then we have to go to the um blood clinic and get
her blood drawn every three months, six months and yearly. Plus whenever she’s sick.
If she’s sick with even a common cold she goes in and gets blood work done. *11
F
Yeh to start a new career you need more money. That’s a, that’s a catch twenty two.
That’s tricky. What um, so what um what have you already done to improve your
housing situation. I know you’ve looked into the LPN and that’s just with the funding
piece not working out at the moment. What have you already been able to do or have
you been able to do anything to improve it?
72
R
I haven’t really been able to do anything to improve it because all the jobs that I’ve
ever tried to apply for like they basically say no because all the time because I could just
leave at the drop of a hat and be gone for weeks at a time. And also to find somebody
to be specialized in order to sit with Alana, even for four hours out of a day would cost
me twenty dollars an hour. *11
R:
Like I didn’t anticipate I did go live in a motel for one month when I started my
treatment at Devon.
F:
Okay.
R:
So like at least I had that that I you know my dad gave me some money and I took you
know my money and I stayed in a motel for one month but I couldn’t afford it, it was
like a thousand dollars a month and you still didn’t have cooking facilities.
F:
That’s the thing.
R:
Whereas in the trailer I had a stove.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So the thing with the living arrangements is you get through it I think but the idea is
like when I did access services like people, not so much, my dog giving up my dog or
putting my dog in a kennel or whatever for the time I was on the treatment. R:
I
lived in the trailer for two years and that’s when I went through my medical. I did a
liver treatment for interferon for hepatitis C when I lived in the trailer through the
winter for.*12
R:
But one of the things with it is that a lot of people like in order to kind of get out of the
situation I needed to work and I had done that treatment in 2004 so my physician was
like very adamant that I didn’t work ‘cause I had went through the side effects before
and this was my one chance too because the time before I wasn’t working but this is
kind of my last chance Blue Cross would pay for this treatment for me.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I am hepatitis free today like I had four blood tests.
F:
Good.*12
F:
So are you paying anything to stay in the shop right now?
R:
Four hundred dollars.
F:
Okay. And where does that come out of your, what’s your income right now?
73
R:
EI.
F:
Ei?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m on medical EI just as of this week. This week and last week I went to my liver
specialist and he thinks I may I gotta make a turn to lose some weight because I have a
potential of having a heart attack so I am a client at the Weightwise Clinic.
F:
Okay.
R:
Even though he doesn’t suggest any kind of bariatric surgery but because like I worked
at Fort Edmonton last year I’m looking to work there again starting in May.
F:
Oh good for you.
R:
But because I have these appointments to finish like I’m still in assessment phase my
doctor felt I should, my other doctor, Dr. Johnson felt not my liver specialist thought I
should stay on a medical side and finish my phase that I’m in kind of of trying to look
at my weight before I try this city job. And the hours are a lot less than like the youth
worker jobs and stuff like you start out at five hours and then you go to eventually
seven right at the city but until it opens.*12
R:
Well I ah I went to live with my Grandparent’s at the end of my school, more having
problems with my dad um he was drinking so there was problems with him and I and
then I was starting to party so there was conflict with that. And also it’s like in ah (it’s
pretty funny that light) it was in like ’76 I believe I went there or end of ’75
somewhere in there and there was just way more options for employment as a youth as
a person. So I went and I moved out of my Grandparents place and I lived with my
boyfriend for my last semester of school I went an additional semester and he was
from Spruce Grove so he moved. We both moved to the city and he was working, he
had dropped out of school so he didn’t finish and I was working part time and going to
school. And I don’t know, I stayed with him eight years and ah I think the biggest
things I had, substance abuse problem I quit everything in 1989 so I’m like at twenty
five years that I haven’t taken any drugs or alcohol.*12
R:
No my liver’s fine but I have my weight I can’t like work at a standing job, I can’t
work at a job that’s a long term physical thing.
F:
Right, labourer.
R:
Because like even with letter carrier she said my ankles would give out like I would
get um problems with my ankles like.
74
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know I could get joint problems because of having to move you know because of
weight and just not being there any more like.
F:
Right.
R:
You know exhaustion has been my biggest physical set back.*12
1.6 Family struggles (abuse, divorce, conflict)
R:
Oh God, well I even did it until well we, we got evicted from that one in down by ah
Sobey’s.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
The name, the landlord’s name is ah Tina Walin.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
That’s a catastrophe and a half that is.
F:
Really.
R:
Oh yeh. Stay away from that.
F:
And for what reason?
R:
Well I reported a pedophile and she didn’t believe me. She took me to court. I won
the court case but like the Judge she’d only keep it up until she got rid of me anyways.
‘Cause we were on subsidy and she was trying to get rid of all subsidized.
F:
Wow, what do you mean you reported a pedophile? How would that affect her?
R:
Well there’s so many children in there.
F:
Oh so she was afraid of it um.
R:
Well she took it out on.
F:
Going public?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay. Well that’s not a very good reason to.
75
R:
Well I mean, she doesn’t she is very malicious let me tell you.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
She’s got no conscience and it’s big selfish me.
F:
Really?
R:
Oh yeh. She’s got an attitude problem.
F:
That sounds like it wasn’t a very good situation for you.
R:
No and from neither mom or I.
F:
Yeh.*4
R:
One of the things we’ve noticed too is um ah is on domestic violence is women leaving
other communities and coming here to stay with a friend and contacting us and saying,
where you know leaving a domestic violence situation we’ve come to stay with our
friend or family member here I can’t find housing now. So the um so those women
being in our community but then also women co…fleeing abuse and coming to our
community and then they’re in our community and they can’t find and then the
conversation is too you know their thinking of going back because they have no other
place to go and they can’t stay with their family member or friends very much longer,
right, so. *3
R:
I would just say that in the almost seven years I guess that I’ve been here, in the last
two years I’ve certainly noticed a a significant increase in the number of people that
are in the, at risk of homelessness. And that’s you know a reflection of the increase to
ah just the population, people moving in, moving in from the city. Wanting to stay
here and ah rent going up like crazy so and you can still get a not very nice one
bedroom apartment for about nine hundred dollars in Stony Plain but the average price
for a decent place for an apartment is twelve hundred. If you have more than two
children and you want a house you’re looking at sixteen, seventeen hundred a month
not including any of your other expenses. And for fleeing abuse the shelter allowance
for income support is still only a thousand dollars for your damage deposit and your
rent. So things are just not keeping pace. There’s nothing keeping pace with the
demand and really the biggest number I think that we see are the single moms and the
women fleeing abuse. They are the ones that are finding the most having the most
difficulty finding housing ah you know a single guy can couch surf and move in with
his parents again or but families are really struggling.*3
R:
Well I mean often in domestic violence you hear well why doesn’t she just leave you
know, leave the relationship and I say, where is she supposed to go? There is there’s
really what’s the answer, there’s nowhere for her to go unless she has a lot of money
76
and can find a vacant apartment that’s safe and ah there isn’t anything. It definitely
affects the people I work with.
R:
Working in the field specifically with domestic violence with, with women and on the
other side with men as well that hasn’t been an issue in terms of housing taking the
number one um focus of the of the work we do.
F:
Okay.
R:
Usually their there to talk about the the ah domestic violence or we’re called to get
services or support for that. So if housing is an issue for them, they haven’t identified
it as such.*3
R:
Well ah we deal with it a lot at Outreach. Most of our kids, I guess you wouldn’t call
them homeless in the traditional sense of homeless. They live with their friends
sometimes um they’ll be one of the them who’s getting some sort of government
assistance and so many of them will be staying with them or their parents friends will
take them in, in the short term. Usually ‘cause most of these kids are having conflict
in the home that they’re in. Sometimes the conflict is, there’s shared conflict, and
sometimes they are just a victim of the conflict. There’s a lot of substance abuse
issues that are tied in with this. Least with the kids that I deal with.*1
R:
Their substance abuse or that home substance abuse?
R:
Both.
R:
Or both. Yeh.
F:
Um and do you see the same thing Marie?
R:
Ah yeh our, obviously I mean we have a large clientele. Some of them have no issues.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Um so it’s a percentage and whether we’re touching them or not, I don’t know. I hear
of some you know some things. Some will come forward with it but there’s I suspect
that there’s something going on but they may not identify at school. Kind of deal with
it on their own. Um yeh lot of couch surfers for certain, um and some of those it is it’s
their not willing to follow the rules at home whether they think those rules are too
strict or um yeh. Um so then they’re out of the home*1
R:
And I would add to that ah a family violence and family breakdown.
77
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Domestic violence.
R:
Domestic violence and family breakdown, particularly family breakdown for working
poor.
F:
Encounter more stress.
R:
Well often the woman will leave and she doesn’t have somewhere to go.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And doesn’t have a job to be able to say, I ah I can put down the damage deposit and
commit to the rent.*1
R:
I think that ah it, it may that lack of affordable housing makes anything that happens to
you once you’re down in the living wage where if you move from ah relationship
‘cause of abuse where there was wage and now there isn’t wage it just makes it so
much more difficult and your so much more vulnerable the moment something does
happen. Whether it’s family violence or it’s.
R:
I think one of.
R:
The loss of a job or anything.
R:
Yeh.
R:
I think also a main contributing factor I, with the domestic violence in in any abuse um
when that person has to leave ah quite often there is no money coming with them at
that point ‘cause there pay cheques in already in the bank and it’s probably already
been used or whatever. So besides there not being affordable housing we don’t have
short term ah fixes in our community. The closest short term fix is Edmonton, which
is always full because it helps Edmonton and surrounding area. Or Hinton.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So when I think one of our what happens is we have this person who has nowhere to
go um unless we ship them completely far out of our community on a short tem base
until we can find something local. I think our community’s lacking, lacking that short
term.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Housing as well. Affordable and short term.
78
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And you can’t if you go out to Hinton, say to the shelter out there it’s very difficult to
be reconstructing a life back here and try to make all the arrangements and everything
so that you can.
R:
‘Cause mose of the time.
R:
Easily move back.
R:
The worker is here.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
But their way over there.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So the problem is associated with being removed from.
R:
From, from.
F:
Your community because of.
R:
Your problem.
F:
Okay.
R:
Where you wanna solve your problem.*1
R:
I’m not sure what the main contributing factor to the homelessness for the kids is. Part
of it is their own substance abuse problems, part of it is their parents substance abuse
problems. Part of it is their being abused in their homes, part of it is because they
don’t want to be accountable and follow anybody else’s rules.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Um ‘cause our youth, not just our homeless youth are just a tiny bit entitled and out of
control.
R:
Tiny bit. That’s well said.
R:
Is there a tiny bit of sarcasm there?
R:
Right like, I don’t know if that makes sense.
79
R:
That makes sense, no it makes sense.
F:
So the circumstantial or the personality.
R:
There’s so many and quite often we’re not really even privy to why they’ve, they
sometimes they don’t want to share. Um so it’s hard to know. I know an awful lot of
them have addictions issues.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And I don’t know if that’s the symptom of something else.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Like it’s hard to know which came first.
R:
Yeh, what the underlying issues are.*1
R:
But sometimes too what we’ve seen like with the youth there are so many things that
are out of their control.
R:
Yes.
R:
You know? So they could be homeless at any time and it’s not necessarily something
they’ve done.
R:
That’s right.
R:
It’s their, their circumstance because you know mom may have found a new boyfriend.
R:
Yes.
R:
And new boyfriend doesn’t particularly like this kid around so.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Makes sense. Good. *1
R:
One group we didn’t talk about too much that is people leaving their, their current
situation either through divorce or fleeing abuse or something that where they have not
had to work. In particularly like moms.
80
R:
Yeh.
R:
That stayed home for the last ten, fifteen years. They don’t have a work history or that
that skill set. And now with little to no warning they’re need to find a place and a way
to pay for it so that’s definitely a, a big chunk of the people that we see in that
situation.
R:
It’s a huge group that I see too.
R:
The problem is if you have a few kids you’re at that age and you need to find a place
you can’t take a minimum wage job because that doesn’t, doesn’t meet it but you don’t
have the skills or background to really jump into anything else.
F:
Right.
R:
Well and they face other issues ‘cause they’re not going to get the Child Tax Credit
‘cause chances are they didn’t qualify last year. So they’re not going to get that
support. Chances are they’re not going to get child support and so what I see is they
return to the situation. It’s an ongoing, it’s a revolving door.
R:
We see a lot of divorces where they are now separated and they need different things
from both sides of it that they’re they can’t do it on one income or can’t do it because
they haven’t had an income at all.
R:
Yeh.*2
R:
Crowded houses. Over populated ah I see some of the like he was talking about you
know relationships going to the garbage and going on their own way and living with
maybe their sister or brother for awhile and then they end up living there for a year.
Then their kids come move in with them. Just no balance.
Right, so when you say over populated ah can you explain that a little bit more? Do
you mean that there’s not enough housing for the amount of people in your area?
F:
R:
Yeh.
F:
Or, okay.
R:
Not enough housing, period.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m I don’t know if there ever will be enough housing for the people but, you know
where I’m from there’s not enough housing, period. I mean like I said about the
houses we have, they go through shreds ‘cause of booze and alcohol and drugs. *2
81
F:
Yeh, yeh if she’s got a compromised immune system I understand. So what are you
currently paying to rent the acreage house?
R
A thousand dollars a month.
F
Okay. And is it is how many bedrooms?
R
Two.
F
Is it enough room for you guys?
R
There’s two bedrooms but because Alana of her sickness she has to be in the same
room ‘cause I’m up every three hours with her doing.
F
‘Cause you have to do the blood tests.
R
Her meds.
F
Even over the night?
R
Blood tests and her medicine, she’s on a gravity feed bag so and I have to put her
medicine in there she’s on solcar, blycazade and polycose powder plus bedoprotein
because her body eats away at her muscles. So her body needs this stuff back in her
body otherwise she has risk of going into seizures and hypoglycemic coma. So I’m
literally up every three hours giving her medicines for forty five minutes each time.
F
Really. That must make your days pretty difficult. How do you find enough time to
sleep and get your own energy to?*11
F:
So your housing problems you said between 1977 and 2006 you didn’t really have any
housing problems you were sort of steady?
R:
Right.
F:
And then what happened in 2006?
R:
Well I rented this house and I rented my house in Seba Beach.
F:
In Seba okay.
R:
With a roommate and he was a man who I had met through a 12 step program and ah
he wasn’t abstaining from drugs and alcohol so that became an issue with our living
arrangements but he he was actually from Fort MacMurray so in the beginning it
didn’t work out too bad because he he didn’t come home to the place very often. But
what ended up happening and that I did have to ask him to leave it was kind of like a
safety issue for me. And I kept living there so I would drive to the city and pay fifty
the rent was fifteen hundred. I actually didn’t have any utility bills until she took me
into a hearing.
82
F:
Yeh.
R:
I ended up going to the Residential Tenancy Hearing Board.
F:
Yeh.*12
R:
Well I ah I went to live with my Grandparent’s at the end of my school, more having
problems with my dad um he was drinking so there was problems with him and I and
then I was starting to party so there was conflict with that. And also it’s like in ah (it’s
pretty funny that light) it was in like ’76 I believe I went there or end of ’75
somewhere in there and there was just way more options for employment as a youth as
a person. So I went and I moved out of my Grandparents place and I lived with my
boyfriend for my last semester of school I went an additional semester and he was
from Spruce Grove so he moved. We both moved to the city and he was working, he
had dropped out of school so he didn’t finish and I was working part time and going to
school. And I don’t know, I stayed with him eight years and ah I think the biggest
things I had, substance abuse problem I quit everything in 1989 so I’m like at twenty
five years that I haven’t taken any drugs or alcohol.*12
F:
So she moved to you said sorry an RV park? Or like a mobile home park?
R:
Well no she lives in a small little trailer in the Lions.
F:
Oh okay in the campground? So what made her leave the shop to live in a
campground, if it’s not a much better situation how come she?
R:
She was fighting with my dad.*12
1.7 Lack of education/mentoring/life skills
F:
Yeh we’re looking at anything that contributes to homelessness so.
R:
Lack of education and training. *3
R:
Some of the kids that we see that ah have an advocate will quite often find government
funding to help them get in to a living situation. My experience with that, there’s not a
lot of them but there’s a few, is that they don’t have they don’t have the skills to
sustain that. And so someone gets them set up but they don’t have any budgeting
skills. They don’t, they go and buy their PS5 for seven hundred dollars and then they
don’t have their rent money so they sell it for two hundred and like it’s just like this
endless juggle of lack of knowledge, skills, guidance. So even though they are set up
there it doesn’t always last for very long because pe…the people that are setting them
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up we don’t, there’s not time right. People don’t have time to then teach them all of
those skills that they need.
R:
Life skills.
R:
Life skills.
F:
Unprepared for the situations by themselves.
R:
Which just leads to the next situation that they then find themselves in.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
That makes sense.*1
F:
So do you find that care is transferred where, where it’s applicable here, but do you
find that youth that are accessing services in Stony Plain once they do make the choice
and leave our community, is care transferred? Or are they starting fresh?
R:
I think if, some of the kids who have good connections with their workers, there is the
opportunity for care to be transferred. Often that is not, that’s not the desire of the the
youth, they don’t if they it’s too restrictive or there’s too many rules involved in it or
there’s all these hoops to jump through. They don’t have the skills to advocate for
themselves so that they’re, they’re usually going back to the street. They’re not going,
they’re not taking the nice little housing that’s been set up for them here and
transferring it into there. That’s not usually what’s happening.*
R:
Contributing factor of homelessness, education.
R:
They have no, again we talk about the youth, they have no idea. They think that
living, they forget that living at home also someone’s paying the bills to help, help
them live at home to make sure that their warm. Someone’s paying for food to make
sure their fed. Someone’s paying for the water bill to make sure they get to have a
bath. And so when they think the grass isn’t very green there, they step out um even
couch surfing some of the youth have said you know, I’m going back home because
it’s better at my house than it was at their house.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
You know that kind of thing. I just don’t, I don’t find that um we’re starting off at a
young age to educate them on life in general. So you know when you move, what are
costs when you’re on your own? What kind of costs do you see? You know if you
have transportation so you either have a car payment or you have gas payment or you
have you know there’s housing, there’s the food, there’s the schooling or there’s like if
they would be I mean it’s great to have biology 30 to learn how to dissect a frog but
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how’s that gonna make you continue living and I think sometimes if kids understood
some of the dynamics and some of ah what living is all about I sometimes think some
of those youth would have more of an open eye to say, ‘kay I don’t need to be
homeless I can stay where I’m at because it’s better. Like I, I can’t afford to be on my
own but they have no idea they think it’s all a free ride. Like they don’t.*
R:
Well getting back that sense of entitlement, right?
R:
Yeh.
R:
Never learned some of them how bad it can be, because they’ve had it all.
R:
Well and I’ve talked to women who are thirty, forty, fifty, who from home their
parents paid for their schooling and they went to school so they really never had to
work ‘cause they had things paid for. Met a man who’s you know cared for them and
everything, now all of a sudden their relationship broke up and she’s gotta be on her
own. Has no idea what a cheque book is, has no idea how to balance a book, has no
idea because never had to do any of that. And senior women are also in that same
predictable. If their husband passes away um they tend to sometimes lose their homes
because they don’t have that life like there’s that life learning.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Well and (inaud) back to the youth to statistics that I’ve read lately are that young
people are staying at home longer and longer, even into their later twenties and also
spending much more than they earn at the same time. For every dollar they earn I, I
forget what the number was don’t quote me on this, say their spending a dollar twenty
five or a dollar fifty for every dollar that they earn. If their staying at home longer
managing their money poorer and if something intercepts those two things (inaud) big
problems.
R:
You know that’s if they have that enabling home, you know that allows them to do that
to just stay and live off their parents and, and enter into that overspending life style.
But then there’s other kids that I mean there’s no way they wanna stay in their home.
They will walk out the door and they’ll live on the streets.
R:
They’ll choose homelessness.*1
R:
So for me those are the kids that I’m kind of focusing on at Outreach.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They already have issues now sometimes I think you know when we’re there and the
par…if the parent actually comes ‘cause they have to have an adult with them at these
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sessions um and if it’s a parent and the kids at Outreach I mean sometimes it’s not the
youth that you want to educate. You want to educate the parents.
R:
Yes.
R:
That’s why the youth is going to outreach is ‘cause the parent didn’t focus on.
R:
Yes.
R:
Certain things, right? So then the kid, because it’s not a support system at home,
there’s lack of communication at home.
R:
Yes.
R:
There is sometimes, most quite often there is zero communication at home and that’s
why the youth is falling. So then they’re going to school but they don’t have the
capabil… or they are too scared maybe or they don’t know.
R:
They don’t have the skills.*1
R:
Because there is such access to knowledge now that we did not have when we were
growing up, kids think that they know. They think that they know. But quite often
their interpretation of all this knowledge that they can have is terribly misguided. But
regardless they’ve ingested that knowledge and are heading out with it and I feel bad
for parents, myself included, because you cannot keep up with your child’s access to
knowledge. Like I’m just getting on Facebook and Facebook’s out now we’re on
snapchat. And I’m like whoooa. Now we’re on Instagram, now we’re on this it’s
like. There we were not ahead of our parents. But our children are ahead of us.
Right? And I’m I work in an industry where we’re peddling to keep on top and I can’t
keep on top so I can’t imagine people who are struggling with um domestic issues or
they have limited skills themselves. They’re not educated. They’re getting bulled
over by the speed that their children are going at.
R:
And I think there’s an element too that our children are skimming whereas we learnt
things at depth so we had something that we could hang on to in a different way. We
didn’t just, you learnt because we work, had to work or even at home you know we
learned to cook or we got some skills. We didn’t just look up how to cook rice on
youtube, cook one thing of rice and it either turned out or it didn’t.
R:
Yes.
R:
And we didn’t actually learn to cook rice, we learned to follow what was on youtube
because you might never cook rice again.
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R:
That’s right.
R:
And I feel like there’s a lot more skimming than there is understanding.
R:
Basic.
R:
Ah you can learn on youtube how to make your bed, why you should make your bed
and the self -discipline and all kinds of other.
R:
Value.
R:
Things.
R:
The values.
R:
All the values that are attached why you make your bed. Are two different things.
F:
When I read that young people say actually have worse long term memory and
memory skills because they can look things up on Wikipedia on their smart phone at
any minute of the day whereas the other generations before us had to.
R:
We can still multiply.
F:
Look it up in a dictionary.
R:
Or Thesaurus.
F:
Committed to memory. ‘Cause it wasn’t always going to be at their fingertips but
smart phones and Wikipedia have actually deteriorated.
R:
We didn’t even have computer skills.*1
R:
Curt would you say there’s enough high paid jobs in our area?
R:
Well there’s lots of high paid jobs, yeh.
R:
There is?
R:
There definitely is like well between Acheson and then kind of the surrounding areas
as well as people work out of town, there’s lots of high paying jobs too.
R:
Okay.
R:
But that’s not the whole population like the ones that are getting the jobs have the
skills and the education and the background that can get it and like realistically we
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don’t see a lot of those type of people that are in those jobs that are looking for those
type of jobs that run into this situation.
R:
Okay.*2
R:
Youth are different though that they have more of an expectation on average of stuff
just coming to them. I’m finding it more and more so all the time.
R:
I don’t really see that from mine but.
R:
Yeh but their coming specifically to work where mine maybe they grew up in a house
where everything was handed to them and they never had to. You know you get these
twenty year olds that don’t work and they live at home with mom and dad and you’re
like get off your butt and go get a job. You can work at McDonalds’s and at least be
doing better than what you’re doing.
R:
They just have no motivation.
R:
None and they just, why should why should I have to because nobody’s ever made me.
R:
Yeh.
R:
You know if you’re twenty years old you should be working. If you’re not going to
school.
R:
But who do you blame then too?
R:
Yeh.
R:
It all stems down from somewhere.
R:
I see that a lot. *2
R:
Having to you know.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know like they’re in high school and they just get kinda thrown to the wolves.
Here you’re done, you’re done Grade 12, you graduate, good to go.
F:
Yeh.
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R:
You know like I didn’t know what I wanted to be until I was thirty years old. Honest
to God.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I pondered a bunch of stuff but really you don’t know.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So.
F:
Yeh that credit situation can be really scary. I think we all know.
R:
Oh yeh.
F:
People who have really gotten themselves into a situation.
R:
Like I went bankrupt by the time I was twenty one.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know I had friends and family that helped me burn a hole in my pocket with the
credit cards do you know what I mean? But you didn’t see them at the end of it going
oh here I’ll help you out.
F:
Pay the bill.*8
2. Perceptions of Homelessness
2.1
Magnitude of the problem
R:
I’ve only been working in this community for since June and I see homelessness in our
community as a huge growing ah problem. Um, I know sometimes when we start to
talk about it and people realize that there’s assistance where people come and that
doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s more people so either there’s either more people
accessing the service that have been homeless for a longer period of time or the
problem is growing. But it’s also growing because there is no ah subsidy, there is no
low income housing, there is no transitional um housing. I also see it as a growing
problem of people from the inner city coming out to this area for whatever reason um
talking to my other colleagues they, they do believe that that is a growing concern in
the community, the amount of inner city long term homelessness coming out to our
community now too.*3
F:
I think that was really helpful. Thank you. And sorry to put you on the spot, do you
mind sharing that statistic that you told me when I came in and saw you last week
about the number of walk in’s you had?
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R:
It’s in my book that I can’t find it is someplace. Um yeh on Monday I think um, um
what it was on Monday I saw eleven people, ten of them were walk in and out of those
eleven people, nine were homeless. And they were people nobody in our office has
ever seen before. So they’re, they’re new clients, their new residents that were coming
to our office for ah for help. And that was just in one day and it was a Monday. So
that was really you know so so just the fluctuation of people um asking for help,
needing for help, um realizing perhaps that there is more, more help or resources um
available. *3
R:
And I know in stats, often stats don’t capture the terminology…the term ‘couch
surfing’ as homeless. They are homeless but their just.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Literally couch surfing.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it’s difficult to get numbers there sometimes.
R:
Absolutely. *3
R:
I would just say that in the almost seven years I guess that I’ve been here, in the last
two years I’ve certainly noticed a a significant increase in the number of people that
are in the, at risk of homelessness. And that’s you know a reflection of the increase to
ah just the population, people moving in, moving in from the city. *3
R:
Um, I don’t know what the population say Spruce Grove was I’d say ten years ago, but
I think it’s maybe gone up about sixteen, eighteen thousand so it’s you know it’s
probably doubled in a the last twenty years or so, so. We see the majority of the
people aren’t people who have lived here forever, so.*3
R:
Okay. I’ll start since it’s so quiet. Um do I see homelessness in our community as an
issue? Yes I do. I, I’m here kind of with, silly but it’s two hats, Youth Justice
Committee and then my job The Alberta Seniors. But on the Youth Justice Committee
we have families that come in because the the youth has been in trouble and they go
through our program and we’re hearing more and more how*1
R:
Well back home is ah it’s a big issue.*1
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F:
So do you guys see this as a problem that’s staying fairly steady? Do you think it’s
decreasing? Do you think it’s increasing?
R:
I think it increases and decreases, it’s never been not there.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And like you see short term crisis for a few weeks for some people like that but like for
the last five years I’ve been in my position it’s been a steady issue.*1
R:
No, no the housing issues are just well that’s the way it is so what can anyone do about
it right? So but if the whole town and the whole city don’t want to look after their
poor it’s not a place that’s preferred by anyone for how much, for how little the public
cared. You know just ‘cause the food bank is good and they don’t want people
starving doesn’t mean there might be housing issues. Like it’s, it’s a city and a town
that should have been responsible for this from the time they became a city and a town.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
So honestly that’s all I have to say like that’s rude but it’s awfully true.
F:
Um hmm, I think that these to be fair, I think that these housing issues have really
magnified in the last few years. I know there’s always.
R:
Expansion in.
F:
Been some issues.
R:
The area yeh.
F:
But I, I.
R:
Well that’s the thing.
F:
I think it’s been bigger lately.*6
2.2
Defining homelessness
R:
That’s why the definition is so important.
R:
Yeh.
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F:
Yeh especially to those outside of sort of the social services realm, they.
R:
Yeh.
F:
They say there’s no one homeless in our community.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And then when we refer them to the definition, oh yeh, yeh, yeh, my friend had that.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And we drove you to work and.
R:
And I I even look at um a friends’ son. He’s a dad of two and when they, when he’s
off they live at Grandma’s house and the bedroom’s there. And then the rest the next
week when he’s back up in Fort McMurray the kids live with mom.
R:
So the dad’s homeless.
R:
So the dad’s in essence, homeless.
R:
‘Cause he’s living at camp probably.
R:
Camp.
R:
Where he’s working.
R:
And then lives at his parents.
R:
He has no home.
R:
He has no home, yeh. And I think that part of these studies we have to keep opening
that conversation.
R:
Well and and here’s.
R:
You forget it.
R:
Someone who’s probably making you know.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Over a hundred thousand a year, but still.
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R:
Even though we have a definition.
R:
Homeless.*1
R:
So maybe in my living experience out here like I think the hardest thing is that
somehow you get a feeling that people don’t care. Or that the homeless people are
unnoticeable ‘cause you always think homeless ah people are the ones with the pack
sacks walking down the street right. And until like you get into a situation where
you’re looking for a place to do your dishes or you know like you’re thinking like I
should buy some paper plates because then I don’t have to wash them. You know like
then you go oh oh no it’s not like that. Homelessness affects everybody and I think
that people have been good for me like one thing I’ll say before I leave about Kye is
she knows how I feel about FCSS Spruce Grove. *12
2.3
Cyclic Nature
F:
Well how many episodes of homelessness would you say that you’ve had while
you’ve been in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain area? This last fall and then once before
that when your mother was evicted from the seniors lodge?
Yeh.
So twice, is that it?
Twice.
Okay. That’s still twice too many don’t get me wrong. But. *4
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
So then yeh generally it’s couch surfing for a period of time. Some of them will get
back in the home, yeh.*1
R:
Yeh.
R:
It’s the cycle.
F:
So how do they affect your work Quinton?
R:
Well the majority of the clients that come in are homeless to begin with.
F:
Um hmm.*2
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R:
I don’t know that it’s ah it’s a gap in service but it’s a gap in communication that I
think the study will address and that’s ah the link to this business and industry um in
understanding what their, their rule is now they can help to address it.
F:
Sure.
R:
‘Cause it’s their problem as well.
R:
Yeh ‘cause it’s their employees. Some of them.
R:
Or lack of employees.
R:
Yeh. ‘Cause there’s no housing out here. Affordable housing to start them off.*1
R:
Breaking the cycle of poverty and those girls are bringing up babies that are getting
used to living in absolute poverty. Getting used to going to the food bank. So it just
becomes a.
R:
Phenomenal.
R:
Cycle.
R:
Vicious cycle.
R:
Yeh so if I can put in my two cents worth, I would love to have some housing that are
for young moms that there’s mentors, that they have to be moving forward to school.
And if you, if we had that in our community they would go to school. They all want to
go back to school, they all want to be something. You were at my young moms group
the other day. Those are like amazing young women.*2
R:
But I’m just saying some of those they take that with them and that’s they take.
R:
But that’s the cycle.
R:
Yeh.
R:
If you have parents in poverty and they’re not budgeting properly and that sort of
thing.
R:
That’s not.
R:
But I’m just saying too our school system if they would teach.
R:
Yeh.
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R:
They try.
R:
It’s not (inaud) just in youth though like there’s type of person through every
generation like I see people with that mind sight at every age group and I see lots of
youths that don’t have that at all or working their butts off so it it definitely not all of
them are just a generation thing.
R:
No.
F:
I think when you’re sixteen or seventeen you’re not interested in learning how to
manage your mortgage like you learn in com and those kind of things when it doesn’t
directly pertain to you right now.
R:
Yeh.
F:
It’s not exciting and it doesn’t feel like it’s useful even though it will be in and I don’t
think it matters whether you’re raised in the sixties, seventies, eighties or the nineties.
If it doesn’t pertain to you right now and you’re seventeen.
R:
But it’s how to bring it up right?
R:
Yeh.
R:
When they get their first part time job, okay well this is about how much you’re
making every month so this is how much is gonna get automatically transferred to a
savings account. And this is how much you set aside for.
R:
And they do do that in com class, I have a sixteen year old.
R:
Yeh they do it has to be followed up at home right.
R:
Yeh.
R:
When they set up their first bank accounts and okay.
R:
Because at school they kinda (inaud).
R:
I’m just gonna pause for a second because we’ve got a lot of talking over and we are
recording and it’s gonna be a nightmare for the transcribers so just a reminder to hold
back to the rules. Thank you.
F:
Well I think if we’re done touching on that subject anyways we can turn the recorder
off and wrap this up and send you guys on your way. So I’m just gonna turn this one
off. *2
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R:
Well yeh well and a lot of it too you know you’re looking at your bills like just to have
basic cable and internet is, you’re looking a a hundred fifty dollars a month.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You know and then you got your like that’s your internet, your cable, your phone.
Then you got your power, some people have gas, you know it’s crazy. It’s, it’s nuts like
I feel like I’m doing a vicious circle just trying to keep those bills afloat. Do you know
what I mean? Like I have to literally put fifty here, fifty there, you know I I can’t just
pay the whole bill off. Do you know what I mean?*8
3. Barriers to delivering care
3.1
No place to go
R:
If the twelve, twelfth month or I’m sorry twelve week or fourteen week group for the
men but definitely there would be a difference in terms of the women having more of
a struggle than the men. Although we had one man leave the group because he was
homeless he had nowhere to stay so. He was in a he moved to a, because of finances
he had lost his job and uh he moved to um ah camper, motorhome and then it just got
too cold for him to be in the motorhome so he had to withdraw from the, from the
group.*3
R:
I’m staying at a friend’s, um have you been at that friend’s long and they’re couch
surfing. ‘Cause they’re not getting along at home but they have no place to go and
there’s no money financially. So there’s no really place for them. It’s one thing to
have to be out of the home but they have no support to make things better or to figure
out where they’re gonna go, what they’re gonna do, or that they should go back*1
R:
Can I ask just in the high school um ‘cause one of my (inaud) was one, would go to
the, had no place to go but would go into the school and shower. ‘Cause that was the
only shower they had available. So do you guys, I know it’s happening because they
told me it was happening. But does the school, like do you guys deal a lot with that?
Or do you not deal, like you don’t even sometimes know what’s happening? *1
R:
Right? They start you, some of those businesses I don’t know for sure but if they start
you at minimum wage as an adult there’s no way you can. Like where are you gonna
live? There’s no way you can rent by yourself, an apartment. You have to rent with
96
someone or you have to do a bedroom suite or you have to be living with your family
or you have to already been stable with a place and have that set up for you. But if
your even a kid going out of school and decided they don’t want to go to University
and their parents decide, well we’re moving with my job we’re moving here and that
teenager says, well I like this community I’m staying. They have no place to go ‘cause
unless for some reason they luck out and they get a job for thirty bucks an hour.
There’s no way they’re gonna be able to stay back and afford some place to stay
without couch surfing.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Or being homeless. *1
3.2
Hidden problem
F:
Thank you. How do you guys see homelessness in our community?
R:
I think homelessness in this community would be less visible, is my one thought I have
it would be less visible and I’m guess a little surprised about the services provided to
the homelessness in Stony Plain area. The it is not a large number the few people I’ve
spoke to regarding homelessness didn’t see any services out here.
F:
Okay, were those homeless individuals themselves or?
R:
Homeless individual.*3
R:
Um so it’s a percentage and whether we’re touching them or not, I don’t know. I hear
of some you know some things. Some will come forward with it but there’s I suspect
that there’s something going on but they may not identify at school. Kind of deal with
it on their own. Um yeh lot of couch surfers for certain, um and some of those it is it’s
their not willing to follow the rules at home whether they think those rules are too
strict or um yeh. Um so then they’re out of the home*1
R:
Ah I’d say we don’t know it’s happening.
R:
Okay.
R:
But you know that being said, you will find kids that are there after school every day
hanging out in the common area. And they’re not a part of the wrestling team or
they’re not a part of the music program whatever, but they’re there. And so you do
sometimes make contact with them. But like you know that situation, that would be
news to me. And I’m sure that would be news to our administration as well, I don’t
97
think you know there’s a good facility right? And they have psy-ed, so and but
students I don’t think would definitely broadcast that like they would.
R:
I’m thinking.
R:
Keep that pretty hidden. Right?
R:
Yeh and they do but with our interviews and stuff and that’s why we can’t phone the
school and say hey by the way. We have this youth and this is what’s going on, can
you watch him? ‘Cause we can’t do that but they tell us sometimes some of this stuff
and you know they say, well I’m staying in the park or I’ve been to the Youth Center
and they closed at nine and then I went to the park. And then so do you, are you still
going to school? Yeh I go to school. Okay so what like do you feed yours…do you
change your clothes, I haven’t changed clothes and I washed them but I shower at the
school or you know those kind of things and I. Yeh so then as a group though we take
on the responsibility ‘cause for us, even though they did something wrong or bad.
We’re not there to punish them, we’re there to try to fix what’s going on. So one of
our things is, the couch surfing and finding them shelter. Trying to find them a
friend’s home to stay so sometimes that’s one of the things that they have to report to
us and try to find before.*1
R:
Pride. For our older adults I think it’s pride. To go into an office and say listen you
know I might lose my home I need some help, where can I get some help. *
R:
It’s almost and maybe this is kind of generalization but it’s almost an Alberta
mentality. Uh we’re independent, we take care of ourselves, we’re conservative, uh
it’s it’s ah shameful to to ask for help. You have to be able to have that relationship
before you’re willing to step out openly with it.
R:
Um hmm*1
R:
There’s a lot of shame associated with coming into my office. So unfortunately they’ll
come in when they’re really in crisis where if they’d come in sooner ‘cause my job
isn’t just about financial assistance it’s about providing resources and and you know
going down to (inaud) there’s like a whole bunch of stuff that we work together on but
when they come in in crisis then it’s, it’s because a lot of times their oh one they all
know me. So it’s like, their back. Or it’s like that pri..that pride thing is huge, huge. I
mean they come in and they just start crying right away.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So it’s it’s a tough one. And I try to make it not so horrible right but.
R:
It’s hard to be humiliated like that.
98
R:
Absolutely so I mean and and we’re getting better at some customer service skills
because I mean if you’ve worked in government long enough you know there’s some
that need you have to be kinder and gentler, right? So we’re working on that. I get
hugs.*2
3.3
Coordination of services
R:
Ah I’d say we don’t know it’s happening.
R:
Okay.
R: But you know that being said, you will find kids that are there after school every day
hanging out in the common area. And they’re not a part of the wrestling team or
they’re not a part of the music program whatever, but they’re there. And so you do
sometimes make contact with them. But like you know that situation, that would be
news to me. And I’m sure that would be news to our administration as well, I don’t
think you know there’s a good facility right? And they have psy-ed, so and but
students I don’t think would definitely broadcast that like they would.
R:
I’m thinking.
R:
Keep that pretty hidden. Right?
R:
Yeh and they do but with our interviews and stuff and that’s why we can’t phone the
school and say hey by the way. We have this youth and this is what’s going on, can
you watch him? ‘Cause we can’t do that but they tell us sometimes some of this stuff
and you know they say, well I’m staying in the park or I’ve been to the Youth Center
and they closed at nine and then I went to the park. And then so do you, are you still
going to school? Yeh I go to school. Okay so what like do you feed yours…do you
change your clothes, I haven’t changed clothes and I washed them but I shower at the
school or you know those kind of things and I. Yeh so then as a group though we take
on the responsibility ‘cause for us, even though they did something wrong or bad.
We’re not there to punish them, we’re there to try to fix what’s going on. So one of
our things is, the couch surfing and finding them shelter. Trying to find them a
friend’s home to stay so sometimes that’s one of the things that they have to report to
us and try to find before.*1
R:
Our sessions are up. So that, that stops. Like that’s kind of what our group is trying to
because we can’t communicate.
R:
Right.
F:
Interesting. ‘Kay.
99
R:
So it’s a homeless issue that even when it is homeless it’s hard to all service providers
to see the same thing what’s going on. And so and like I said you can’t share with it.
R:
Well, maybe we can talk about that after.*1
R:
I mean some of the ones their coming are have disabilities and they have all their stuff
in place in the other provinces and then they come here and yeh. I don’t know.
F:
I see nodding.
R:
So it they don’t understand, they haven’t done their research, they don’t understand
that to get on to AISH is up to a year and not necessarily will they be eligible for it. So
they really come here with the assumption that their gonna be taken care of like they
were in their other province. Well can’t you transfer my file? No that’s not how it
works. And so their just staying with so and so, but so and so’s expecting big rent or
doesn’t want them there for the long term. So there’s from all the Province mostly like
B.C. and Ontario and the big populations that we seem to get and people with
disabilities, huge.
R:
Do you see a good number going back to those after they they see the road blocks they
have?
R:
They won’t. I mean and it becomes a fine line because I mean of course I have that
conversation right? And talk about anger people, I have the choice where I want to
live in Canada. Yeh that’s fine but you have no supports here and you are now like
below poverty.
R:
Or even just the cost right, especially those coming from down east. It I mean it takes.
R:
It takes.
R:
Every penny they had to get here.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They’ve got nothing left to go back.
R:
No. *2
F:
So are you on AISH right now?
R:
I am on AISH.
F:
Okay.
R:
They um, because of one (inaud) in the doctor’s report.
100
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um they refused me, refused me, refused me and finally I found out why. They
wouldn’t tell me why and so I finally, like please I need this. Like I’m not able to
work, I don’t have an income, everybody’s telling me to do this.
F:
Like between a rock and a hard place.
R:
Yeh and like can you tell me what it is and finally I got one worker who’s like, well
this this one specialist you saw said, said this. I’m like really ‘cause he’s the one who
told me to talk to you guys so like this makes no sense. So I contacted him and had to
go for another meeting, he’s like I don’t get it. And I’m like well this is what they said
you’re saying in your letter. Can you adjust it or something?
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so he did and within I think a month or so I was.
F:
Really?
R:
Accepted on AISH. And so I was like, well thank you.
F:
Yeh well no kidding that’s a hugely important thing for you. It would be so hard to
not be able to make an income but not be getting anything either.
R:
Um hmm. Yeh so it’s only been the last couple years, I think I found the paperwork
and it’s only been it was 2010, 2011 maybe. Maybe 2012, sorry really fussy.
F:
That’s all right a couple years ago.
R:
Yeh couple years ago but I was approved so I’ve been on AISH for a couple years
now.*5
F:
Yeh.
R:
So when I went to a government office and they told me there’s not even any forms
for a subsidy, I knew there was something wrong. And I wasn’t impressed that I
would just be denied at an office. And it really did happen to me in, in, in this in
Spruce Grove.
F:
What um what office was it?
R:
It was the one over here, not, not in this building and not in this city.
F:
Yeh.
101
R:
But in the building where I think there’s Cash Canada is in the basement. Those
Government offices there.
F:
Okay yeh.
R:
So I just ah and to be on a waiting list even for Edmonton housing was just too long
like like I’ve gotten to the point where I think I know where to download forms and to
fill out different forms.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But I think you need to be at the place with a room there to use, you need a name.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So it’s kinda catch twenty two.
F:
You need a name, sorry for?
R:
Of the apartment you’re renting.
F:
Okay.
R:
In order to fill out the form.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So when you can’t cough up the money to even get in that place to get your subsidy it.
F:
I see what you’re saying.
R:
It’s a little bit of a mess there hey right?
F:
Yeh.
R:
So but I’ll have to fill out the forms and make sure I get the forms and and the thing
was I thought there wasn’t here because I come from a different area when she said
there wasn’t any subsidy I thought there wasn’t. I thought that’s how maybe that’s
how Spruce Grove was run. And I don’t believe she told me the truth one bit. So. *6
R:
So like much as I’m sad I’m on AISH if I wasn’t on AISH I’d be in worse shape. I
don’t know. I probably have to go immediately to the city and try to get Welfare
Housing.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And when I seen how long I was on the list for I think I never got, even a f…all I got
was one form to say did I still want to be on the list. And it was about four years after.
F:
And you said that was for the Capital Region Housing?
102
R:
Yeh. Like I think I do have an opinion and it’s strong like for Spruce Grove and Stony
Plain should get completely out of Capital Housing and do their own thing all together
and look after people like if there’s a subsidy that’s allowed it needs to, like Stony
Plain is little even littler than Spruce Grove. But it’s your very own town. Spruce
Grove is your very own city. What’s wrong with the Municipal Government that they
aren’t looking after their people? You know? Like I know in Whitecourt where I
came from there was a Government office and it was common knowledge if you were
having trouble that there’s a food bank and there’s there’s a subsidy for the people who
couldn’t afford their rent.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And and it wasn’t a hard form to get from the Government office. So.
F:
Interesting.
R:
Yeh. I am just floored like I went to the City and asked if they had anything. No one
had any interest in helping me. They just said Edmonton looks after that and I thought,
you bunch of assholes, I honestly that’s what I thought. About everywhere I went
here.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And the only, when I realized I’m just at the mercy of the public I thought and the
problem is they needed money too so they had to rent a room.*6
F:
So you’re saying it would be really nice to have something that sort of stream lines that
process for you, makes the forms available, help people.
R:
That’s all that’s needed.
F:
Understand them and fill them out.
R:
We need to know what the rules are and and what’s available and what and uh what
you’re on if you qualify for what and how high you can go. Like I think the only
subsidy as far as I didn’t read everything but I think what’s available is four hundred
bucks. If I’m on AISH so that means I use my that means I do qualify for something
in town. I am on the waiting list and it’s that lower income place that has a one
bedroom for seven seventy one in a new building. And I think I was seventh on the
list in the fall, and I didn’t know I was just gonna try and pay it but you still have to
qualify so all these people that are renting a place were only saying you still have to
qualify. So they obviously don’t have the proper forms either when it’s the public’s
right to fill out that form. So it’s sort of exposure too right? Like what’s allowed
instead of keeping it hush hush for just the Government employees friends and family
right? Like that that’s what it’s kind of looking at when when it’s not easily attained,
right?
103
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But I don’t really want to insinuate that because I think if you’re hungry enough you
can find out but so that means I could stay under my one third of my income on just
the AISH ‘cause I’m not always in shape to work. Is by going five thirty three of my
money and then claiming the four hundred that’s available for subsidy?
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I think that was maximum*6
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I think that was maximum.
F:
So where.
R:
So that doesn’t actually cut it if you go a third of even AISH when AISH is more than
welfare by almost five hundred bucks. Then then um you get a third of your income
plus the four hundred dollars that still keeps you at nine hundred and thirty three
dollars maximum. So when you look around to see what’s available, there’s one
apartment in the city that’s I think seven seventy one for a two bedroom and it wasn’t a
nice apartment like it probably not that bad but it was available expect I wasn’t ready
to go to the city yet.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I didn’t have the money.
F:
So this four hundred dollars subsidy.
R:
I’m not sure what they call it but it’s it’s a subsidy and it’s it’s a rental supplement of
some kind.
F:
Okay. Direct rent supplement?
R:
So we need to know in Stony Plain and Spruce Grove, when someone’s in need of
housing they need to be allowed to go to a city office or a town office and find out the
truth instead of just being, I might not have a vehicle to go all the way to the office in
Edmonton. You know, I might not have the six bucks to go make an appointment and
go there.*6
104
F:
Yeh that would make things a little tricky for sure. Um well we can get pretty close to
winding up here.
R:
Okay.
F:
I’ll just, kind of one final question and then we’ll if you have any other questions or
any other things that you’d like to discuss or, or mention for the study then we can get
to that. But what would you like to be able to do to improve your housing situation?
What would need to happen or what supports would you need in order to be able to do
that?
R:
I think that they need more organizations that’ll help people, um I know at least four
families in that in my complex that are like me. They are barely able to survive and
I’ve tried telling them to talk but their all scared to because everyone, Social Services
and the Government are not on our side. They’re there to hurt us, essentially is that we
were lead to believe because of the way everybody.*7
F:
Um what was your experience like with the different services or the different systems?
How have you found Alberta Works for example or um the food bank?
R:
How did I find the food bank? Um I went to Spruce Grove for the AW when I first got
here, um ‘cause I was on Ontario disability but they AISH won’t, AISH won’t help they
won’t put me on their system. So that’s why Alberta Works is supplementing the
disability like the Federal, CPP disability.
F:
Okay.
R:
Um I guess if I moved, I could move back to Ontario but I would never be able to
afford to do that because I would be right back on to their disability system but um I
don’t remember how I found out about the food bank.*10
3.4
Unpredictability of the population at risk
R:
We’ve been getting a lot of referrals from ah Probation right so I mean there’s no room
in affordable housing but let’s pretend there was. It’s crime free right so depending on
what ah what their crime was they wouldn’t even be eligible for that even even in
Edmonton right ‘cause it’s so it’s crime free right. So it’s systemic of that.
R:
Criminal records checks.
R:
Of that, of that cycle right so um then the people um you know some people with ah
with ah mental health history or referral from mental health what happens is they
burned all their bridges and the places that they’ve lived a lot of time beyond their
control because of their mental health condition. But it’s still small communities, so
105
when the name is mentioned it’s you you know we’ve given them one, two, three
chances and we don’t want so there’s no support for people with mental health. So
some kind of transitional kind of support um with that to be able to get them back on
their feet right so.
R:
And the issue of credit ratings as well too is quite often a barrier for people who have
had poor credit and haven’t paid bills in the past. Their ah yeh their not in a position to
find anything else so.
R:
With that low supply you have an available apartment, you can have a half dozen, a
dozen applications and so renters can be picky and where does that leave everybody
else?
R:
Yeh.
R:
And that issue of no identification is a big one too because you’re you’re caught
between a rock and a hard place. They’re trying to get government ID to get a
government ID they need some sort of ID, well that’s why I want some government
ID. I have no ID, I don’t have my birth certificate. Well you have to have your birth
certificate, you have to have some ID to get ID. So they’re caught. You know. And
without an, an address or contact (inaud) housing is difficult. *3
R:
And I think it would be incorrect to say that kids at Outreach have issues and that’s
why they’re there. I think a better way to look at it would be all kids have issues.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And some kids have skills to cope with their issues. And some don’t.
R:
Okay.
R:
Wouldn’t you say?
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Because there are kids at the main campus who are give the appearance of perfectly
functioning who have just as many ki…ah issues.
R:
Issues.
R:
As a kid at Outreach who appears to not be functioning at all because they just, their
resilience is different.
R:
Different resilience.
106
R:
Okay.
R:
Or resources.
R:
I don’t work with Outreach so I don’t understand.
R:
Or, or.
R:
That well. That’s why I asked.
R:
Their support systems are different. Does that make sense?
R:
Yes it does. Like you you made me understand ‘cause like I don’t, Outreach, again I
deal with Youth Justice kids.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Who have issues.
R:
Absolutely we probably know many of the same children.*1
R:
So for me those are the kids that I’m kind of focusing on at Outreach.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They already have issues now sometimes I think you know when we’re there and the
par…if the parent actually comes ‘cause they have to have an adult with them at these
sessions um and if it’s a parent and the kids at Outreach I mean sometimes it’s not the
youth that you want to educate. You want to educate the parents.
R:
Yes.
R:
That’s why the youth is going to outreach is ‘cause the parent didn’t focus on.
R:
Yes.
R:
Certain things, right? So then the kid, because it’s not a support system at home,
there’s lack of communication at home.
R:
Yes.
R:
There is sometimes, most quite often there is zero communication at home and that’s
why the youth is falling. So then they’re going to school but they don’t have the
capabil… or they are too scared maybe or they don’t know.
107
R:
They don’t have the skills.
R:
They don’t want to go to a guidance counsellor ‘cause that makes them look weak in
front of other youth, sometimes. I’ve heard that. Um but they so it’s all inside, inside
and then they they fall apart at school so then their like well then okay well, you know
the school says we’re gonna send you to Outreach. So then the kid goes to Outreach
but again their too scared to communicate with you and sometimes that relationship,
they fall before that relationship can get built.*1
R:
Um one of the like I guess one of the main groups that I see is kinda that unstable
population where they might be in housing right now but they don’t know how they’re
gonna be able to pay their rent for this month. I’m mostly working with people who
are looking for employment so the the income isn’t, isn’t there in order to maintain that
stability in housing. So we see a lot of that and that’s kinda the the biggest population
I guess of the people I consider homeless that are coming through our doors.
F:
So the precariously housed, they don’t know if they’ll be in the same.
R:
Yeh.
F:
(inaud)
R:
They have a place for now but the rents due at the end of the week and there’s no way
to pay it at this point so. I think or ah people that are fleeing their current situation.
And so there, maybe weren’t working before. Now they’re looking for a job and a
place to stay at the same time. So that’s that’s definitely a population that we see a lot
of.
F:
A lot on their plate.
R:
I see a cross all spectrums from the guys living in the bush to the ones being abused
and so they’re now homeless ‘cause they can’t afford the the place that they’ve been
sharing with their partner. To um lots of young moms, that’s a big population. And
their housing is very unstable even if they have housing the reality is that they can’t
maintain it. Um so they definitely can’t maintain it on financial supports that they get
from the government. They need to be working but even if it’s, it’s low income um
lots of women leaving situations where there’s domestic or not that haven’t worked
and they’re looking for housing for themselves and their children and the reality is is
that their marginally employable. For the most part they’ve been staying at home for
the last ten, fifteen years and getting that job to support themselves is almost
impossible. And the housing is way too expensive.
F:
So you’d say you see it.
108
R:
Across all.
F:
More, okay.
R:
But on a daily basis.
R:
Every single day.
R:
It’s pretty steady as well. *1
F:
So do you see when your housing issues are sort of peaking in your First Nation
community, do you find that people um need to come to Stony Pr…Stony Plain or
Spruce Grove?
R:
Yeh they’ll come.
F:
For services?
R:
Yeh they’ll come here and they’ll look for you know a few times I drove people to
Stony Plain ‘cause they wanted to see to go look at that one area, just over here beside
Safeway.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh those.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Ah I guess it was booming what five years ago or something like that? And the
medical resources are here for them, some of them are um AISH or so they can’t really
move around.
F:
Right.
R:
Yeh.
F:
And there are certain things they need to access?
R:
Yeh.
F:
In the community it sounds like?
R:
Yeh.
109
F:
Okay.
R:
And then they get denied so then they come back home. Yeh.
R:
The problem, like if their coming off Reserve is that if they’re not working already.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They can’t sustain their apartment so the way policy is written is that you we can assist
but how do they pay next month and their not able to, right?
R:
Yeh, yeh.*2
F:
So have you ever felt stigmatized because of the housing issues that you’re going
through? Like when dealing with service providers or um government with AISH or
with landlords or?
R:
Yeh with AISH, with AISH it definitely took awhile um I don’t know if it counts as a
stigma but they they were like, if you’re living with family why are you paying rent
and why are you paying so much rent and it’s like well because their mortgage isn’t
cheap and that’s part of the reason they asked me to move in was because my rent
payment was supposed to cover one of their mortgage payments.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And, and yeh it just took a long time for them to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Get where I had to provide proof of all this stuff and and then that further added ah
hostile gap with my sister and brother in law ‘cause their like they shouldn’t have our
information and of that.
F:
Oh yeh.
R:
Like well yeh I get that and I’m totally on your side but unfortunately yeh if they
don’t they can cut me off and then what do I do.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And you won’t get money then it was just such a chain reaction.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um lit…in looking for places a lot of I had a few people that wanted me to go back
and find my records from when I was renting from an apartment or something like
that.
F:
Yeh.
110
R:
They wouldn’t take, they wouldn’t take that I’ve been here five years and been paying
rent. They they didn’t like that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Ah so that made it kind of tricky ‘cause I know I have those records somewhere but
with a memory that’s kind of like a sieve it’s like.
F:
Yeh it doesn’t make it easy.
R:
No um.*5
F:
anything yourself?
R:
my income.
F:
R:
like it.
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
So have you guys had to access any other services because of this sort of housing
issue you’re having with you guys being off work or how are you able to cover your
rent?
111
R:
We, we’ve been late a lot.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh we can’t be late anymore they pretty much said you know, no more being late so
it’s gonna be tough but um because I do have an income I make too much for Social
Services but I don’t make enough to cover all my bills.
F:
Yeh that catch twenty two.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh, so what’s ah the plan?
R:
Um we’re gonna scrape by until, until hopefully he can find work.
F:
Yeh.
R:
There is no plan I don’t have another plan.
F:
Yeh.*9
F:
Yeh so what um what’s your plan? Do you have a plan?
R:
I don’t have a plan. I’m hoping that if he stays he’ll have a job and he’ll be able to help
with rent.
F:
Yeh. Put some money towards that.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Yeh, fair enough. Um would you consider having to leave the community? Or are you
pretty stuck to.
R:
I’m pretty much looking at that. I don’t want to but.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I don’t know what else to do. I haven’t really thought about it ‘cause I don’t want to
think about it.
F:
Right, so your son is going into your youngest is going into Grade 11 next year?
R:
Uh he’s in Grade 9 right now, he’s home schooled so.
F:
Okay.
R:
I can go wherever.
F:
Okay so you’re not tied to a school.
112
R:
No I’m not tied to that like I’m not tied to the community to remain in that school.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like the home schooling programs.
F:
Right.
R:
I can go anywhere.*10
R
And literally ah Angel Dogs with Wings and Angel Dogs have been calling me down
in the States saying they would give me one no problem but I’d have to pay for the
flight and the papers.
F
The import stuff.
R
Yeh and that all there would cost around two thousand dollars.
F
Yikes. That’s a really interesting prospect though of the service dog.
R
Yeh and that would be a weight off my mind just because the service dog would alert
me when her sugars are low because she walks around hypoglycemic.
F
Yeh.
R
So even if I test her blood every three hours she could crash within two hours
especially when she’s sick.
F
In between tests.
R
Yeh and she literally will fall, she’ll go pale and she’ll start stumbling she’ll fall to the
ground and have a seizure and she could pass into a coma at any like.
F
That must be scary.
R
Just from doing that.
F
Yeh a service dog that would be awesome.
R
Yeh.
F
And that’s sort of another set of eyes on her all the time.
R
Yeh and the dog would be able to sense when she’s having one of those really low lows
because she’s in the low. She’s always at four point o and that’s low for anybody but
for her that’s high because she’s usually walks around like three point five or three point
two and she’s and if she goes below two point five she’s crashing.
F
You sound so educated. I’m sure you have to be but you sound so educated in this it’s
really, wow.
113
R
Yeh all of her doctors told me I should go for my LPN because I, I know so much
about her and to explain it to other people ‘cause their all like, what does that mean?
What does that mean and I explain it and because I’ve been in the Stollery for literally
two years, almost three so.*11
3.5
Lack of time, crisis mode, urgency of needs, & no fixed address
R:
And I think the same for youth if they need a shelter they.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Once they can’t couch surf or whatever else they disappear.
R:
Unfortunately.
R:
To Edmonton
R:
They have to go out.
R:
Yeh, yeh it comes to that point and we’ve, I’ve you know talked to kids, got them
connected to um Children’s Services but once they turn sixteen, guess what?
R:
Um hmm.
R:
If they’ve decided to leave their home that’s their choice. And I’ve had workers from
Children’s Services say, you know what send them into Edmonton to the Youth
Emergency Shelter.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
That’s what we can do for them so there’s yeh like you say that short term placement
where you kind of sort things out and get them connected um.
R:
For all ages.
R:
For all ages, yeh.
R:
There’s no short term fix.*1
114
R:
After Christmas is a huge um lots of eviction notices after Christmas and the
emergency thing is that it was Christmas. So it’s also about respon…responsible
spending too. And that’s what we’ve just gone through is that peak of eviction
because of over spending at Christmas. Which is frustrating ‘cause I know this
community offers a lot of resources and we actually take the time to send out all those
resources to all the files out here. So I mean we’re doing our job as far as providing
that resource to Albertans out in this community which is a good thing but they’re not
accessing and I’ll ask, did you access like the Kinsmen and, no, no, no. So.
R:
I’ll touch on that, you mentioned after Christmas is a really busy time for that um we
see one of our biggest crunches right before Christmas because a lot of employers stop
hiring as it gets into December so after that kind of second week in December,
nobody’s hiring in January so if you’re unemployed then go with your Christmas and
try to make rent for January 1st. It becomes very difficult. *1
R:
Yeh I’d say that too ‘cause. Some of the, some of the some of the blocks too are that
they don’t have driver’s license or, again that boils down to not having a place to stay
because you need a fixed address to get ID.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And you can’t.
F:
That’s true.
R:
You can’t do anything unless you got ID. And you can’t get a job so so you’re stuck,
stuck on the Reserve. Maybe you live in a tent, maybe you live with your Uncles, your
Grandma’s and how long does that last? I mean without without them moving out on
you, so.*2
R:
Short term emergency housing.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh. Big time. Emergency housing that isn’t ah based on one demographic either.
R:
No.
R:
Like if it’s like men’s housing or women’s housing that doesn’t work if you have a
family that’s.
F:
Right.
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R:
On the street or like youth only housing or any of those, the need is just a general
emergency housing for.
R:
Well we did have an apartment over at the affordable housing when it first opened I
think FCSS rented it for I think there was just one, no there was two.
R:
There was the one here and one.
R:
There was two apartments. Oh there’s.*2
R:
There’s a lot of shame associated with coming into my office. So unfortunately they’ll
come in when they’re really in crisis where if they’d come in sooner ‘cause my job
isn’t just about financial assistance it’s about providing resources and and you know
going down to (inaud) there’s like a whole bunch of stuff that we work together on but
when they come in in crisis then it’s, it’s because a lot of times their oh one they all
know me. So it’s like, their back. Or it’s like that pri..that pride thing is huge, huge. I
mean they come in and they just start crying right away.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So it’s it’s a tough one. And I try to make it not so horrible right but.
R:
It’s hard to be humiliated like that.
R:
Absolutely so I mean and and we’re getting better at some customer service skills
because I mean if you’ve worked in government long enough you know there’s some
that need you have to be kinder and gentler, right? So we’re working on that. I get
hugs.
R:
One of the barriers that I see with our population that it’s in housing crisis like that is
they don’t have the time to put into getting that better job or finding that career type
thing. They have to kind of like I said they have to take what they can get immediately
‘cause they need to make money right now. And so that’s definitely a barrier in that
there’s only so much we can work with them if they come and see us they can’t come
in. There’s only so much we can do if they have to get employed today. We can help
them find that job but it’s not gonna be the one that they want long term. *2
R:
Definitely. One hundred percent. I mean, not for office but for my specific position is
the crisis walk in and ah um and housing right. So if we take a look at um if I, if I
don’t have address so I can’t get a job. So I can’t a job and income support won’t
assist me unless I get a part time job, so how can I go to the next step if that if that isn’t
available to me right? So definitely I mean when we look at the housing first
modelled, that model is there to be able to support people where they’re at so they can
be successful to the next step right so um. We were just talking about that the other
116
day, the problem with initiating housing first model out here is there’s no housing to
put anybody in. So it’s.*3
R:
And that issue of no identification is a big one too because you’re you’re caught
between a rock and a hard place. They’re trying to get government ID to get a
government ID they need some sort of ID, well that’s why I want some government
ID. I have no ID, I don’t have my birth certificate. Well you have to have your birth
certificate, you have to have some ID to get ID. So they’re caught. You know. And
without an, an address or contact (inaud) housing is difficult. *3
R:
The cart before the horse.
R:
It cycles right? So where do you, where do you, where do you start right so. *3
R:
We’re also missing crisis counselling. ‘Cause any time you refer someone to
counselling it’s a long wait, like the quickest someone can get counselling is Turning
Points. But certainly through mental health, children’s mental health, adult mental
health, like it’s even like weeks ‘til you can even get like an intake for children with
mental health it was like I think almost like six weeks ‘til one of the people could you
know and this girls cutting. That’s an emergency to me right and we definitely don’t
have that, which is another service that could be provided through like shelters right if
it’s twenty four seven.
F:
That’s a good point.
R:
It’s pretty tough to think about searching for an apartment when you’re in a state of
crisis. It’s it’s impossible.
R:
(inaud) of needs.
R:
R:
That’s right. Exactly.
I think that, I think I agree that some of the other gap, gaps are the other areas you
know maybe we do well in the physical sense, you know providing food I’m not so
sure about um you know blankets and coats and that kind of stuff. Whether or not
there’s a gap here but definitely in the other crisis services, like counselling but also
um pastoral counselling, spiritual counselling, psychological counselling. *3
R:
I don’t know what the exact barrier is but I find like a lot of times I will refer a client
to a certain service and give them phone numbers but they need to do it on their own
and then you know and then I call them them the next time. Oh I haven’t gotten
117
around to it yet and so whether it’s you know maybe they have addiction issues and or
like time that their just overwhelmed and busy or if there’s mental health issues. Like
I don’t know but there’s a lot of times where it’s like hand holding that it’s like okay
we need to sit down and make that phone call together or like I have to constantly nag
for them to finally access it. I mean I don’t know I can’t pinpoint what exactly the
barrier is for each of those people but you know.
R:
They need that hand holding.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They need that wrap around service and someone to be there for them to.
R:
And when the crisis is over too, they’re not as motivated.
R:
That’s right.
R:
No motivation yeh.
R:
And I think the overwhelming piece is huge right, um have no idea if walking into
somebody’s office is going to mean I’m going to sit there for three hours now and fill
out paperwork and do all this and then nothing’s going to happen anyway so what’s
the point.
R:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause sometimes we see that it’s just it can be such a daunting process that is it really
worth it? So people just choose not to even try.
R:
Right and I was gonna say and choices right so we can only we can only provide
people with the tools. Even if we’re doing that wrap around service and hand holding.
What they choose to do with that, is is up to them right and we can empower them as
much as we want but then they still continue to you know not. And I, and sometimes I
think it’s some people we see the barrier is um oh I can’t find the right word now but
it’s um, I deserve this, like.*3
R:
I had an infrared one last winter that went one winter and during the winter it just
konked out and it was like, gotta get to Home Depot before six o’clock because this is
my only means of heat and I won’t be able to stay there for it freezes up.
Yeh.
So the thing with the living situation is there is an urgency that people you know that
first of all your body you know cleanliness. You don’t wanna go down so that you
start to smell and that people around you. So you get conscious that you’re at the pool
having a shower, right, so I started using the hot tub now I’m swimming so it’s all
been a good process too but there’s a part about you kind of feel ashamed of yourself
and that you get in to these living problems and then the other part is there’s a bit
F:
R:
118
F:
living on the edge where like people were worried that I would use my oven for
heating my trailer and then what if I fell asleep and the gas you know like you know I
gas myself? Or what if ah you know I froze out there in that trailers so like those are
all things where I’m lucky that I have been off drugs and alcohol a long time and I
have a support system. But I had to sort of look at people like I gotta work on what
I’m doing and that’s why I think this year was like, my sister moved out of the trailer.
She’s in a trailer now in the RV park in Stony.
Okay.*12
3.6
Funding
R:
R:
R:
There was two apartments. Oh there’s.
R:
One.
R:
Yeh there’s one in Stony and one is Spruce. They weren’t empty but when they’re in
there, there’s requirements for them to be working to be moving forward. It’s a perfect
opportunity so I would have loved to have seen that continue.
F:
Do you know why it?
R:
Funding.
R:
Money.
R:
That was a.
R:
We had to um home like housing support workers and so about maintaining, keeping
them housed right so you can get them into an apartment but can you keep them
housed. That’s the question right? So those workers would work with them ongoing
to make sure that they’re paying the rent on time and doing all that they need to do to
move forward and ah the, the emergency housing was great.
R:
It lasted for about a year before the funding ran out.
F:
*2
So that transitional housing with the worker that is gonna turn something permanent?
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R:
R:
And I think too we’re like a latch key community right? So Stony Plain can apply for
certain money because of your population, Spruce Grove can’t because of the
population. But there’s other money available that our community should be eligible
for but because we’re not a big enough population all together or because we’re not
flag, we weren’t flagged initially. You know to be able to, be able to explore more
opportunities like that that we’re not considered ‘cause we’re not northern enough or
we don’t have enough off reserve people in our community or we don’t have enough
domestic violence situations, you know. It’s the statistics and the population together
that there’s communities like us in Parkland County then there’s the city of Edmonton.
Then you know there’s Red Deer and there’s other communities that are smaller like
us that are eligible but because their more northern and we’re considered too close to
Edmonton to be to be considered and so we have a lot of gaps um that way. Not that
funding is going to solve everything but it’s a starting point right I mean that’s the
reality of it right so um, so the lack I guess the lack of opportunity for funding
opportunity is because of our location population based on our statistics, right. *3
I think going on your own.
F:
Town Council has been very supportive of this study and um they want to help but
they need to find out.
R:
They need a budget because.
F:
How they can do it. So that’s what we’re trying to figure out.
R:
The problem is everywhere you need to qualify our for a place your total rent is not
supposed to exceed a third of your income.
F:
Right.
R:
So that means anyone on AISH it’s about five hundred and thirty three dollars and that
means anyone on Welfare it’s three hundred and thirty three dollars. So then you have
a good idea of exactly what kind of subsidy is needed for anyone on Welfare and
anyone on AISH.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it’s just a matter of getting the Government funding for, for the people that need
it.
F:
Yeh and in this economy it’s a little.
R:
‘Cause there’s no.
F:
It’s a little scary.
R:
If you want, if you, if you want the right to rent a place the only help you can get is the
Government. So I can’t believe no one putting pressure on like this little area to do
something for their own people with their housing.
F:
Um hmm and I mean.*6
120
R:
And then when there’s a waiting list of five years? And I I even called them on that. I
sent them an email to tell them I’d been on the waiting list with, with for more than
five years. They never even contacted me back. So I’m gonna fill out forms and see if
I can just keep my name on the waiting list for that apartment ‘cause it’s quite new.
F:
Now do you get help with filling out forms here at FCSS? I know that they can be, can
be really helpful with that form stuff or just sorting out.
R:
Here I probably could and I had actually been here for housing and they just gave me
two names of two apartments that I didn’t qualify for.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And they didn’t tell me.
F:
Didn’t qualify for?
R:
Here.
F:
For income or credit?
R:
That there was a rental supplement of any sort. So again this is where the public is
being reached and coming for help and that didn’t come up from the woman here that
there was a supplement available.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I need to know if that is available from the Edmonton CMHC for out here. And I
don’t think it is.
F:
Yeh that direct, I think she would have let you know.
R:
So that means the city and the town are shy of any help.
F:
Yeh, yeh I don’t know if that direct (inaud).
R:
So why should Edmonton look after another city and another town? That’s not right
either.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You can’t blame Edmonton, when it’s out here that did it right?
F:
Yeh they call it the Capital Region so I know there is an agreement, it, obviously it’s
not working as well as it should if you’ve had these troubles but um there is an
agreement. It should be working better than it is.
R:
The first, the first I looked enough on line with this year to find out about the subsidy.
And the only reason I wasn’t desperately looking on line is ‘cause I went to that
121
goven…government office and they said there was no subsidy. And I didn’t believe
that in a heartbeat but that’s what I was told.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So.
F:
That’s ah.
R:
I’m wondering how many more people were told that, so.
F:
Well I’m sure, yeh that direct rent subsidy I don’t know if that is, I think it’s at least
difficult to get out here if it is available. So I don’t think their trying to steer in the
wrong direction but I agree that’s it’s not helpful if um if you can’t really nail down
the answer. So without being able to get ahold of Capital Housing. Have you tried to
call them?
R:
But the thing is.
F:
Or just email?
R:
When you go to the city, when you come to this office, when you go to the other office
and you find out there’s nothing, you realize well there’s nothing. And nobody cared
to find out. *6
F
Yeh, because of the health issue. Yeh that sounds like a tricky situation. Hopefully
you’ll be able to get the different tax benefits. That would be really helpful or even an
aide or the service dog.
R
I really want the service dog in the worst way. But right now it’s not affordable really
to fly one from the States and it would be from Arizona.
F
Okay yeh that’s pricey.
R
Somebody told me I should go up to the news and tell them my situation and stuff like
that because the Lions here, the Lions Club is the one who does the service animals
around this area and dogs with wings.
F
Okay.
R
And they said no because she’s so rare and they don’t know her disorder it’s only for
Type 1 Diabetics ‘cause it’s only been around for a year. But the in the States they’ll
help me. But it’s the funding to get the dog over here. *11
4. Strengths within Stoney Plain
122
4.1
Quality of services
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
That food bank’s a great thing isn’t it?
It is.
Yeh.
You know I mean God bless them.
Yeh. Yeh, that’s a real resource in our community.
I only use it when absolutely necessary.
Um hmm, yeh and I think most people do.
Yeh.
I think people use it quite fairly yeh.
Yeh. We used it one, okay we moved in the first of, we got the place first of
December but we couldn’t move in. We laid on the floor with blankets until we could
get our furniture to which was December 13th we got our furniture.*4
R:
Some of the kids that we see that ah have an advocate will quite often find government
funding to help them get in to a living situation. My experience with that, there’s not a
lot of them but there’s a few, is that they don’t have they don’t have the skills to
sustain that. And so someone gets them set up but they don’t have any budgeting
skills. They don’t, they go and buy their PS5 for seven hundred dollars and then they
don’t have their rent money so they sell it for two hundred and like it’s just like this
endless juggle of lack of knowledge, skills, guidance. So even though they are set up
there it doesn’t always last for very long because pe…the people that are setting them
up we don’t, there’s not time right. People don’t have time to then teach them all of
those skills that they need.*1
R:
I think it’s the communication. Yeh, like Janine says we have these small groups like
Critical Connection and other little groups that get together and we share information
and even if someone just comes to my office I’m, we’re we’ve educated other
organizations to know what FCSS does. Um I look back five, six years ago, my
husband had no idea what FCSS was. And then he got on the board and he’s like wow.
And back then I said a lot of people don’t know what FCSS was, not here, not Spruce
Grove, not no where. Um and I think now as our community, I can’t say anywhere
else but between Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County we communicate
together so we don’t just help Stony Plain and we help a large area now. ‘Cause of the
communication, that’s very strong.
F:
So the tri region connections?
R:
Yeh it became and that’s only been really strong I’m gonna say four years, three, four,
five years maybe. And I’ve been here twenty years.
R:
Um hmm.
123
R:
And I used to always feel the disconnection and it’s only been in the last short term
that three municipalities, when it comes to stuff like this they work together. And not
only just the three of, like groups of just FCSS but it’s opened up to other
organizations and groups and people are called to the table to communicate or to share
information.
F:
So the communication, the support of the generosity of the community, do you see
anything different Cindy?*1
F:
To sum up.
R:
F:
Well I think the part FCSS programs in and of themselves and the whole information
referral, outreach, and the and then the organizations that they’ve got their spidy
tentacles into.
Sounds good.
R:
I think we’re also fortunate in Stony Plain to have a hospital.*1
R:
Like I think Westview Health is a I don’t you know, that their serving homeless but
certainly at least we have that health care link and ah I just think of addictions
counselling, you know I have sent people to addictions counselling in Westview
Health. Um I wish the youth mental health was in Stony Plain it’s in Spruce Grove
and there’s no transportation to there but um but at least we have the adult mental
health and we do have the addictions counsellors out of Westview Health and I’m sure
that um health care professionals see homelessness. I’m sure their, yeh have an
opinion of it all too. And I think we are fortunate to have that because I think of other
farther outlying areas they don’t even have that as a catch. *1
R:
Well in my community we like Jao she does a lot of work with our, with our elders so
and then she employs some of our members and then they all get together and then it
comes down to the health center. Then we all get together and we help the elders out
as much as we can.
F:
So collaborating?
R:
Yeh, yeh.
F:
Okay. Good. There’s gotta be some strong points that you guys think is being done
well in this community?
124
R:
I think there’s a lot of community resources out there. And it’s just a matter of them
accessing them. But ah there are lots of resources in the community lots of really good
resources.
F:
So it’s just that awareness then you’re saying.
R:
There’s good ah interconnection between the resources too so like ah a lot of, like
other organizations will bring people to us when they need our help we send them to
other organizations like that and a lot of that kind of almost advocate your clients to
different areas. So there’s a lot of connection there so once they do start to access the
services, the people in the community can usually get them to the right places.
R:
Well if their working together.
R:
If they’re, yeh.
R:
It makes a big difference like for example if their working with FCSS and us to
prevent that eviction, prevent that homelessness. I mean Salvation Army money can
be tossed in and then I know it’s there so it’s that collaboration that works. I mean at
the end of the day we go to work to not have people homeless. Especially if there’s
kids involved, right? So yeh I think that the agencies do work quite well together.
R:
Yeh, they do.
R:
A lot of resources and agencies.
F:
So that cooperation amongst service providers. *2
F:
What do you think that we’re doing well? What are strengths and accomplishments in
dealing with those who are experiencing housing difficulties?
R:
I think just our ability to network and access other agencies so much more easily than,
than you know not as many big silos as they like to say right?
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So we can call people really quickly and we have relationships with people who can
help so.
R:
I think that we’re still small enough as a community that we can find the same faces
coming around the table and we know who can we, who we can refer people to and
who it is that we can access for the appropriate resources or um or at least know that
who we can contact to point us in the right direction.
125
R:
I think the overall awareness is is uh forum for one.*3
R:
Well there are good services that are available for people in the community I mean in
terms there’s the food bank and and there’s you know our services and other agencies
and lots of good services low cost services and opportunities. Parenting supports, all
those things are are really valuable in the community um and those can go a long way
in helping people that are risk at falling through the cracks as well so we have enough
of the small town stuff but enough of an access to the bigger city services as well so.
F:
Okay.
R:
And I think we’re as we work together we’re creative in the solutions that we don’t
have at our fingertips right so we don’t have a shelter to send a single man to but we
can be creative in what we can you know talk to each other. Is there you know what
are the other options right and just being more creative, being able to be more creative
and not have to work within the box even without the resources we don’t have right.
So being able to be flexible like that and being able to be that way with each other
right so, no, this isn’t my mandate and no this isn’t my mandate but I’ll you know
really be open and flexible with that.
R:
In the referral process I heard you know people doing referrals.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Which is connected to networking. *3
F:
Four o’clock is normal that’s. That’s crazy. So have you had to access any other
services because of the housing stuff? Like have you had to use the food bank or?
R:
I have this year.
F:
Yeh.
R:
The people that I’m staying with now he was saying maybe you should go to the food
bank and I said, you know what I will. And I’ve been going to the food bank it’s at
least three months straight every week faithfully I went there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they don’t starve you. Like you wouldn’t believe the generosity of just I think
mostly it’s the stores, all the stores in the area.
F:
They really donate a lot.
126
R:
Yeh and between the bread and the stores that donate it’s just unreal like, if I’m if I
pick one or two days a week where I do a little bit of cooking I can make frozen,
frozen tv dinners for all week.
F:
Yeh.
R:
For the most part, there was only three, three weeks out of the full time I was there that
I didn’t have something that I didn’t mind to eat. And it lasted all week long.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they tell you to take as much bread as you can use so I was taking extra bread.
F:
Yeh.
R:
There’s a guy in my, where I rent from he’s on AISH too and he asked me if I’d get
him bread so I always got extra bread for him and he had, he ended up having too
much in his freezer so now it’s I’m taking for me.
F:
Um hmm I was gonna say if you (inaud).
R:
And then the Kinnets hamper, the Kinnets hamper really helped but it ended up I was
getting too much of the same stuff I always got and I didn’t have no room for it so I
ended up making two boxes, one for my sister, one for my mom.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because they sometimes have me over for a meal right?
F:
Yeh.
R:
So any ex…and she’s got four kids and mom’s got mine kids so. It makes sense to just
give them what I had.
F:
Yeh it does.
R:
And then when I wasn’t working yet so I when they give you a gift card or something
it’s I just recycled it for gifts for Christmas ‘cause I had nothing to give hey?
F:
Yeh. (inaud)
R:
And lots of it lots of it the stuff I wanted to keep I kept right so.*6
F:
How have you been able to use APFA?
R:
They they helped me get into courses to become a better parent.
F:
Okay.
R:
Ah they come in once a week and make sure Lila’s meeting her requirements for age I
don’t know how to say it.
127
F:
I know the word you’re looking for and I can’t think of it. Yeh okay anyways.
R:
But they they are amazing. I love APFA.
F:
Milestones.
R:
Yes.
F:
There we go.
R:
That’s it.
F:
Okay so you’ve been using the APFA services too, great. Yeh they’re, they’re
excellent over there.
R:
Like Jasper Place and Health and Wellness was awesome I had subsidy through them
and then because they closed it after like six months so without the subsidy, it kinda
screwed me.
F:
Yeh so at least they were able to help you get into a place and now just maintaining
the rent.
R:
Yeh.*7
F:
Well that’s good I suppose. So how are your experiences navigating through the
system? Through the different resources that you access like the food bank, FCSS,
what was your experience with them like?
R:
Awesome.
F:
Good?
R:
They are awesome, both yes.
F:
Good.
R:
FCSS was wonderful and the food bank too they just been my life savers really.*9
F:
So what’s your experience with using the food bank or with using Alberta Works been
like?
R:
Um Alberta Works is doing everything that they can.
F:
That’s good.
R:
Um I get a little bit of a rent subsidy um just because it’s extremely stressful for me to
even think about moving. The food bank.
F:
It would be.
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R:
I’m a little bit disappointed in some of their produce you know you get it home and it’s
all you know it’s rotten or way past the date or so it’s discouraging ‘cause we’re human
beings we don’t want to eat rotten food. Um other than that they’ve been really nice
over there.*10
F
A little extra on your plate no kidding. So what ah? I’m sorry to hear that that wasn’t a
great situation for you. How were the other services? Were they?
R
Oh APFA is great. I love APFA but once the kids hit two years old you’re no longer
part of the home visitation and stuff and they were kind of my friend because I seen
them each week and I was able to talk to them and stuff like that.
F
Yeh.
R
And they would give me like resources like if I was out of diapers or I couldn’t afford
diapers they’d bring me a box of diapers.*11
F:
So what’s your experience been like with the services out here with using the food
bank and FCSS and Alberta Works and Brayden and whatnot. How is navigating
those services been, have you felt that you were treated fairly. Have you felt that they
were able to help you meet your needs?
Well I think that I used first I’ll go to the emotional side and then what they give you
but I use specialized disability services at UofA the last time I was there. And they’ve
changed it a lot I’ve talked to the woman who was my Resource Worker and I don’t
know if I went back to university at the UofA if they would let me be a client there
again but.
Yeh.
I was also given the same services blind people would get in terms of like we access
what kind of computer, I tried to get a computer given to me by the Government and I
was denied but we access what kind of services I would need on a computer to help
me. I had note takers in the class so I would have other students that would work with
specialized disability services and at the end of the day they would give me notes. So
if I was getting too exhausted to keep up with the notes what they did was write notes
on a carbon.
Okay.
And at the end of the day they would each pass them to me and sometimes not both of
them would be in class so I went along that and I wrote my final exam ‘cause I just did
one class, Aboriginal Literature. I wrote my final exam on a computer and as per what
other students wouldn’t be given I was allowed to have a break during the time for a
snack and a bathroom break. So for an hour and a half exam or whatever it was hour
exam, thirty minutes into the exam I was given a break. So I think the hardest thing
R:
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when I come to um use the services here is the food. Parkland Food Bank is a lot of
canned food and not much perishable they give you meat and they give you milk once
a month.
Yeh.
But they give you very little veggies and not even like sometimes yogurt not even
persay you can count on yogurt where I had used the UofA Food Bank which is for
students and they give a lot more perishables. Like they give a lot more ah vegetables
and that kind of thing.
Yeh.
To the students right. I think the problem with the Parkland Food Bank is you get out
of eating ah Canada Food Guide diet, so you don’t starve but you don’t get. Now I
could have probably kept going back to FCSS in Spruce Grove and asked for Sobey’s
cards but um ‘cause they are the ones I got gas cards at Stony FCSS but not they didn’t
have Sobey’s cards.
Okay.
But I just said, look I had a bad experience there I think I’ll cut my losses.
At Spruce Grove?
Yeh and one time I did actually even phone back I thought well I should phone them
back and try to get help, I need help and they didn’t call me back and I thought it’s
okay I’m an okay person for needing help. The whatever reason they wouldn’t call me
back ‘cause I asked them to pull my file, I didn’t want you know anyone to know I had
had hep c. I didn’t want anyone reading that on the records I was angry at them. But I
think that at the Work Source, the guy I work with there the Employment Counsellor,
he knows I was on treatment for hep c.
Yeh.
He ah you know gives counsels me in not going to my employers and telling them my
health issues right away. Try to start working see how it goes, don’t expose things
right away right. So the biggest thing I think with you know I contacted hep c through
drug use.
Yeh.
But it was also 1988 or ’87 and now we’re into 2015 so it’s like not a thing I should be
punished for because of what happened to me and so the Parkland Food Bank. Like
you go through a yearly assessment and you have to produce your records.*12
4.2
Availability of resources
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
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F:
R:
So how are you guys paying for the place you’re in now?
Everything comes out of my AISH cheque like the rent.
Yeh.
Because it’s a one person direct.
So how much of your AISH cheque does that take up?
Ah one thousand it comes total with the parking ‘cause it’s ten dollars for parking.
Oh yeh.
The actual rent is ten twenty seven and ten dollars for parking so it’s ten thirty seven.
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Yeh.
And the mom reimburses me her like her share hey.
From Canada Pension or from.
Yeh.
Seniors benefits.
Canada, yeh.
That combination? So how much is your AISH cheque every month? If ten thirty
seven is coming out for rent?
Ah my AISH cheque is fifteen sixty seven because they take twenty one dollars off.
Yeh.
For recovery.
So do you feel, do you feel there’s enough left over after rent to meet the rest of your
basic needs or?
Yeh.
Yeh? You feel okay with that?
Yeh I’m okay with that.
Yeh. Enough for groceries I guess.
Yeh, well when we first moved into the apartment we went to the food bank.
Um hmm. Was that just until you were able to save up a little bit?
Yeh.
Okay yeh.
Yeh.*4
R:
Our AISH is yeh.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I’ll be glad when I’m off it, thank god.
F:
How does that work? Are you off it when you’re sixty five and?
R:
I’ll be, see my being.
F:
Switch to senior’s benefits or?
R:
Yeh I’ll be on CPP.
F:
Yes.
R:
And then you get your Alberta Pension too.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know and I applied last year, last July for it. ‘Cause you have to apply six
months ahead of time.
F:
Yes.
R:
That’s all been done.
R:
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F:
Okay, good. That’s good. So how will um do you know yet how much your dollar
amount will change? From AISH to seniors?
R:
I won’t know at this point at all.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause they haven’t sent me a letter stating what my, they’ve got sent me a letter they
got my application form and everything.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But they didn’t give me a specific amount.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I really don’t know, I can’t.
F:
So do those transfer over right as soon as your sixty-five, like this Saturday or?
R:
No.
F:
Okay.
R:
Being that my birthday is in the middle of the month.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And let’s see April will be coming up, they have to give you it’s a month after your
birthday you get your first cheque.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I won’t get my first cheque until the end of April.
F:
Okay.
R:
From CPP. My old age.
F:
Yeh. Okay.
R:
Is how that works.
F:
Interesting, I’m interested to know how much that dollar changes. Whether it goes up.
R:
I don’t I really don’t know. I can’t answer that question.
F:
Um hmm. I guess you’ll find out.
R:
Yeh I’m hoping to find out.
F:
Here’s hoping it’s for the better.
R:
I hope so too.
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F:
Wouldn’t that be nice.
R:
It definitely would.*4
R:
Well, well that’s true I mean when you can’t afford the place anymore, what, what are
you gonna do?
F:
Um hmm. So where have you gotten help for that is it mostly been through Spruce
Grove FCSS?
R:
Yeh
F:
And Alberta Works?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh? Okay.
R:
Yeh.*4
R:
This is where they have their support system as fragile as it is. They can probably for
quite a long period of time find many different couches to sleep on. ‘Cause they know
lots of people ‘cause they’re from here.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And they all know each other. All those kids know each other.
R:
And if any of the youth go.
R:
Amazes me.*1
R:
Some of the women that I know in circumstance like that are starting to talk about
retirement with another woman, with another woman right? Because.
R:
Setting up group homes, yeh sort of.
R:
Almost right?
R:
Like and you can see some of the apartments that they have built in the city they’ll
have like the main kitchen, living room, and then they’ve got two master bedrooms
with two it…it’s that’s what it’s set up for is for people who can’t afford to be by
themselves but still.
R:
Shared accommodation.
And the food bank I guess is always.
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R:
Shared accommodation.*1
F:
So when you find out that you have youth who are, who have no place to stay, who are
essentially homeless. What do you guys have to do? Do you have, is it Children’s
Services because their eighteen? What’s your protocol when you come across a youth
who doesn’t have a (inaud) who doesn’t have a place to live?
R:
I’m not sure if we’ve ever really come across someone who I would say doesn’t have a
place to live because generally most of the kids are staying somewhere. Um but we do
help kids connect with Alberta Works and getting set up and then it’s, it’s different on
the Band has a different avenue to access money. We do help kids do that. Ah not a
lot because that’s the kind of thing that the child has to d…disclose in order for you.
Like we would never make that assumption and.
F:
Right.
R:
And head down that road. We do lots of things, we feed kids, we always have toques
and gloves but it’s very informal we just have a bin of stuff. If you want stuff you just
take it.
For the food as well? Like dry goods or do you guys have a?
F:
R:
Um no food where we we’ll feed you there. Like we eat a lot at you know we feed
kids a lot at Outreach and what we do because there’s a stigma attached to stuff like
that we just feed everybody. Right? And we’ll just do it like today’s hot lunch today,
today’s soup day, today’s Thanksgiving Day. Right?
R:
Everyone.
R:
Everyone.
R:
So that you’re not pointing.
R:
Yeh we do, we do the same thing. Yeh it’s not that you can’t eat ‘cause you’ve got
food at home it’s we all eat together.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So it’s not a program per say? It’s something that you guys have sort of set up on?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Informally?*1
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R:
I think there’s a lot of um groups um or groups of people, I’m not sure how I don’t
know a lot about it but who have come together and see a need um we have people
who donate to Outreach. These aren’t people that we seek out. These are people that
say you know what we wanna help, what can we do? They give us money to run our
little bar-b-que at the end of the year um we’ve had people who donated money to
support a hot lunch program through us. Like volunteered generosity of people right?
Not necessarily government run but it’s certainly community.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Run.
R:
That is really positive.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And we’ve got groups like Neighbour Link and our FCSS program is well connected
to um Salvation Army so you know there are those little pockets of money and uh
Alberta Works there’s little pockets of money to try and help people stay in their
homes but um.
R:
I think in our community too um those groups that you just mentioned although we
don’t have a formal.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Process for handling and sharing we have a very strong informal network and we’re
able to do a lot with that.
R:
That’s probably the biggest strength, I don’t live here, I’ve never lived here but I’ve
worked here for a really long time. And what I would say is the biggest strength of of
this whole community is the people.* 1
R:
I think there’s a lot of community resources out there. And it’s just a matter of them
accessing them. But ah there are lots of resources in the community lots of really good
resources.
F:
So it’s just that awareness then you’re saying.
R:
There’s good ah interconnection between the resources too so like ah a lot of, like
other organizations will bring people to us when they need our help we send them to
other organizations like that and a lot of that kind of almost advocate your clients to
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different areas. So there’s a lot of connection there so once they do start to access the
services, the people in the community can usually get them to the right places.
R:
Well if their working together.
R:
If they’re, yeh.
R:
It makes a big difference like for example if their working with FCSS and us to
prevent that eviction, prevent that homelessness. I mean Salvation Army money can
be tossed in and then I know it’s there so it’s that collaboration that works. I mean at
the end of the day we go to work to not have people homeless. Especially if there’s
kids involved, right? So yeh I think that the agencies do work quite well together.
R:
Yeh, they do.
R:
A lot of resources and agencies*2
F:
Good. Do you see anything ah Quintin in Stony Plain or Spruce Grove that’s helping
people from your First Nation community, in particular or do you find that.
R:
Well we got.
F:
Most of your?
R:
We’ve got a few members that that stay in the old folks home here.
F:
Okay.
R:
Like my Auntie, she stays here. So it’s that’s a big plus for our family right ‘cause we
don’t have to worry about her at home not having the all the, all the stuff that she
needs to live.
F:
Sure.
R:
Yeh. So, yes it’s a big.
F:
Okay.
R:
Doing a good job.*2
R:
Do we have enough subsidized day care spots?
R:
Day care’s not an issue in this area.
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R:
Day care’s not an issue?
R:
Absolutely no issue in this area.
F:
Pricing or availability?
R:
Availability is awesome, you can get someone into day care tomorrow. Like that has
never been an issue out here.
R:
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I’ve had a little bit of issues with day care in terms of off hours day care.
Yeh.
R:
So like um if you want to work as like a server or something like that you gotta work
nights or.
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Days or.
R:
I’m finding child care for not work day.
R:
Yeh their not subsidized.
R:
It more difficult*2
R:
I really like the green book.
F:
Okay.
R:
That you guys have. Is that distributed to everybody or is that just in lo…certain
locations? Like if that got distributed like a phone book to everybody in, in the
Parkland County everybody would be aware of the resources out there. It’d be a huge
expense, but.
R:
I think we hand out five hundred of them a year. Like I go through boxes of them.
R:
I get nine boxes delivered.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And every single client I would rather just have them at this resource at the community
level ‘cause if it’s sent to me it’s like the one I get right now from Spruce Grove it gets
tossed. Not interested. But I highlight, I fold pages, I mean it is absolutely a wealth
of.
R:
That’s the greatest resource there is.
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R:
Yeh.
R:
I think is that book.
R:
It’s on line too.
R:
But not everyone has computer.*2
R:
So like the library, it was nice before because I could just kind of walk around to the
library.
F:
Absolutely, awesome they have a lot of resources there.
R:
They really do ah and yeh we would go all the time ah since living here it’s only been
once that I’ve managed to walk that far.
F:
Yeh, that’s a pretty good hike from here.
R:
Yeh I usually make it about half the time, we’ll make it to just under the railroad track
that little canal and I’m like I’m sorry bud we got to go home like I can’t I can’t go
any further, I’ll sit here you run on the grass while Auntie recoups. I’ll turn around
and go back.
F:
You hang out for a minute.
R:
So, so we’ll do that um just recently been able to get to Red Apple or like that little
mall. My sister’s like you go there all the time I’m like it’s the one place I can get to.
F:
It’s close.
R:
So yeh it’s ah when IGA was there it was nice because then I could pick up a couple
of groceries whereas now even just that further across the street is just a bit too far*5
F:
Okay so have you had to access any services um due to your housing issues? Like
Social Services, the food bank, FCSS?
R:
Ah.
F:
Anything you can think of.
R:
Ah yes um I’ve done the food bank. My church actually takes in donations and I, I
they’ve been amazing they’ve really been supportive.
F:
Awesome.
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R:
Even started asking specifically gluten free things because I’m celiac as well. And
I’m like that’s really sweet like oh my gosh.
F:
That’s really nice.
R:
Ah and yeh and sometimes when there was nothing they’d just call and like what do
you need and they’d like give me your shopping list and they would go and buy
groceries and bring them over.
F:
Wow.
R:
Wow that is just really amazing thank you. And Augie’s Café I haven’t used because
I can’t get there.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But I know in ah the Kinsmen Christmas hampers I’ve taken advantage a couple years
now.
F:
That’s great.
R:
It really is and one of them one of them inside is a little trinket and that’s really cool
that they do that.
R:
So um and actually through the Christmas helper or hamper I’ve been kind of aware
of a few more things which is really nice as well. *5
F:
That’s really good to know and I can give you um our Information and Referral
Specialist’s number.
R:
Oh thank you.
F:
If you wanted to save it or keep it. If you have something specific like a a particular
question or questions about, because we do the taxes too.
R:
Oh okay.
F:
Where we have a volunteer community tax program.
R:
That’s cool.
F:
Yeh if you need that done we’re doing that right now and those kind of things so if
you had anything in mind or any specific questions, yeh she’s great she’d be able to
really give you a hand so. Yeh I can leave you that number but it’s good to know that,
not good to know, but good to know that you’re having trouble um finding these things
‘cause that’s, that’s key. We want to make sure people are able to access FCSS and all
the other Social Services that are available.
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R:
Yeh.*5
F:
Um hmm, besides bread everything is.
R:
It it’s something that makes you feel like I can’t believe what the public and all the
stores have done.
F:
Overwhelming sometimes.
R:
Yeh it really was and it is the whole time, like it actually keeps me more cheerful just
knowing that I can go there and turn to that when I’m out. And the girls at work the
one of them wants to go there too.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
She didn’t know that she could go there [food bank]. I told you know if you’re not
making that much you probably qualify fine to go there and it helps. Even if it’s not
all you need, it helps.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I think it’s not supposed, I think a big eater would get through of it in half the
week but if you just eat normal you can stretch it out for the whole week. But there
was three weeks that I didn’t really have anything I wanted to cook for that week so,
but and there were things I tired that I wouldn’t have even thought to try in the grocery
store. At the food bank, like (inaud). I don’t know if you’ve ever tried a vegetable
ive’s burg but if you try it with lettuce, tomato and mayo and maybe an onion you’ll
just love it their just delicious. And it’s just a veggie and you feel lighter, I was trying
to eat less meat and there wasn’t that much meat so I was feeling lighter and ah ‘cause
I had a real weight problem in the last ah like over from my second child on.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’ve had a real weight problem almost the whole time, and he’s seventeen so.
F:
Yeh it’s so important to be able to get that produce and a lot of that’s donated from
local farmers that take it to the food bank.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And that’s such a, such a huge thing because if your only at a food bank that you get
bread and kraft dinner and some rice that’s it’s not ideal so I think yeh this food bank
is incredible.
R:
Well before I was going to the food bank I was just buying pitas and cheese and and
like four vegetable to put on the pita.
F:
Yeh.
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R:
Just to make pita pizzas and by, by last month I ended up collecting enough from the
food bank that I could, and pitas, that I could make exactly what I was wanting to
make just from all food bank stuff.
F:
Wow.
R:
That’s what I’ve still got in my fridge today. And I usually go on Wednesday morning
so I only have one day to go. And the same thing when I did cook something I didn’t
feel like eating all of it so then my roommate has free meals and sometimes his MS is
so bad he can’t even use his hands so he appreciates a the odd tv dinner even if it’s
isn’t perfect cooking, right? So you know what comes around, goes around. So. *6
F:
So are um are you able to manage your diagnoses as well? Like how, are you able to
afford your prescriptions?
R:
Yes and God ah income support helps me with all that, they cover everything and my
daughter because now she’s got asthma allergies like me she’s god I hate it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But if I didn’t have them it would I, I would not have a home I would not have
anything because our medications alone are about three thousand a month.
F:
Wow. So they, income support helps you out with covering the medications? The
three thousand dollars a month and then the sixteen eighty seven is for rent, groceries
that kind of thing?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Oh okay so the prescriptions are separate from?
R:
Yeh. Thank God.
F:
Yeh no kidding. That’s a, that’s probably a big relief to have that kind of thing
covered.
R:
Oh yeh.*7
F:
So do you are you accessing any other services?
R:
The food bank helps a lot.
F:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
I’m very grateful for that.
F:
That’s what everyone says, it’s a wow.
R:
Spruce Grove is amazing for the resources for their help everything. It’s a wonderful
community.
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F:
Good. So you’ve um obviously familiar with FCSS then and the food bank and
income support. You said you use um sometimes the thrift stores or the second hand
stores.
R:
Yeh. St. Andrews is a really good one, they opened a Goodwill here.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That has some really nice stuff.
F:
Yeh by the Mac’s right?
R:
Yeh. So it you know I take her for a treat and she’ll pick out a pretty dress or
something and she’s happy so I’m lucky.*7
F:
Yeh. With a daughter it, a four year old. No kidding. So do you find that it affects
um your ability to maintain your relationships or do you find that um you’re able to
manage that pretty well?
R:
Well I can’t go anywhere I can’t really do anything um I can afford one cab a month
so I’m I do my grocery shop on that one day and I try to get everything I need for the
whole month.
F:
Wow.
R:
And it’s very very hard, otherwise you have to walk everywhere and to walk to
WalMart it takes a half hour and with a four year old you can’t do it.
F:
Yeh no kidding that wouldn’t be an ideal situation. So sorry I’m just gonna go back
to I was just thinking here, when you so did you find that basement suite on KIJIJI or
something like that?
R:
Yes. *7
F:
Have you had to access any services because of these housing issues?
R:
Yes.
F:
Which ones?
R:
Income Support.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I went to Income Support a few times over the years.
F:
That’s in Spruce Grove, right?
R:
Yeh.
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F:
Alberta Works.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
What was your experience like? Trying to navigate the.
R:
Um there’s one really nice lady in there and I mean I can call her anytime and tell her
my situation. Like I had gotten sick here a while ago.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And that was a lot of the affordability too is you can’t get on EI or you can’t get on um
AISH quick enough right? Because my doctor has recommended me go on AISH lots
but you’re on that waiting list for a year so what do you do in the mean time when you
can’t afford to wait? Do you know what I mean?
F:
Yeh.
R:
And if it wasn’t for Income Support I, I would have been literally hooped, homeless.
Me and my child. So but there is a lady who works in that office that is, I’m sorry to
say very crotchety.
F:
Oh.
R:
And she, I, she very much so be…belittled me one time when I went in there to the
point where I was in tears. It’s like ‘kay I’m, I’m not here because I shouldn’t be here.
You know what I mean? It took a lot of my pride to go in there and then .
F:
Right, it’s not fun to go in and.
R:
Exactly it’s not something you wanna brag about, like oh I had to go to Welfare today.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know?
F:
I’m sorry to hear that, it’s.
R:
Yeh. Yeh.
F:
It’s not a good situation. Okay ah well I’m glad you had a good situation with one
person.
R:
Oh yes definitely.
F:
In Alberta Works, that.
R:
Yeh.
F:
That’s ah, that’s a positive I guess.
R:
Yeh.*8
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R:
Thank God for the food bank I have to say that.
F:
Yeh yeh that it’s funny everyone that has anything to do with it.
R:
You know I hate having to do it but I hate having to use it and I’ve had to use it in
Edmonton before.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And what a huge difference because Edmonton.
F:
Between here and?
R:
You can only go once a month.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I would have starved to death.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause like really I just ‘cause after our rent and you know and our power you know
and gas or whatever we don’t have much left for food so.
F:
And groceries are expensive.
R:
Very yeh so thank God for the food bank.
F:
No kidding.
R:
‘Cause here you get it you can get it once a week.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You get a full hamper once a month and then you get half a hamper once a week so
that has really helped.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I don’t always need it but sometimes right so.
F:
It’s there when you do need it.
R:
Exactly.*9
F:
Really. See all this is all fascinating we’re getting off topic I’ll leave it now but that
just that’s very interesting to me.
R:
Um hmm.
144
F:
So you said that you had you guys have used the food bank.
R:
Yes.
F:
What other services have you had to access?
R:
I accessed in the summer Social Services, they were gonna help me move out.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Get a damage deposit and that kind of thing. But other than that that’s pretty, oh
FCSS.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’ve had to come for diapers, they helped me with diapers ‘cause the food bank didn’t
have any so my son has a medical issue so he was born with lazy bowel so we work
with a, a um gastrologist, a Pediatric Gastrologist.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So he’s he’s had a lot of (inaud) impaction surgeries and stuff like that um and
hospitalization to get the tube down into his through his nose and through his tummy
to get the, it’s kinda like a peg light kind of deal but ah.
F:
Yeh. Poor little guy.
R:
Yeh so he has a lot of overflow so he’s constant like, kinda like diarrhea. So he needs
diapers.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And unfortunately so that’s a big cost right there.
F:
Yeh when you expect diapers for about two years or so to go past that yeh that’s
expensive.
R:
Like all my girls were yeh by the time they were two, three tops they were totally
potty trained.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And he’s not even, he can he pees in the potty but he’s not even close to being the
other potty trained because he can’t.*9
R:
To provide for that it’s just they can’t here they actually care so I find that. Even you
know even Alberta Works was really good when I did need them so whereas they
wouldn’t have been as nice in Edmonton so.
145
F:
I’m glad to hear that you have had good experiences with that out here that’s ah that’s
awesome to hear. There’s some advantages to a smaller city for sure.
R:
For sure I’ve noticed that. It’s really great.
F:
Yeh there might not ah.
R:
Even when I came in, I was embarrassed but I had no choice I needed diapers and and
they didn’t have it in ah the food bank and I didn’t know where else to go. And I
know when I first moved here actually they helped me here with getting furniture so.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause I had my furniture just fell apart I just had nothing really to left for furniture so
they actually got me two couches.
F:
Was that through Neighbour Link or was that through?
R:
Neighbour, I think it was Neighbour Link ‘cause somebody had donated it and they
actually brought it to me so that was really nice.
F:
Yeh.*9
R:
‘Cause I didn’t have a truck or anything so yeh so that was really nice so I
remembered that when I was here I know that they were the lady had told me they got
donations of diapers and all that kind of thing so I came in and they actually didn’t
have the diapers that I needed but they gave me a gift card for WalMart so.
F:
Good.
R:
I was able to get diapers so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
As embarrassing as it was I I was embarrassed at first but they don’t make you feel
embarrassed at all.
F:
Good. That’s awesome to hear.
R:
It’s really good. Yeh.
F:
Diapers are nonnegotiable so.
R:
Yeh exactly.
F:
They should be a luxury.
R:
Actually they, she was really good um ‘cause I came in for diapers but she’s like what
kind of things could you use because the food bank is great with food but they’re not
so great with like toilet papers and um you can’t even ask if they have it they just give
146
you whatever they give you. Which is fine you know like in Edmonton you could ask
for those things right.
F:
Okay.
R:
You could ask for school things like juice boxes and stuff like that you could ask for.
F:
Like lunch things.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You could ask for toilet paper, tooth paste or whatever you needed for that right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um you couldn’t do that here um so she actually gave me like toilet paper and all this
um tooth brushes and tooth paste and when I was here so that was great.
F:
And that was?
R:
She ah.
F:
FCSS?
R:
Yeh, yeh and I didn’t ask for it she just sort of went through a list of what kind of
things, how much of this do I have and that so she really helped me out there so that
was great.
F:
No kidding.
R:
‘Cause toilet papers expensive.
F:
Yeh it adds up.
R:
And sometimes it um the food bank I think it just depends on what they get in right.
But if they have it you’ll get a roll or two but even that’s not gonna last very long right
but so they gave me six rolls of toilet paper so that was really nice.
F:
Well good. I’m glad to hear that you felt that you were vey welcomed here so.
R:
It was really nice yeh.
F:
From the whole community that’s great.
R:
It is it’s really great like those things you just don’t get that sort of personal thing in
Edmonton at all so it was really nice.*9
F:
Good. Well did you have any more questions about the study or anything else to say
about the housing issues out here?
147
R:
Um I think that’s it like other than like I said the pet thing that really sucks. They do
have a a pet um they have a pet food bank here every Wednesday night so that has
really helped me too.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My cat thanks them I tell you.
F:
Yeh that’s across from the Parkland Food Bank right?
R:
Yeh so that’s really wonderful too. They don’t have that in Edmonton.
F:
Really.
R:
Yeh no I’ve never even heard of anything like that in Edmonton so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
The food bank you can ask for pet food though I think.
F:
If they have any?
R:
And if they have any they’ll give it to you but.
F:
Good.*9
F:
Okay, so have you had to access any services because of these housing issues? Any
you mentioned Alberta Works but how about FCSS or ah the food bank, thrift stores.
R:
We go to the thrift stores and to the food bank.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Every week to the food bank um I don’t know what FCSS offers for housing.
F:
Okay. Yeh as far as housing um FCSS isn’t necessarily the one to go to but for ah
programming, referrals, other supports, that’s sort of what FCSS looks to.
R:
Right.*10
R:
I’m not working, yeh it’s discouraging. Um right now I’m in a program at the church
that’s trying to help with my mental status and that’s going really well but that goes ‘til
November, so.
F:
Yeh.
148
R:
That’s about all I’m thinking about right now.
F:
Yeh, so you found a lot of support in your church?
R:
Through this program yeh.
F:
Great.
R:
Yeh.*10
F
And you’re on area you on EI or are you on.
R
No I’m just on my Child Tax Benefit.
F
Yeh.
R
Pretty much.*11
F
But you’re happy with the acreage. Have you had to access any services because of
your?
R
Yeh.
F
Housing issues?
R
Yeh um me and my fiancé had problems and I found out he was cheating on me with
somebody else and she was dying in the Stollery and he wanted to go out partying so I
was really upset and I called I didn’t want to be with him anymore. And I went to
Alberta Works and they were helping me pay my rent and stuff.
F
Okay. Yeh.
R
And then .
F
Okay, services so Alberta Works?
R
And then I was through APFA. And they would talk to me and just kind of counsel me
and stuff like that ‘cause like they knew how hard I was, like what I was going through
at the time right? And then FCSS and then they helped me talk to a counsellor.
F
Okay.
R
‘Cause I was low income enough that. And then now through the Stollery the Social
Worker that’s assigned to Alana.
F
Yeh.
R
In the Stollery? Applied for disability, child tax disability.
149
F
Yeh okay.
R
And then also applied to FSCD for her family support with children with disabilities.
F
Okay. Oh that’s you could be getting a little bit more monthly?
R
Yeh their they help you with parking and stuff like that. You pay out, pay it out and
they help with hiring a health care aide for Alana to come in and help me and
everything and it takes, you can get denied for it if there’s not enough there for them to
think the child’s disabled enough to get help.
F
Yeh.
R
But her worker that was assigned to her like the way, if I just wrote it on paper they
wouldn’t understand but when she came to my house and we talked one on one she then
she understood and I showed her everything and then she’s like, oh I understand.
F
Okay so have you used any other service like the food bank or?
R
Yeh.
F
Okay.
R
I’ve been to the food bank quite a bit but that was just that was just because by the time
you’re done paying everything you maybe have fifty bucks to your name.
F
Yeh.
R
And that goes to gas to go to the Stollery, Stollery parking or to take Chloe to and from
school if I’m not done.*11
R:
Not even three to make sure that the test worked you know that it worked for me and I
phoned yesterday so like the housing issues were worth it but what I guess I learned
like I so I did start not so much to access anything outside my father or my support
group but I went into FCSS ‘cause I went and I got some Sobey’s gift cards and then I
went back and tried to talk about my whole living arrangements and I had financed a
car for work.
Yeh.*12
F:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Oh good for you, very cool. So if you just got onto medical EI last week how are you
affording your groceries and your rent and everything before that since last?
Oh I was on regular EI.
Okay. So you’ve.
‘Cause I just.
You’ve been on EI any time you’re not working and.
Yeh* 12
150
F:
Oh okay, gotcha. So you mentioned you used the Tri Leisure Centre to clean up and
take a shower and exercise a little bit. Have you had to access you said Alberta Works
for a bit and FCSS? Have you had to access any other services in the area like the
food bank or?
R:
Yeh I’ve used the food bank.
F:
The Brayden Institute?
R:
Yeh I’ve used Brayden like right now like I have, like I’m kinda lucky I don’t know if
it’s lucky or not lucky but I’m a client at the Weight Wise Clinic which is now called
the Edmonton Bariatric Clinic. It takes a year to get on their list, so I was on their list
when I was at Native Counselling. They released me as a client because I had hepatitis
C that was not treated, so I treated my hepatitis C and now I’m back there so.
F:
Okay.
R:
After another six months I can be on put on a list for surgery if that’s what I think need
to reduce my weight right? So I’m there I have a physician that’s no, like I use the
Parkland Medical but she’s an eating disorder specialist but she’s been my doctor since
1996.
F:
Okay.
R:
And then I have a liver specialist so the thing about ah I guess accessing services is
mostly the services I access are in terms of you know where am I gonna, am I gonna
keep, where I sit as a person, am I gonna keep working? You know will I be able to
become employable enough to work twelve months of the year and the other, other
part of it is if that doesn’t happen then I will apply for AISH. Like my doctor has
already said her and I together will fill out an application for AISH. We will know
come October if I’m going the AISH route or not.
F:
And you would go on AISH because of your liver or?*12
R:
Like I think mostly I’ve always if I’ve ever went to food bank I went once a month.
I’m gonna go tomorrow because it’s like before I get my medical EI in I think it’s
better to go than to like wait on it like not go kinda thing. Like I have payments to
make I have to you know I paid for some training last week that my Group Home job
let me go ‘cause I took the Canada Post job so they don’t want me back working for
them part time. And I had to you know pay for some self harm courses hoping that I
would get a job but their failing to return my calls and told me they don’t think they
can employ me anymore it’s been.
F:
The Group Home?
151
R:
The Group Home, it’s been too long and they don’t think that I put them as a priority.
They can’t see that maybe working for Canada Post is what I needed to do. So I kinda
lost that job on my medical journey and the other thing is I have to pay for a Criminal
Record check um I don’t think they reimburse us for it I’m not quite sure, yeh I think
they do. The city will reimburse us but we put it in like we put in the claim when we
start the receipt and it takes month or a month and a half to get the cheque. So you
have to pay for it so there is my driver’s licence up for renewal so I’m gonna go to the
food bank just for that reason right now.*12
R:
So I still believe I’m homeless even though I moved up to having a bath tub and a
place to wash my dishes but the homelessness of it didn’t make my life any more
quality like I still what can I say I did last year, oh I went on a campout to Evansburg
for NA, Narcotics Anonymous group. And on the Saturday night they asked me to be
the speaker for it.
F:
Hey cool.
R:
And I got to talk to I don’t know all the other campers that were there it was about
forty people, fifty people and not that all forty, fifty came there was about thirty maybe
that listened to me.
F:
Right.
R:
And um I dumped my dogs ashes that I had a urn for my old I’ve talked about in the
river there and I was very much happy about my experience. I stayed in a tent you
know like ah there was I can’t remember I think it was thirty dollars for the whole
weekend.
F:
Okay.
R:
And then you were supposed to pay five bucks extra for breakfast but they had chili
burgers and someone had burnt the chili so that wasn’t so good but they had like
scrambled egg and sausage breakfast with toast and coffee like for a breakfast and then
you brought a bit of your own food. But I shared a camping spot, like a camping table
with two guys that were living in the Our House Treatment Centre.
F:
What’s the Our House?
R:
It’s on by Winterburn it’s for men that are having substance abuse problems. They can
live there for a year.
F:
Is it right along 16A?
R:
Yeh.
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F:
Okay yes I’ve passed that. I’ve wondered about that I think it says sober living or
rehab or something.
R:
Yeh, so these guys had actually gotten dropped off they were still in the facility and I
knew a number of people there and kinda went to different camp sites and had a coffee
or talked but like I kind of made two friends that I’ll always know them a little bit
better from camping there. And like just going out to Evansburg it was really nice area
like the.
F:
It sounds like you had a really nice weekend.
R:
Yeh.
F:
I’m glad that you were able to do stuff like that. That sounds like it was really nice.
R:
Well I had to take the time off and then on because I was the speaker Saturday night
here I thought I could go to work on Sunday and I’d be there right away right? So I
was a little bit late for work and I do have to watch that this year at my job. But you
know like I was able to go to work and I have young supervisors at Fort Edmonton
park and I told them about my camping trip and how I got to be the speaker and stuff
and it’s like those kinds of things like people, I really felt valued as a person and I
though holy cow I’m giving back to the community like maybe I took some gas
coupons from FCSS or food bank food but here I’m the one being asked to talk about
how my life has impacted others and how I’ve helped people in their struggle with
drugs and alcohol. ‘Cause I stayed off of them for twenty five years so you know I
gave back my own way ‘cause I didn’t have to be a speaker I could have said no right,
you know what I mean? *12
Homelessness affects everybody and I think that people have been good for me like one
thing I’ll say before I leave about Kye is she knows how I feel about FCSS Spruce
Grove.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And like one thing she said to me one day ‘cause I’d come in and she seen me on
treatment. So she seen me skinnier with no hair and all that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like one day she just said to me, well she always looks as if someone in her family
was going through something, she would want to know that they got services in a
respectful way. And that they were treated good right and like that really helped me a
lot ‘cause it was like you know instead of like the gerbles in mind going over well why
did this happen in Spruce Grove right. I just go well I can call Kye up right you know
what I mean I didn’t have to worry about anything else. Like I didn’t have to you
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know worry about should I go there and persist to see someone at Spruce Grove. I’m
rural so I’m kinda outside I’m down Golden Spike Road so I gotta an RR address.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I don’t think it was wrong to access Stony Plain ‘cause I’m still in Parkland County
right. And so those kinds of things like what I learned from that is not to stop.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like at that one bad experience ‘cause I found a worker who you know like you even
saying she knows my name and.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like she had some neighbours who worked for Canada Post even though that they
retired there and she says that their not happy with how Canada Post has turned out
because it’s like a big mess internally there.
F:
Yeh. Well I’m really glad it’s you’ve been able to find someone at Stony Plain FCSS
that works for you even if it maybe didn’t work out with you in Spruce Grove so I’m
glad to hear that.*12
4.3 Resilience of the people/community involvement
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
Here.
Well I’ll get you to, do you have a card?
You know I think I might in my laptop bag but let me grab that for you we’re, we’re
close to finishing up here anyways.
Okay.
So we’ll just through this and then we can um figure that out.
‘Cause if you’re, If you’re interested I’ll gladly you’re more than welcome to come.
Yeh and no we’ll have to definitely look at when the when that would be happening,
it’s.
You probably first time.
Pretty busy with this study that’s for sure but.
Oh yeh it all depends with what time you have too.
Um hmm.
But I can let you know and you know.
Yeh.
‘Cause I would like to become a consultant once I’ve hit over sixty five. They can’t
stop me then.
Yeh that’s ah that’s something that would be nice for a little bit of extra cash or a little
bit of a hobby something for to keep you busy.
Yeh.
Yeh. Good for you, yey.
154
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
And you’re helping other people. You know I mean they do have skin conditions so I
can show you myself. Hand cream, they only give me a little dab and put it on my
palm here. I took that and put it there and it hasn’t itched since.
Oh that’s really good. I hope that works out for you, I’m.
Yeh.
That would be something I think that would be really good for you.
It’s fantastic ‘cause it’s from the dead sea.*4
F:
R:
F:
So do you see, we can make this our last question here I think we’ve just about
covered everything. Um do you see where you’re staying right now as long term? Is it
pretty stable? Do you need any or there any other supports that would help you stay
where you are at now if you and mom are in a comfortable spot? Is it ah pretty well
set up for you now or is there anything else that you would need?
I can’t see where we personally need anything else.
Yeh.
You know well it is a two bedroom, the one is a smaller one well we got so much stuff
so the one is used for storage and like the master bedroom we both got queen size
beds.
Yeh.
So we’re both in the bigger one. She’s got her bed, I’ve got my bed and the other one
we use for storage.
Okay. But it’s a two bedroom you guys are.
Yeh.
You have a nice spot. And you think you’re gonna be able to maintain that one?
Oh I’m sure we will. We’re happy.
Good.
We’re happy with it. It’s bright, it’s happy.
Yeh. Oh I’m glad to hear that. It’s like a little happy ending after the stretches that
you’ve had so.
Yes.
Good.
And we’re ever so thankful of it too and nice people let me tell ya. The next door
neighbour to us she give us a gift certificate each of twenty five dollars as Christmas
gift.
Ah no way.
And another neighbour on the other side and around this way but when we we’re
moving in brought us stew.
You don’t hear of those kind of things happening so much, anymore.
Oh very nice people you know.
Great. *4
R:
And doing it.
F:
Letting us know and letting us know what your experiences out here were. It’s a.
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
155
R:
It’s a good days.
F:
It can’t have been easy and I really appreciate it.
R:
It’s been good days, sad days, and happy days.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know. And I used to work in a restaurant too I’ve worked double shift and even
a matter of fact. That was in ’86 when I first come here.
F:
That’s hard work, that’s tiring.
R:
Open the restaurant up in the morning and close one at night.
F:
Oh boy.
R:
And an hour break in between.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Well my daughter was fifteen at that time and I got her in, in doing dishwashing for a
little extra cash too. Kept her off the street.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know.
F:
It’s never bad to keep them busy.
R:
That’s right.
F:
It’s never bad.*4
R:
And that’s a whole study in resilience. Because sometimes do incredibly well despite
where they’ve come from and so why some kids can turn out just fine and maybe stay
at main campus and, do you know what I mean?
R:
Um hmm.
R:
To all appearances. Or you know handling all the pressures of life despite of having
no support from home. And other students maybe do have a supportive home.
R:
But still.
R:
Made some poor choices. Have no resilience whatsoever.
156
R:
And we do get those too.
R:
And end up in trouble.
R:
Far and few between but we do get those too. Yeh.
F:
A little perspective (inaud) it’s ah it’s surprise how many kids turn out okay as they.
R:
Given what they came from.
F:
Then but then the opposite, it’s a surprise that more kids aren’t struggling.
R:
They didn’t come with manuals.
R:
Just a quick.
R:
Never have.*1
R:
A lot of friends’ families step up too so that people aren’t on the streets.
R:
Yeh.*2
F:
Um okay so what have you already done to improve your housing situation um so far?
R:
I’m not fully clear on what you might mean.
F:
Okay.
R:
But.
F:
Have you been able to, let me see if I can rephrase it someway. Have you been able to
take any steps that put you closer to a goal. Like for example you said you were out
looking for spaces that you could afford.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Is there anything else you can think of that you have been able to do on your own?
R:
Well ah for a few years now I try and put, it seems small, it’s added up and when
there’s more I do and I put about twenty dollars away a month um in the hopes of
eventually maybe earning a down payment just this little spot that maybe I can buy and
it’s not super expensive because for the most part until the prices started to sky rocket
on houses too.
F:
Yeh.
157
R:
It was cheaper to buy your own home and pay your rent or your mortgage payments
were cheaper than a rent payment.
F:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
And so and rent.
F:
I mean ideally that’s a great yeh.
R:
So because I don’t really other than, other than finding my own place or having more
income I don’t know what else to do to be able to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
To find on my, live on my own I mean I keep looking.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Seeing that maybe today that sort of thing but realistically I just other than owning my
own place or yeh or finding that magic little spot I, I don’t know what else to do to be
able to find that place and live on my own.*5
R:
‘Cause I didn’t have a truck or anything so yeh so that was really nice so I
remembered that when I was here I know that they were the lady had told me they got
donations of diapers and all that kind of thing so I came in and they actually didn’t
have the diapers that I needed but they gave me a gift card for WalMart so.
F:
Good.
R:
I was able to get diapers so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
As embarrassing as it was I I was embarrassed at first but they don’t make you feel
embarrassed at all.
F:
Good. That’s awesome to hear.
R:
It’s really good. Yeh.
F:
Diapers are nonnegotiable so.
R:
Yeh exactly.
F:
They should be a luxury.
R:
Actually they, she was really good um ‘cause I came in for diapers but she’s like what
kind of things could you use because the food bank is great with food but they’re not
so great with like toilet papers and um you can’t even ask if they have it they just give
158
you whatever they give you. Which is fine you know like in Edmonton you could ask
for those things right.
F:
Okay.
R:
You could ask for school things like juice boxes and stuff like that you could ask for.
F:
Like lunch things.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You could ask for toilet paper, tooth paste or whatever you needed for that right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um you couldn’t do that here um so she actually gave me like toilet paper and all this
um tooth brushes and tooth paste and when I was here so that was great.
F:
And that was?
R:
She ah.
F:
FCSS?
R:
Yeh, yeh and I didn’t ask for it she just sort of went through a list of what kind of
things, how much of this do I have and that so she really helped me out there so that
was great.
F:
No kidding.
R:
‘Cause toilet papers expensive.
F:
Yeh it adds up.
R:
And sometimes it um the food bank I think it just depends on what they get in right.
But if they have it you’ll get a roll or two but even that’s not gonna last very long right
but so they gave me six rolls of toilet paper so that was really nice.
F:
Well good. I’m glad to hear that you felt that you were vey welcomed here so.
R:
It was really nice yeh.
F:
From the whole community that’s great.
R:
It is it’s really great like those things you just don’t get that sort of personal thing in
Edmonton at all so it was really nice.*9
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R:
I’m not working, yeh it’s discouraging. Um right now I’m in a program at the church
that’s trying to help with my mental status and that’s going really well but that goes ‘til
November, so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That’s about all I’m thinking about right now.
F:
Yeh, so you found a lot of support in your church?
R:
Through this program yeh.
F:
Great.
R:
Yeh.*10
R:
Yeh, and I’m trying not like I do know like when I at Fort Edmonton one of the things
kinda that my experience of how I’ve been living helped me with too is I was in Native
Studies from 19 no 2000 to 2002 but I had flunked the English I finally passed the
English in 2007 the English 101. I don’t know if I would finish my degree but out of
two years in UofA I got one year of credits but I went to school and ah in a Bachelor of
Arts degree at the UofA I was a student there full time for two years. And I worked at
Lister Hall in as a housekeeping and for population research lab there so I more or less
lived on campus moved to the campus later, not the full time studies I lived in
Clareview and took the train. But I did have an experience like living where I worked,
walking to work living in a pet free building like kind of getting all your needs met at
the UofA there.
Yeh.
Area and ah I liked that it was a less stressful time in my life and it always seems that
moving me back or myself am moving back to the city would solve a lot of my
answers. But the problem kind of being though is that maybe there’s some way being
around like rurally that I could work something out here, you know what I mean like
even like what I was saying about my Fort Edmonton job is I got, I’m an Aboriginal
Interpreter there.*12
F:
R:
R:
But I also was in Native studies student for Bachelor of Arts my major was Native
studies so I understood the Native study part of the Fort. So work in the Cree camp
and I work in the trade store there. Right?
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I talk to people the tourists and stuff and and bead, I learned to bead there. I knew
a little bit but I know how to bead now like medallions and ah so I got that job and it
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was a re-hire situation so that’s why I’m going back to it but I can use the Henday
from here to go there so I use 16A and then do the Henday right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I can get to work in half an hour so I haven’t found you know that to be a problem
it’s just I need to get work to look at housing.*12
R:
There’s a certain amount of you know it happens to people and so where I’m more
peaceful with it now is this is what happened to me and I’ve learned some things from
it. I’ve found who my friends were and who they weren’t and the other part with
family is like I can express today that you know like um it’s okay you know like I
think I’m okay with ah having a lower budget and somehow it all kind of works itself
out. Like you notice other people more in your similar situation and you can have
empathy for them. So like you you don’t have to look at it as a negative all the time.
And like even coming here to talk to you today it’s like, I go okay well you know I’m
sure there are some things I could have done better like not give up on the housing
pursuit kind of thing. I might be in a different situation today but it was, it is what it is.
And so even knowing they have these things where they ask people like today I go, I
think that’s excellent. Like you even saying that other people want to keep their pets
right.*12
R:
So I still believe I’m homeless even though I moved up to having a bath tub and a
place to wash my dishes but the homelessness of it didn’t make my life any more
quality like I still what can I say I did last year, oh I went on a campout to Evansburg
for NA, Narcotics Anonymous group. And on the Saturday night they asked me to be
the speaker for it.
F:
Hey cool.
R:
And I got to talk to I don’t know all the other campers that were there it was about
forty people, fifty people and not that all forty, fifty came there was about thirty maybe
that listened to me.
F:
Right.
R:
And um I dumped my dogs ashes that I had a urn for my old I’ve talked about in the
river there and I was very much happy about my experience. I stayed in a tent you
know like ah there was I can’t remember I think it was thirty dollars for the whole
weekend.
F:
Okay.
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R:
And then you were supposed to pay five bucks extra for breakfast but they had chili
burgers and someone had burnt the chili so that wasn’t so good but they had like
scrambled egg and sausage breakfast with toast and coffee like for a breakfast and then
you brought a bit of your own food. But I shared a camping spot, like a camping table
with two guys that were living in the Our House Treatment Centre.
F:
What’s the Our House?
R:
It’s on by Winterburn it’s for men that are having substance abuse problems. They can
live there for a year.
F:
Is it right along 16A?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay yes I’ve passed that. I’ve wondered about that I think it says sober living or
rehab or something.
R:
Yeh, so these guys had actually gotten dropped off they were still in the facility and I
knew a number of people there and kinda went to different camp sites and had a coffee
or talked but like I kind of made two friends that I’ll always know them a little bit
better from camping there. And like just going out to Evansburg it was really nice area
like the.
F:
It sounds like you had a really nice weekend.
R:
Yeh.
F:
I’m glad that you were able to do stuff like that. That sounds like it was really nice.
R:
Well I had to take the time off and then on because I was the speaker Saturday night
here I thought I could go to work on Sunday and I’d be there right away right? So I
was a little bit late for work and I do have to watch that this year at my job. But you
know like I was able to go to work and I have young supervisors at Fort Edmonton
park and I told them about my camping trip and how I got to be the speaker and stuff
and it’s like those kinds of things like people, I really felt valued as a person and I
though holy cow I’m giving back to the community like maybe I took some gas
coupons from FCSS or food bank food but here I’m the one being asked to talk about
how my life has impacted others and how I’ve helped people in their struggle with
drugs and alcohol. ‘Cause I stayed off of them for twenty five years so you know I
gave back my own way ‘cause I didn’t have to be a speaker I could have said no right,
you know what I mean? *12
4.4 Accommodating Landlords
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R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
This lady here, Sonia, we just found out yesterday ‘cause I won’t I would like to have
a party. See my mom has roshia, which is a.
The skin?
A skin, skin condition. And we come across this ah ah.
Minerals from the dead sea.
Yeh. And they.
So is it skin, skin care products?
Yes it is skin care product.
Okay.
And ah you have to have your own party like individual party hey.
Like Tupperware parties, that kind of thing?
Kind of.
Yeh.
Sort of but I mean you can like a VIP you’re at the top level you can order at any time
at a much less. You don’t pay market price.
Okay so more like a consultant for them.
Yes.
Okay.
And I thought well that would give me something to do. Would you be interested in
coming? I haven’t booked it yet but I you know. *4
R:
Oh yes, yes. Landlord’s really good. She’s really nice you know. If I do happen to
end up being short on my rent she’s pretty good about that you know she’ll let me carry
it over, whatnot.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Most of the times I try to pay my rent in advance like you know off each payment, or
each pay cheque I’ll give her enough to carry over some of it for the next month you
know what I mean?
F:
Well that’s good, yeh.
R:
I try to do that anyway, the best I can.
F:
It must help you for the times when you’re a little bit short on like you were saying?
R:
Yeh.
F:
To have that extra buffer between.*8
F
Makes sense. Um so how is the house as far as we’ve kind of addressed the room but
repairs, or safety standards?
163
R
For Alana we had to put a lot of stuff up like for like having her gravity feed bags and
stuff like that and all of her medical supplies we had to put like hooks up and stuff to
hang them up. And the landlord’s pretty good about fixing stuff so if I ever need it
fixed he will come in and fix it. *11
5. Gaps in services
5.1 Shortage of services
F:
And so you would say it’s just the nature of their, their addictions or their mental
health? That specifically put that at risk? Ah do you think that there’s any way that
we can reach them better or why are we, why are we not reaching them?
R:
Think that.
F:
What’s not working?
R:
The isolation um and I mean I know we’re so close to Edmonton but we’re really not.
Like I’m close to Edmonton ‘cause I can get in my car and drive there. But my
clientele is not close to Edmonton and they cannot access services, they they can’t
access addiction um counselling that they need. They can’t get to it. You can set up as
many appointments as you want with them in Edmonton they, they can’t get there.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And we have it within our community but there’s a waiting list.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So is that why, do you that they would need to go to Edmonton? Is the waiting list?
R:
It’s easier.
F:
For mental health and addictions here?
R:
Well.
R:
We just need more out here.
R:
We do and there is one, ‘cause we only get youth for a maximum of three months on
the Youth Justice Committee and sometimes if you refer them out here it takes more
164
than three months to get them even just for that initial appointment. Where there is an
addictions in Edmonton that can book them in within a week. Because they have
larger client, like larger.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Employees, that kind of thing and it’s a program that it’s like quicker revolving door
whereas out here the door is very slow.
R:
Well and, and having that accessibility at the time when it’s needed.
R:
When it’s needed.
R:
When it’s really critical because you can have someone um connected with all the
services and then you know by the time they get in there in three months later, you
know the crisis is over. They’re doing other things um.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh I never realized that (inaud).*1
R:
I think that it’s unfortunate that we don’t have an emergency youth shelter anymore or
any emergency shelter but you know I don’t know.
R:
And wait times to get into addiction counselling is a gap.
R:
It’s a high gap.
R:
Right.
F:
Yeh that one seems to be re-surfacing in a lot of different areas here.*1
R:
Well what what back home there’s not enough motivation at all. You know in the
morning you got grade twelve students that just came out of grade twelve and still at
home I mean there’s no motivation to carry on their education. So I, I think I
personally think that you need to have more workshops, and keep them going and keep
them at that level where you know there’s something out there you know. You’re on
the nest, you hit a branch, you know you’re looking out, you want to leave after that
you know. You don’t want them sitting there hovering at the edge.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Wondering if it’s safe for me to go or not, you know. That’s the way I see it.
165
R:
And I know.
F:
Good.
R:
FCSS or I’m not sure if there’s quite a few work shops that do take place here but I
don’t know how much, how they are attended at all is?
R:
Yeh.
R:
I don’t know even if there’s a cost to it I guess I’ve never had to access them myself
so um.
R:
It’s just getting them out there.
R:
But then people too have to want they have to want to.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Improve their lives or want they have to want to succeed and it comes from within and
sometimes they are faced with, in a depression or um just in a rut and can’t see
themselves out of it.
F:
And I suppose you become aware of these workshops if you’re already connected with
FCSS.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Or with whichever service providers so I guess if you’re not already connected.
R:
Transportation is a huge issue.*2
R:
Homeless individuals and family members of homeless individuals. My brother, my
sister, so and so lives in a Stony Plain area. There’s no services there for the homeless.
I wish we had services *3
R:
I think some of, I could be wrong but I think Edmonton has more basic services for the
homeless such as or ah people living in poverty. Such as you’ll have places where
they can go wash their clothes. You know they have places where they can go have a
shower. And if they have a job you know they have a place where they can go get
appropriate work clothes. I’m not sure there’s any service like that in this area. Where
they can go shower in the morning.
R:
Not for the showers no.
166
R:
But we can help them get clothing and work clothes and things like that so yeh. *3
R:
I would agree like anybody living in, in poverty we have no, we have no subsidized
housing. We have no low income housing. We are our affordable housing isn’t
affordable for anybody that ah is living in, is living in poverty you know. I think, I
think on that you know um I agree with Ky what Ky was saying too is that you know
both of you, that their more (inaud) to being homeless but they’re the ones that we can
actually get ah services for pretty quick, right. So compared to compared to others. So
I would also say the other population would be ah anybody with a disability. Um and
um and mental health. People with mental health ah um issues.
R:
Yeh I was going to say mental health and additions. People with those issues are kind
of struggle quite a bit. Um I know in ah in the community we have ah well that I know
of we’ve got three or four you know the actual homeless, live in the tent in in the
woods and addictions and mental health are the reasons why they’re there.
R:
Right. And that’s such a good example ‘cause then they walk into our offices and they
say I’m ready to go to detox right now. So you get on the phone, there’s no beds right,
so ‘gee do you think do you think you can handle one more night, ‘cause maybe
there’s an opening tomorrow’. Right? You know so and that and that happens um a
lot with people just walking in and saying or they come in for some other thing and
you talk to them for five minutes and say ‘would you like to go to detox’ you know
and their like ‘yes, how do I get there’. Right, so we bus people to Gr…we’ve bussed
people to Grande Prairie wherever that is, I think it’s Grande Prairie.
R:
Near Grande Prairie.
R:
Yeh right I think we’ve bussed at least four if not five people from our community to
Grande Prairie ‘cause we’ve called and they’ve said put them on the bus at midnight
and we’ll pick them up at five o’clock in the morning right? So, yeh. *3
Well and that’s hard because my initial response is I don’t want to reach anybody else
right now. Because.
R:
R:
Do you have the capacity?
R:
You know so right now we have um GMI is full and um we have a single male. He
can’t go to a shelter because of his medical condition right, so we’ve been trying to
find him other placement. Found him, finally found him a place in a hotel in Leduc
that that he can afford temporarily until maybe a bed at the ‘Y’ their gonna you know
flag a bed for him because of medical because of medical reasons. Right? So um I
hear what you’re saying. I don’t know how people in those situations are aware of our
services because they seem to come in droves. And then there’s maybe a day or two
where there’s not. And I think maybe it’s just, it’s like an education thing kinda like
what Ruth was saying you know I don’t think there are any services for people to have
a shower in the morning or wash their clothes or this and that. So if we had some of
167
those type of basic services that people can access then we would be able uh be a little
bit more pro-active in having a conversation with them. If we had some type of
transitional housing with the diverse population, we would be able to do some
programming and and support whatever have a staff in there and have service
providers come in and provide, provide that. But we don’t have anything you know
like that. Um you know something like the the how the YMCA is so, is so helpful
because the we’ve called so often that they put us on hold and go see if they can do
anything about a bed for a single man. Right, so I’m not sure, you know I’m not sure
how to answer that question on how we can access them. I think we can access them
more by providing services that they need such as what Ruth had talked about because
they will use those. They will use those services right so um I mean Augies is a great,
is a great it has lunch once a week right. But maybe if our community is able to
provide something more than once once a week right or a supper or a breakfast or I
don’t I don’t know what right but where there is a, there is something that they would
be attracted to. But then how can we serve them ‘cause they’re you know so.*3
F:
Do you see significant gaps in services?
R:
After hours, after our business hours we’re shut down you know you worry about
what’s gonna happen to that individual that came to you. You don’t know what’s
gonna happen when they call the 24 hour emergency line downtown. You don’t know
that their gonna get helped right? And sometimes they don’t get helped. So yeh we
don’t have anything after on weekends and outside regular business hours. I see that
as a gap.
R:
No direct community funding for rent subsidy. Wo we’re underneath Capital Regional
Housing so our residents have to compete with the residents of Edmonton which is a
huge base, a huge waiting list, right. Um whereas for example the County of Leduc
with Leduc Foundation, facilitates um the rent subsidy program themselves for their
community members, right. They don’t have to compete with residents of Edmonton.
*3
R:
We’re also missing crisis counselling. ‘Cause any time you refer someone to
counselling it’s a long wait, like the quickest someone can get counselling is Turning
Points. But certainly through mental health, children’s mental health, adult mental
health, like it’s even like weeks ‘til you can even get like an intake for children with
mental health it was like I think almost like six weeks ‘til one of the people could you
know and this girls cutting. That’s an emergency to me right and we definitely don’t
have that, which is another service that could be provided through like shelters right if
it’s twenty four seven.
F:
That’s a good point.
168
R:
It’s pretty tough to think about searching for an apartment when you’re in a state of
crisis. It’s it’s impossible.
R:
(inaud) of needs.
R:
That’s right. Exactly.*3
F:
So you guys feel there’s any other significant gaps in services that you or your clients
are struggling with?
R:
Well I think the mental health services are are just huge that I know somebody already
mentioned it but yeh, that is a big gap.
R:
It’s expanded.
R:
Big one.
R:
R:
And addictions treatment too.
Yeh that’s pretty hard to access it’s two weeks before you even get to talk to somebody
about it and then the will is gone.
R:
Will is gone, yeh.
R:
So yeh.
F:
And when you mentioned you have to send someone five hours away on a bus at
midnight to get those services. Okay, good well we’re on to our last question here.
And it’s similar to this one. But what we want to look at here more is the barriers to
service. So what stops someone from accessing services that are available to them?
R:
In the service that our um Turning Points provides is the abusive partner barriers in
well they come in different forms, they can’t let them know where they’re going.
Transportation again you know we can’t they don’t have a vehicle to get here. And
transportation in the sense that some people more of the women can’t drive at night for
one reason or another, poor eye sight, they can’t drive after dark. So transportation.
R:
Um the doors been closed once already to them. So why knock on the door, why
knock on the door again? Um I would also I would say racism because I haven’t
personally seen it myself but I hear a lot of First Nations people coming in to my office
and and saying well I’m the assumption I guess maybe too that there’s racism, I’m not
gonna go knock on that door because I’m just another Indian coming, this is what
they’re saying to me right? So their understanding of, of that or they’ve heard that too
so.
169
R:
I’ve noticed that in terms of rental because I’ll phone and I’ll ask about a place and oh
yeh sure, sure and then by the time they get there and they see the person then all of a
sudden it’s not available.*3
F:
So do you think there’s anything especially coming from Edmonton you might have a
good idea about this. Is there anything that would be helpful to people in your
situation that’s not available in Stony Plain?
R:
Um actually.
F:
Or even in Spruce but.
R:
Yeh I know they do it in Edmonton and I’ve heard talk about it but from talking to
people like grocery stores one of the things they do is you can call in your groceries
and they will pick it out and bring them to you which I thought was very cool and very
handy because I’m so, because I rely on so many people for so many other things like
getting to doctor’s appointments and such like that. That I hate asking people to do
anything. Um and so I was like how convenient would that be to be able to just call,
order it, pay, get what I need and it’s it’s kind of a service already there. It’s not I’m
not relying or bothering anybody.
F:
Yeh.
R:
To do something else.
F:
Which is what their supposed to do.
R:
So I thought that was really neat.
F:
That is neat.
R:
One of the others is um and I know they do, it’s kinda like a seniors bus around town.
And I have called and their like, well because you’re not a senior it would depend on
the day and we may or may not have room for you and it would depend on where
you’re going. So there’s a lot of, a lot of if’s and but’s.
F:
You can’t count on it to get you somewhere.
R:
Yeh so um having a service, a transportation service like that, that would for people
with minimum ability or not able to get around. Kind of like a bus system but not. I
mean the bus system is good and um but I mean we don’t even really have that in
Spruce or Stony. *5
F:
Yeh.
R:
But, as far as housing goes that that’s my major comment like Spruce Grove is a big
enough little city and the area with Parkland that they could have had their own
170
housing years ago. And they obviously, no Mayor obviously cares, cared about any
poor people in town to take the bull by the horn and make housing for their own locals.
Both Stony Plain and Spruce Grove? Like how can I not say that when I come here
and there’s nothing.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
I wasn’t expecting I would be in need.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But I could have been on, on if there was something here me and my, me and my, I
could have had my kids and me together and maybe the Government could have
helped me making sure I had the child support for each kids and then I wouldn’t need
it for any length of time.
F:
Yeh. Yeh that ah.
R:
There honestly was no help for me.
F:
That child support would have been a huge, huge advantage it sounds like. So how did
you find the place that you’re living in now?
R:
I just looked on KIJIJI.
F:
Just KIJIJI. You said you’ve moved seven times in the last year? Wow. Just in and
out of private, like renting a room?
R:
No I was in and out of the hospital, I was at my sisters, I was at another place here
renting in town.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I was at ah another place before that renting in town and then I had come from my
parents place too. Like they, she didn’t realize how hard it is to find any housing and
she doesn’t realize how hard it is to find work and, and to have honest ah honest wages
to make sure you can qualify for your housing, right? So.*6
F:
Yeh, you kind of covered my next question. I was gonna ask you if you feel if there’s
any services that aren’t available in Stony Plain or Spruce Grove area that you feel
would help people in your housing situation.
R:
Definitely Capital Region should come out here, the wait list to get subsidy is insane.
To get the paperwork you have to it’s hard ‘cause you they you can’t make it to the
library it’s like an hour walk.
F:
Yeh.
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R:
And Braden you can only use for job searches. So you’re really screwed. There’s not
a lot there’s a lot of people that need help. And they’re not making ends meet.
F:
So besides um besides the Capital Region Housing you’re saying just the accessing
the information or?
R:
Yeh being able to get the help.
F:
Okay.
R:
There’s no one that can really do it like even to print off the forms to get subsidy you
have to have all this stuff and it’s impossible.
F:
Okay.
R:
Like the list to get subsidy is insane. They make it so that you can’t get help. And I
thought it was to help people.
F:
Yeh. I see what you’re saying it would be be kind of tough. So where did you go to
um print off these subsidy forms or where did you access the subsidy forms?
R:
My APFA worker actually gave them to me.
F:
Okay, okay. That’s um, so you’re with your APFA too.
R:
Yeh.*7
F:
What would you say are the biggest um the biggest causes of your housing issues?
R:
Lack of affordable housing, lack of help to get to be able to afford it like there should
be more subsidy programs. I think they should be building more houses out here.
More schools because even the school system right now it’s really messed up like one
school has twenty kindergarten classes but grade one there’s only two. So where and
that’s for every school so how are the kids gonna be divided? Because if there’s ten to
twenty kindergarten classes, twenty kids in each class like there’s so much to think
about when.
F:
Yeh, wow so twenty kindergarten classes that’s crazy.
R:
I don’t know how they do it.
F:
Yeh, in one school?
R:
Yeh and like right now my daughter because she has a speech problem she’s in
Broxton but she’s not gonna meet their requirements next year because she’s doing so
well so she’s going to go into a regular class.
F:
Oh okay.
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R:
So then I have to walk her to school because the bus system isn’t hand to hand and I
don’t trust anybody with her.*7
F:
Yeh. Well do you um so I guess I was asking what supports you would need in order
to improve your situation into one that you would be happy with.
R:
Ah Social Services should be, if the rent goes up they should be upping the money as
well I think. There needs to be definitely be more housing because you can’t own on
Social Services so to rent anywhere you’re looking at least twelve hundred dollars.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And that’s not plausible anymore. With everything that’s going on in the economy
and the world and it’s people need help and I’m just hoping that this will help get more
housing out here because we need it.
F:
Yeh and that’s as I’m sorry to hear your situation.
R:
It sucks but it’s work.
F:
But I’m very thankful your sharing it with us because that’s why we’re doing this
study. That’s um trying to find out what people, what’s stopping people from finding
the housing that works for them so thank you so much for sharing it. Is there anything
else you wanted to discuss? Otherwise I’ll just turn the recorder off so my battery
doesn’t die.
R:
Um is this going to help hopefully get more housing out here or?
F:
Well what we’re doing um so we have the study. And once all of our results are
together, they’re going to be compiled and they go to the University of Alberta. We’ll
get back a final report and that’s what we’re going to use to set some priorities. This is
phase one of Stony Plain’s five year plan to reduce poverty and homelessness. So the
great thing about this is we have some regular good Town and Council support ah for
improving this. No one wants to see someone without a suitable place to live so this is
gonna help us figure out what the problems and hopefully we can take steps to address
those problems to reduce the poverty and homelessness.*7
R:
Yeh but to me the biggest problem in Stony Plain is transportation and housing. The
cost of housing.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So what do you feel are some of the main causes of your housing issues? I know you
just mentioned transportation and the just general overall cost of housing.
173
R:
Yeh.
F:
But is there anything else that you feel, what’s what’s the root of your housing
problems?
R:
Finances. Bottom line. There’s not enough of it to go around. Honest to God. So.
Yeh.*8
R:
Like it’s crazy to have, and the kids want it, how do you how do you decline a kid and
say, oh we can’t have cable today. You know? And I mean I know years ago like um
child care, child care was a pain in the butt too.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You know especially with my ex not paying his maintenance. It was like ‘kay now
what do you do? You know and he’s sitting there going under the table getting richer
and I’m getting poorer. And it’s like ‘kay I didn’t have these kids by myself.
F:
Yeh.*8
R:
Um he can’t even get regular EI until he’s been medically um cleared to go back to
work. So like EI will not accept him unless, unless he can work so.
F:
Oh.
R:
Yeh and then their telling him because like he um he was working for Quality H Vac
and then it was driving like a five ton or something and while he was working there he
took his Class I in the evenings.
F:
Good for him.
R:
Yeh and so he passed that and then he he got a job but he had to leave Quality H Vac
to get like earlier than the job actually started because of the training. So he had to do
like a bunch of training in Calgary and stuff like that and they weren’t gonna give him
the time off so he had to quit earlier.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And EI is saying he may not quality because of that. ‘Cause he didn’t, he didn’t stay
at that job until he’s pretty much started the other job ‘cause all that training was
unpaid. Like the guy paid for all his tickets and.
F:
Yeh.
R:
All the training but he just didn’t pay him a wage. So because of that he may not even
qualify for EI you know when he’s cleared to go back to work so.
174
F:
Really.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Wow.
R:
That’s terrible. I told him that we’ll appeal and see how that goes once he is cleared
but.
F:
Yeh that’s not good news.
R:
No, can’t catch a break I tell ya.*9
F:
How um just sort of related how is your experience with Capital Region Housing?
R:
I hated it.
F:
Really?
R:
Um hmm.
F:
How long did it take you to get in and?
R:
Not very long.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um I was a single mom when I got in um I was in a kind of in a bad situation living
with my daughters father and we weren’t together and I was stuck there. So they got
me out pretty quick, two, three months I was out.
F:
Okay. So what did you what did you dislike about it?
R:
Um I hated it because they make you feel like they’d do this inspection once a, once a
year which is such a huge invasion of your privacy.
F:
What does it consist of?
R:
Well I mean they tell you they just come in and and they um are looking for anything
that needs to be fixed and whatever that’s not true that’s not a they want you to do a
move out almost like you’re doing a a move out move clean. Like they want to do a
clean like a move out clean.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like I got in trouble one year because my light fixtures were dirty. The outside of my
door was dirty and it was spring right so they actually gave me a month to clean it up
and they came back and inspected it again. So and there were people like that had
some really messy houses and they got notices but I thought you know and my stove,
175
the inside of my stove wasn’t completely clean. And I’m like, well I wasn’t moving
out so you know I wasn’t gonna do a my house is clean is that all that matters but I
didn’t know you were here to inspect how clean my house is. Um so ‘cause I
sometimes it depends my house it does get really messy because I you know physically
sometimes I can’t. So I don’t get a lot of help with that so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That was one big one, they never fixed anything, nothing. Um I had to get people I
knew come and fix stuff for me because they unless it was the only time they actually
came and fixed something was when my hot water exploded my hot water tank
exploded. Like there was water everywhere.
F:
Oh no.
R:
And they actually came and fixed that but I mean we had a drip in the bathroom and it
got so bad it was running and I had to get family and friends to come in and fix it.
F:
Really.
R:
A few times yeh.
F:
So how long were you with Capital Region Housing?
R:
Eleven, ten years.
F:
Ten years?*9
R:
Noticed that.
F:
So what did you do in the trailer in the winter when you it the pipes burst and it had no
heating and whatnot. How did you?
R:
I had heating, I always had heating.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause I had electric heaters and I had at the beginning the propane tanks so there was
a heater at the beginning like a furnace the first winter.
F:
Yeh.
R:
For part of the winter there was a furnace and then that went out so it was always
electrical heated and plus.
F:
So like space heaters?
R:
Yeh space heaters. Plus compared to like putting it in an RV park or whatever is you
run extensions cords, the, the shop is heated so like you never feel that you’re gonna
freeze ‘cause you know at the worst you could go heat up, warm up in the shop. I also
176
had a nice car I ended up spending more time like reading a book in the car or sitting
in the car to kinda warm up.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You spend a lot of time just underneath the covers so uh that happens but I did
injections every week on a Tuesday and so you get like physically nausea sick so
usually like one day a week it didn’t matter. So I just had to deal with the other six
days of what I was gonna do and where I was gonna go. So I think the biggest thing I
found is I used it kind of as an opportunity to say, okay what am I gonna do like it’s
not getting any better and it’s staying unstable so like I would sit in the coffee shop. I
had a couple local people like one lady she moved here from Regina but she let me
shower at her place a couple times and wash my dishes in her sink.
F:
Yeh, that’s nice.
R:
Yeh had another couple that his wife and another girl friend of mine skirted the trailer.
F:
Okay.
R:
So it was skirted property for the second winter so it was warmer the second winter
than the first winter and also with my father you know he lives in Spruce Grove so I it
didn’t always work out ‘cause he’s kinda moody that I would say enough is enough
and he would stop offering things like letting you use his shower. Letting you use his
laundry like right now I don’t use his shower or I don’t use his laundry facilities but
through different periods my dad would help so.
F:
Okay.
R:
I could use his like when I was working he would let me go have a shower at his house
or the odd bunch of clothes and then he got where he would rather give you twenty
bucks to go wash your clothes if you were in dire straights than have you in place. Just
because he’s old and set in ways and stuff but I think what I found is now I’m at a
system where I don’t wait ‘til all my clothes need washing, that’s kinda how I used to
do it ‘cause you’d go to the laundry mat and you just you know. I, I don’t want to say
it meaning it’s only people from Paul Band but one of the things you see is the
aboriginals from Paul Band they come in and they overload themselves with laundry
that they do right. They kinda take up all the washers and all the dryers not that that’s
a problem you go okay their all busy I have to come back in two hours.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I find that I got kind of tired of the load of that ‘cause you used to think but halfway
through drying you have to fold like four garbage bags full of clothes now. So I’m
starting to cut that down like you know when I had my washer and dryer at Seba I
would ah do a load every day or every second day so I didn’t have to do laundry very
often. And I did use restore like I had an apartment washer before that’s how I saved
money.
177
F:
Oh yeh.
R:
I have a dryer and then for some reason I put it in the shop. I used to dry clothes
outside.
F:
Yeh.*12
R:
With the dryer sitting outside, I had a fridge that used to sit outside ‘cause I had more
space in the trailer so I had like in the time I was there for two years I had two fridges I
went through like actually the first one kinda konked out and then awhile later I tired
plugging it in and it still worked but I got myself a nice little fridge from Costco. I
don’t have a membership today but like you go through quite a few electrical heaters,
I’m probably on my sixth or seventh electrical heater*12
R:
Yeh no I just think that you know like I guess the you know I’m gonna pursue maybe
some of the housing out here still and maybe I’ll come back and talk to Kye about how
it’s going for me. Because she is a person you know I’ve mentioned other than not
kinda talk to anyone. Like tell her how it’s affected me or whatever like that and the
deal with it um is you know I’m sure people are trying you know what I mean like you
know I don’t I’m not trying to come off sounding like everybody that sits in their nice
house with their barbque’s looking out on street thinking they don’t care about people.
Like they have these initiatives I was reading about the one where their gonna put
sweat lodges in Edmonton down where fox farms was and I work with that man one of
the elders, Will Campbell he was out here doing some work right but someone has to
be in charge of the money they would put forward. But I think that there needs to be
more money put in to housing in terms of what’s going on and how do you help the
people get the housing and if you can’t help them directly through um even with the
Tri Leisure they told me that they have no monthly passes that they can give out free
now. I think that should be looked at and I think other things like the Parkland Food
Bank expanding the type of food their giving out to maybe involve more perishable
food.
F:
Now did you know of anyone else that was using the Tri Leisure Centre the way that
you were to sort of shower and clean up that was in a.
R:
Well I met somebody that I’d met through a the Twelve Step program that was living
out on an acreage with their water cut off ‘cause they hadn’t paid their bill, that was
they were doing that.
F:
That was doing the same?
R:
Yeh.
178
F:
Cleaning up there and stuff. Well you are very resourceful you figured that one out so
okay I’m gonna turn this guy off for now. *12
5.2
Lack Transportation
F:
And so you would say it’s just the nature of their, their addictions or their mental
health? That specifically put that at risk? Ah do you think that there’s any way that
we can reach them better or why are we, why are we not reaching them?
R:
Think that.
F:
What’s not working?
R:
The isolation um and I mean I know we’re so close to Edmonton but we’re really not.
Like I’m close to Edmonton ‘cause I can get in my car and drive there. But my
clientele is not close to Edmonton and they cannot access services, they they can’t
access addiction um counselling that they need. They can’t get to it. You can set up as
many appointments as you want with them in Edmonton they, they can’t get there.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And we have it within our community but there’s a waiting list.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So is that why, do you that they would need to go to Edmonton? Is the waiting list?
R:
It’s easier.
F:
For mental health and addictions here?
R:
Well.
R:
We just need more out here.
R:
We do and there is one, ‘cause we only get youth for a maximum of three months on
the Youth Justice Committee and sometimes if you refer them out here it takes more
than three months to get them even just for that initial appointment. Where there is an
addictions in Edmonton that can book them in within a week. Because they have
larger client, like larger.
R:
Yeh.
179
R:
Employees, that kind of thing and it’s a program that it’s like quicker revolving door
whereas out here the door is very slow.
R:
Well and, and having that accessibility at the time when it’s needed.
R:
When it’s needed.
R:
When it’s really critical because you can have someone um connected with all the
services and then you know by the time they get in there in three months later, you
know the crisis is over. They’re doing other things um.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh I never realized that (inaud).*1
F:
Good. Okay. Now that we’re all feeling good from that. What are the gaps in
services? Um what are you or your clients lacking? Particularly struggling with out
here?
R:
Trans…
R:
Well we talk about.
R:
Portation.
R:
And I do think you know Sherwood Park there is transportation into Edmonton. St.
Albert there is public transportation into Edmonton.
R:
Spruce Grove there’s.
R:
Well not really.
R:
And Stony’s so close.
R:
Though because it only travels from Spruce Grove into Edmonton in the a.m. And
from.
R:
And back.
R:
At the end.
R:
You’re right.
180
R:
Because I was trying to get someone into a homeless shelter, an emergency shelter
who wanted to leave Spruce Grove at the end of the day. But it wouldn’t go that way.
So do you know what I mean it’s the wrong.
R:
Even though the bus would have to be driving that way, it would be empty though
right.
R:
Go empty, right. But it’s not in service, they can’t transport anybody.
R:
Oh that’s silly, I didn’t realize that.
R:
That’s good to know that.
R:
I didn’t know that.
R:
Which is kind of crazy.*1
R:
Ah access to the food bank. Is difficult for people.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Because that’s in Spruce Grove and.
R:
The transportation.
R:
The transportation (inaud) from Stony to Spruce.
R:
I think inter community transportation, even for our Parkland Village people to get into
Spruce Grove if they need to.
R:
And their kind of Spruce Grove already right. They’re not that far out.
R:
No their not.
R:
Their just across the highway.
R:
They’re just across the highway but.
R:
Yeh.
R:
That’s a long way.
R:
It’s a long walk to the city.
R:
If you have to push a stroller or have a walker.
181
R:
Absolutely.*1
F:
I was gonna ask that do you think that people are aware of the services or resources
that are available and they can’t access them because of transportation or any of those
reasons we talked about or do you think there’s an also an unawareness?
R:
I think the reasons that we talked about with the transportation stuff if what hinders us
from helping them. But from their perspective I think their lack of even know what’s
out there.*1
R:
Yeh, there’s I try my best to encourage a lot of my especially single or single moms to
go into Edmonton because of transportation. Um there’s no buses out here so and
most of them don’t have vehicles so that’s big other issue. So I’m like there’s buses
there’s jobs, there’s some housing, they will not even look at Edmonton.*2
R:
And there’s all those other barriers like no transportation and and what not. So it’s a
catch twenty two.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So. *2
R:
And then that’s when the barriers like I said driver’s license and because they did too
much prescription drugs they can’t get a job ‘cause nobody trusts them. So they end
up going to to her I guess. *2
R:
There’s no transportation whatsoever in Stony where you’re kind of somewhat have
some in Spruce Grove.
R:
But they don’t my clients don’t use it.
R:
They don’t use it?
R:
R:
They don’t use it all.
I do have some clients that use it. I have single moms that work in the city that use the
transportation.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Me too.
182
R:
But I wouldn’t.
R:
I’m aware of some that use it.
R:
But I wouldn’t see those young, those moms right ‘cause they’re independent and I
mean I would be on that bus too.
R:
Exactly they’re they’re.
R:
In Edmonton.
R:
Working independently and.
R:
Right.
R:
But needing assistance.
R:
Yeh.
R:
That bus is so minimal though like there’s only a very, very few jobs that you can take
that bus and get there and have a ride home at the end of the day too. Like.
R:
Yeh.
R:
You have to hit like just the exact time frame and it has to be close enough that you get
to the off chute bus.
R:
It’s expensive.
R:
Yeh that too.
F:
So that’s the one that makes the morning run?
R:
Yeh.
F:
And then comes back?
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And it’s just once, once am I correct?
R:
No there’s a couple buses.
R:
No.
183
R:
There’s a couple.
R:
Within a certain like three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.
F:
Okay.*2
R:
Transportation is a huge issue.*2
R:
I mean our area goes right out to Wildwood, Evansburg, that’s people come in all the
way in to see me so they’re going to avoid it like the plague until they have no choice
and then they’re in crisis.
R:
Yeh, transportation’s a huge issue.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Just trying to get to work most of my clients don’t have vehicles or can’t get them,
can’t drive right now and to try to find work that fits their skill set what they’re
looking for within walking distance of their house or if their rural clients that’s even
harder.
F:
Right.
R:
So sometimes that has an impact on housing too because you know they need housing
where there’s trans, you know if there’s no transportation they have to be able to be
out walking distance so it has an impact on where they want housing.
R:
And so here’s for a dynamics in our community, the affordable housing is here.
Daycare’s are here and jobs are there.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Minus thirty does happen here. That was well planned.
F:
So that transportation piece again. Trying to get between those, when their spread out.
*2
R:
In the service that our um Turning Points provides is the abusive partner barriers in
well they come in different forms, they can’t let them know where they’re going.
Transportation again you know we can’t they don’t have a vehicle to get here. And
transportation in the sense that some people more of the women can’t drive at night for
one reason or another, poor eye sight, they can’t drive after dark. So transportation.*3
184
R:
And even the ride today it’s like I’m relying on somebody else.
F:
Yeh.
R:
To get me there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I called and left messages and nothing, nothing, nothing.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And finally I think it was five after ten and their like, what are you doing leave me
alone I don’t work until twelve and I’m like yeh but remember the appointment we
were talking about yesterday? She’s like yeh, that was at ten this morning. Why are
you just calling me now, what? So yeh it makes it really complicated.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so yeh.
F:
Even that transportation piece, yeh it makes it harder to work or to access the library
or groceries for sure.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Location would be.
R:
Location is.
F:
Key for you then.
R:
It really is ah.*5
R:
One of the others is um and I know they do, it’s kinda like a seniors bus around town.
And I have called and their like, well because you’re not a senior it would depend on
the day and we may or may not have room for you and it would depend on where
you’re going. So there’s a lot of, a lot of if’s and but’s.
F:
You can’t count on it to get you somewhere.
R:
Yeh so um having a service, a transportation service like that, that would for people
with minimum ability or not able to get around. Kind of like a bus system but not. I
mean the bus system is good and um but I mean we don’t even really have that in
Spruce or Stony. *5
185
R:
It’s even same like the commuter bus? That’s relatively new for Spruce Grove and
Spruce Grove has honestly been a city without a bus service all this time like you’d
think that Parkland area would have a little shuttle bus coming back and forth from
Spruce and Stony for people, you know what I mean?
F:
Yeh.
R:
There, there’s.
F:
I do.
R:
With all the heart and Spruce and Stony and the Parkland area, and then there’s no
services.
F:
Yeh and that’s ah I mean getting, bringing that direct rent subsidy or the affordable
housing, the low income housing in is it’s a long process.
R:
I think Edmonton took too much power and their not looking out for, they, they took
on too much. And it wasn’t their right. Like that’s that’s how Spruce Grove and
Stony Plain um person who lives dwelling in Spruce Grove and Stony Plain should
feel.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
So. Because when I go to the city and they say there’s no housing and when I go to
the other office and they say there’s no housing. Like they should have had every
form available from Capital Housing for anybody in need because they are a
Government office.*6
R:
But you know what’s wrong? What’s really wrong with, is there a food bank also in
Stony or they come here?
F:
No no the Spruce Grove is the (inaud).
R:
I think we need like a shuttle of some sort between Stony and Spruce and and in and
there was one church that wanted to make an in Spruce Grove bus and they had a bus,
but I think they couldn’t get any funding to get it going. Like a driver and a, and
something going.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And it’s the church that’s in the old movie theatre here in town?
F:
Yeh.
R:
I don’t know how long you’ve been here.
F:
Yeh.
186
R:
But they have a bus for that purpose.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It was on their heart to try to get a bussing system in town, so any, if you know any bus
driver that wants to go for it they could probably make a project.
F:
Yeh that transportation piece um especially with people from Stony Plain.
R:
‘Cause I was on foot trying to get my food back packed just last week.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And it was too heavy to carry all the way and I just had lucky timing to get a ride from,
from ac…I made it back to here.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But there’s no trail for people on foot like mother’s with kids with a stroller or
something. There’s no trail to go straight through by where Grove Motor Inn is.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That’s almost exactly where the food bank is on the back side.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So if they made an underpass there, maybe with like a sidewalk and a trail like some of
the trails they do in town for people getting exercise.
F:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
Then that would help for it would just help not to go all the way around with a pack or
something. But I think they really need volunteer drivers for people especially in
winter because it’s a hellish walk. You just can’t carry what it’s mostly canned goods
or dry goods and you can’t carry all that.
F:
Yeh. We especially hear that from people in Stony Plain who are accessing the food
bank it’s.
R:
How do they get a ride?
F:
It could be very difficult for them to get to Spruce Grove.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So yeh that’s um, I don’t disagree with you on that at all.
R:
I think it there needs to be a food bank driving miss daisy and if you can’t get there, if
you can’t get a ride they might as well just deliver it because you don’t really get to
choose they can just choose for you and and be done with it right?*6
187
F:
Yeh. With a daughter it, a four year old. No kidding. So do you find that it affects
um your ability to maintain your relationships or do you find that um you’re able to
manage that pretty well?
R:
Well I can’t go anywhere I can’t really do anything um I can afford one cab a month
so I’m I do my grocery shop on that one day and I try to get everything I need for the
whole month.
F:
Wow.
R:
And it’s very very hard, otherwise you have to walk everywhere and to walk to
WalMartit takes a half hour and with a four year old you can’t do it.
F:
Yeh no kidding that wouldn’t be an ideal situation. So sorry I’m just gonna go back
to I was just thinking here, when you so did you find that basement suite on KIJIJI or
something like that?
R:
Yes. *7
F:
So do you think there’s any services that are missing out here? In the Stony Plain area
that would help people in housing situations like yours?
R:
Yeh I mean I know for awhile there I went without a vehicle and I, bussing would help
big time.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I know that’s been discussed through the Town of Stony Plain and Spruce Grove
lots. But as a single mother of two years ago.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It was very difficult to try to keep a job, to hold one, be able to get around you know.
That was a big thing, I had to depend a lot on my mother or friends and I mean that’s a
burden to them right?
F:
So would you say that these transportation issues you would like to see transportation?
Or it would be helpful to see it within in Stony?
R:
Yes.
F:
Or between Stony and Spruce?
R:
Well even that.
F:
Or between Stony and the city?
R:
Between Stony, Spruce and the city. I mean there’s more employment opportunities
right?
188
F:
Right.
R:
Like I left the Good Sam for years I had a really good position. I worked there for
seven years and then left there because of medical.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So then what you know? I had nothing. I couldn’t, I couldn’t do what I loved to do
what I went to school to do.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Right and I mean I had no transportation so I was very limited for options here. There,
there wasn’t a lot and to go from you know a very good paying job to minimum wage is
very, very you know discouraging on a person.*8
R:
Um because yeh between the bills and the medication we don’t have much left over
and um there’s not a lot of access to there’s no public transportation right so we even
had no insurance and stuff for awhile because we just couldn’t afford it.
F:
Yeh. On your vehicle you mean?
R:
Yeh. So we do have it back on there.
F:
You weren’t driving were you?
R:
No. No we were stuck. My brother actually lent us his vehicle a lot
F:
Oh good.
R:
For medical appointments but it was rough having to ask that because they need their
vehicles too for work and stuff so. But we needed we had we ended up having to get it
back on the road and we actually ended up using his um his EI to get that car back on
the road.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause we need it for medical appointments.
F:
Yeh and living in Parkland Village you guys are outside of Spruce Grove anyways.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So you’re, it’s not like you’re in a a crescent or mobile home park right in town
where you can walk for groceries and what not. Parkland Village is.
R:
Far.
F:
Up the road, yeh.
189
R:
Yes so we definitely needed that vehicle so that’s another yeh we’re, I don’t know
how we’re getting by we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul I guess you could say. We’re
not fully paying the bills every month kinda deal so. Just putting as much as we can
on whatever and trying to get by.
F:
Every little bit helps. That’s a tough situation rock and a hard place.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
That kind of thing you need the car on the road to get to your appointments but having
the car on the road is very expensive.
R:
Um hmm and especially ‘cause a lot of our appointments are at the U of A, at the
University Hospital.
F:
Yeh and that’s a little bit of a hike from here.
R:
Yeh.
F:
No kidding.
R:
Even a cab ride like you know even the bus system like it’s it’s expensive because you
pay I think it’s one sixty a month just for it to go to Edmonton and then there’s no you
have to pay separate for the because it’s not included or whatever unless you pay a
certain, I can’t remember how much it was but you pay extra and then you can have
both buses but their completely separate bus.
F:
So do you guys have a bus pass for the Spruce Grove into the city bus?
R:
No I just found out about it so.
F:
Okay.
R:
After we got the car on the road but we yeh um but there when I was looking at it I
was like holy smokes because there’s a separate bus pass. Like if you get the bus pass
for Spruce Grove it only takes you from Spruce Grove to that to downtown Edmonton
I think.
F:
Okay.
R:
But is the there’s a couple stops but that’s it. You can’t take the bus from Edmonton
to the next stop you have to have like Edmonton bus pass. So.
F:
Yeh. So is it a hundred and sixty a month per person or is that a family pass?
R:
No that’s per person.
F:
Wow.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Is that, would that be shareable?
190
R:
Um.
F:
Among you guys do you know? Or would you have to buy one for yourself, one for
your husband, one for each of your kids?
R:
Correct.
F:
Probably a lower cost for the kids bus still.
R:
Yeh I don’t even know if they have a family plan for that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I didn’t see that just per person.
F:
So then I don’t know if you’re saving much on your.
R:
No we’re not.
F:
If you’re not going in every single day I don’t know if you’re saving much on.
R:
Yeh no, no.
F:
On keeping your car on the road then. Wow.
R:
So.
F:
Yeh that’s pricey. It’s very pricey.
R:
And it’s more if you want to use the Edmonton right so I think it might be um two
something. It’s still cheaper than buy two separate bus passes but it’s still quite a bit if
you want to use the Edmonton Transit as well. So which you would have to do right?
F:
You’d have to be using the bus a whole lot I think to recoup that cost.
R:
Exactly. I’d have to be back at work and there’s just.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Even that I don’t know.
F:
Or working in the city and taking it.
R:
Both of us would have to be working I think to cover that cost yeh. *9
5.3
Shortage of long term affordable housing/shelter
F:
Were you guys where was your mom living when you um were homeless in the van
for the two and a half years?
She was in um the one in Stony Plain? Ah, not the, it’s on 52nd Avenue.
R:
191
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
Was she, was?
Diamond Jubilee.
Oh okay so a senior’s.
Yes.
Lodge.
She was.
Oh okay. And so how come she’s not in the seniors lodge anymore? How old’s your
mom?
Mom’s eight eight coming eighty nine.
Wow.
Yeh.
Wow. So why did she move out of the seniors lodge?
She got evicted because she tried to help me. See, she’d let me sleep in for a couple,
three hours.
Yeh.
So that a good stretch out properly and then I would take off and go in with the van,
well somebody spotted it and reported it. So she ended up getting evicted.
So then she, you guys both had to look for somewhere?
Yeh.
And you ended up whereabouts?
Well we were in ah Lakeridge Apartments, until the 29th of July, ‘cause we had, the
court case was July the 13th.
Okay.
I mean August 13th, not July, August 13th. I won the case but like the Judge said it’s
better you go now than having to go in the winter.
Yeh.*4
R:
We lived in the van. And we also went to Calgary to my daughter’s place. We’d
spend like two like two weeks with her ‘cause I had to keep in contact with my AISH
worker and, and with the housing.
F:
So your mom lived in the van with you?
R:
Yeh.
F:
This fall?
R:
Yeh.
F:
She’s eighty eight years old.
R:
Yeh.
F:
That cannot have been an easy thing.
R:
No it was not easy.
F:
Or a comfortable thing.
192
R:
Ah occasionally we did stay at the Ramada Inn.
F:
Okay.
R:
Until our funds ran out and then ah.
F:
Yeh.*4
F:
And you moved in when, sorry?
R:
Pardon me?
F:
You moved in?
R:
December 1st we got the keys.
F:
Okay. Okay.
R:
‘Cause I was.
F:
And so then.
R:
At my daughter’s.
F:
For two weeks you had no furniture.
R:
No furniture, yeh.
F:
So you were, you left the one.
R:
Sleeping.
F:
The one building in August?
R:
Yeh.
F:
And you moved into this one in December. In between you stayed with your daughter
in Calgary sometimes.
R:
And then back and you, in the van.
F:
Sometimes in the hotel, sometimes in the van?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Oh okay. Wow. Must be nice to have gotten that apartment, that security must feel
great.
R:
It does.
F:
Yeh.
193
R:
Let me tell you, it does. Being homeless is no bloody joke and I don’t care what age it
is.
F:
Yeh absolutely. That’s ah an understatement.*4
R:
And I mean we’re the richest province in the county and you get treated like dirt.
F:
That’s a hard thing. That’s a very hard thing. So did you have, were you actively
looking for an apartment between leaving in August and finding this one in December?
R:
There was nothing else available.
F:
Was, there was just no vacancies or was it prices?
R:
Just no vac…no vacancies.
F:
Really.
R:
And we wanted a specifically in the Grove ‘cause both our doctors are in the Grove.
F:
Um hmm. So you didn’t look in Stony Plain you just stuck to Spruce Grove?
R:
I looked at one at Stony Plain it was, no.
F:
No.
R:
No.
F:
Was it that it wasn’t safe or it wasn’t suitable or.
R:
It was old and it was kind of grubby looking.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I mean you don’t know what’s lived in there before you.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Bed bug situation type of thing. Ah.
F:
So would you if it came down to it would you have gone there? Or would you have
stayed in the van and the hotels? And whatnot?
R:
In a situation like that I would have stayed in motels. And, and the van.
F:
Would that one have been affordable? Like if you had to stay there, was the pricing
okay for it or was it still expensive.
R:
It was a little on the expensive side because I mean you had to buy your meals on top
of it hey.
F:
Um hmm, um hmm.
194
R:
I mean, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s a catch twenty two you know.*4
F:
What would you say the biggest reason you’ve had to move?
R:
Rent increase.
F:
Is. Yeh the rent increases?
R:
Yeh.
F:
But your AISH doesn’t increase at the same rate?
R:
Nope it sure does not.
F:
You just get the probably rate of inflation every year, that increase that your AISH
gets?
R:
They don’t do it every year, it’s every two years.
F:
Oh okay. Okay.
R:
Sometimes.
F:
So the rent is climbing faster than your?
R:
Than what our.
F:
AISH was?
R:
Our AISH is yeh.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I’ll be glad when I’m off it, thank god.*4
F:
That’s for sure. So what um are there any services that aren’t out there that you
would like to see out here as far as social services or housing help?
R:
More housing, definitely more housing.
F:
Just more housing?
R:
Yes.
F:
Yeh, what kind of housing?
R:
Low income housing like for seniors and you know people on AISH and.
195
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Or even those on social assistance.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You know with families. I’m telling ya it’s a struggle.
F:
Yeh.*4
R:
And you’re allowed to make a certain a month and then they deduct dollar for dollar.
Which is a negative thought of too.
F:
Yeh.*4
R:
I think that it’s unfortunate that we don’t have an emergency youth shelter anymore or
any emergency shelter but you know I don’t know.
R:
And wait times to get into addiction counselling is a gap.
R:
It’s a high gap.
R:
Right.
F:
Yeh that one seems to be re-surfacing in a lot of different areas here.*1
R:
F:
Sure.
R:
R:
R:
R:
Yeh. ‘Cause there’s no housing out here. Affordable housing to start them off.*1
R:
Breaking the cycle of poverty and those girls are bringing up babies that are getting
used to living in absolute poverty. Getting used to going to the food bank. So it just
becomes a.
196
R:
Phenomenal.
R:
Cycle.
R:
Vicious cycle.
R:
Yeh so if I can put in my two cents worth, I would love to have some housing that are
for young moms that there’s mentors, that they have to be moving forward to school.
And if you, if we had that in our community they would go to school. They all want to
go back to school, they all want to be something. You were at my young moms group
the other day. Those are like amazing young women.*2
R:
They just don’t have those opportunities that, they come from low income families
most of them. So they don’t have the same opportunities that I had, to go on to Post
Secondary. But they would jump at it.
F:
So you’re seeing it as largely generational.
R:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
F:
And you think that giving them ah affordable, I don’t want to use the term affordable
housing after we were in such a discussion about that one, but somewhere to stay that.
R:
Well basically they need some.
F:
Get some start.
R:
Housing with some rent supplement where they basically the government would kick
in and, and.
R:
They need mentors.
R:
Yeh.
R:
These girls need somebody in their corner to help them through this.
R:
But they, financially their low educated.
R:
Right.
R:
So they don’t have, they don’t have the finances to even pay for rent.
R:
No.
R:
So.
197
R:
Even if they are working full time. It doesn’t.*2
R:
One ah one thing that Susan mentioned earlier was having someone to actually find
them a place to live. So someone to that’s gonna go through rentals, find places that
ah some hub where they can find available spots or available spots and price range
easier than looking on their own. That’s one thing that ah I don’t think we have right
now that would be useful.
R:
Short term emergency housing.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh. Big time. Emergency housing that isn’t ah based on one demographic either.
R:
No.
R:
Like if it’s like men’s housing or women’s housing that doesn’t work if you have a
family that’s.
F:
Right.
R:
On the street or like youth only housing or any of those, the need is just a general
emergency housing for.
R:
R:
R:
There was two apartments. Oh there’s.
R:
One.
R:
Yeh there’s one in Stony and one is Spruce. They weren’t empty but when they’re in
there, there’s requirements for them to be working to be moving forward. It’s a perfect
opportunity so I would have loved to have seen that continue.
F:
Do you know why it?
R:
Funding.
R:
Money.
R:
That was a.
198
R:
We had to um home like housing support workers and so about maintaining, keeping
them housed right so you can get them into an apartment but can you keep them
housed. That’s the question right? So those workers would work with them ongoing
to make sure that they’re paying the rent on time and doing all that they need to do to
move forward and ah the, the emergency housing was great.
R:
It lasted for about a year before the funding ran out.
F:
So that transitional housing with the worker that is gonna turn something
permanent?*2
R:
Well that’s one thing they put out with hunger count for all Canada they do all this
kind of research and there’s a thirty percent deficit between um Social Services and
basic cost of living in Alberta.
F:
So is that lack of true affordable housing not with the capital A and a capital H but just
affordable housing seems to kind of.
R:
Yeh I’m not sure if that’s a service gap or not, but that’s definitely the biggest thing is
that there isn’t cheap housing here at all.*2
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Like ah I could get into trouble.
R:
Yeh people are using their income support income to pay their rent.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And then their having to use food banks and and I mean those resources are there for
that but um a hundred percent of their income.
R:
No.
R:
Their supposed to be the temporary not for the long term.
R:
Right.
R:
And we’re (inaud) long term.
R:
A hundred percent of your income shouldn’t go to rent.*2
199
R:
Well that’s one thing they put out with hunger count for all Canada they do all this
kind of research and there’s a thirty percent deficit between um Social Services and
basic cost of living in Alberta.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
That’s a huge deficit just to meet your.
R:
Absolutely.
R:
Basic needs
R:
I’d say it’s even high than thirty percent.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Guessing it would be like if you’re getting three hundred and some dollars for rent.
Rents twelve hundred then that’s not even covering the rest of your needs.
R:
Exactly.
R:
So it’s a.
R:
That doesn’t’ even cover utilities.
R:
It’s a huge deficit.
R:
It’s a vicious cycle, right? And that’s why I’m, I’m all about going back to okay so my
young moms about helping them get to the point that their going back to school so
they’re not in that vicious cycle. Need to start somewhere, that’s where I’ve chosen to
start putting more time and energy into it because I think that that’s what needs to
change. They’re independent. *2
R:
Homeless individuals and family members of homeless individuals. My brother, my
sister, so and so lives in a Stony Plain area. There’s no services there for the homeless.
I wish we had services.
F:
Okay. Good.
R:
For me I see I mean it’s it’s a provincial issue as well as just a regional issue and that
Alberta’s population just is growing and growing and growing and the services can’t
keep up. Um you have people coming for good high paying jobs and it doesn’t always
pan out uh and oil prices drop and things change awful drastically. But uh also with
with the high paying jobs comes high rent, comes low supply of of rental properties
200
um and so affordable housing is pretty much non-existent. Um when you look at a
community like Spruce Grove, Stony Plain where you know the cheapest two bedroom
apartment is still probably about twelve hundred dollars a month that’s enormous and
I mean for for many people even holding decent jobs that’s virtually impossible to
manage. So in domestic violence we see it quite a bit right. We see women who um
are leaving looking at a single income family now um or perhaps they are not
employed and trying to find housing and it just doesn’t exist. So definitely we see
women that don’t leave because there aren’t any housing options. Um I also think for
a you know like a a community like Spruce Grove, Stony Plain that the invisibility if
that’s a word, of it is very true your definition people in in I find in communities kind
of you know your bedroom communities tend to define homelessness as the people
that are lying on the cardboard on the street corner. Um and not as the broader picture,
you know is it appropriate housing, is it safe housing, is it affordable housing um you
know are people living day to day wondering if they are gonna have a place to sleep.
Um and that is something I think as a community you know we’re missing because
people look around and say, I don’t see anybody sleeping on the street corner or
there’s one guy that sleeps in the park in Spruce Grove that’s it we don’t have a
problem. Um but it’s definitely a bigger picture ah also there’s, there’s lack of
emergency shelter uh in our area um I think a big part of that is that you know we’re
almost too close to Edmonton we’re so people think they can just go to Edmonton to
access the service. And people can’t, this is their home we’re still a half an hour from
Edmonton um we’re still our own community, people should be able to access
emergency housing and shelter within their own community and not having to go
somewhere else. So those are the biggest things that I see. *3
R:
I think that our our housing too when you have such a short, such a small supply the
quality of that housing goes down as well. Um where landlords are well there’s more
competition, or or I guess less competition then landlords are gonna do more to keep a
place looking better, safer, keeping all the upgrades and making sure it’s all up to code
and up to up to par. Ah if it’s gonna be full anyways then maybe some of that stuff
starts to slide and units aren’t as up to code as they should be and maybe there’s other
safety issues or health issues that are being neglected by landlords. You can get the
slum landlord situation happening and I I’ve seen that in Spruce Grove. Some very,
very awful.
R:
And still.
R:
Places and people don’t have a choice. It’s that or nothing.
F:
And the landlord has the advantage in this market.*3
R:
Transportation.
F:
In what way?
201
R:
If they, I’ve heard some people at Parkland Turning Points, you know say they could
get a job but they have no transportation to go to Slave Lake or they have no
transportation to go to Fort Mac or their, they missed their ride and of course as a
result they probably get let go from the job. *3
R:
I mentioned it before but I’ll say it again ah we need emergency shelters in this area
um for number one, they’ve got the new guide access to twenty four hour support.
And I’m not just talking domestic violence but also you know youth shelters whatever
it might be we people elder abuse situations, whatever it might be. Um because not
only is it the immediate housing issue that they’ve got somewhere to go um but it also
is, is such a good starting point to direct people into appropriate service and gives them
a few weeks to figure it out you know.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Not the, we don’t have anything for you tonight you’re back to your car. At least you
have a bed for.
R:
Definitely and and um.
R:
A period of time.
R:
You know whatever kind of terminology we want to use is some transition time with
that right. You’re not in and out but you’re in and you get some some support around
you to be able to um to do that.
R:
That’s right.
R:
Or maybe you have gone to treatment and you come back to your community and you
have a place to stay for a little bit so you can save a little bit of money and um be able
to ah to move forward and. And then I think too like on a continuum right, so we have
I mean housing is on a continuum right so over here we have market housing and we
have affordable housing but we’re missing the first part of the continuum right. There
is no emergency housing, there’s no transitional housing, there’s no support of
housing.
R:
Right.
R:
So we’re missing the first part of the continuum. And we have affordable housing but
it’s not working. Right? So we don’t need more affordable housing, we need
something you know we need to to look at something else that’s gonna work for our
residents in our community. *3
202
F:
Yeh. That’s tough so what’s um, so you pay here through your AISH. What’s your
plan, are you gonna keep looking for somewhere else to stay or are you looking at
staying here for a little bit longer?
R:
My, if I had my way I’d have my own place.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um but given the market and the prices and the availability it looks like I’ll be here
for a while. If they sell I don’t know what I’ll do honestly.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Probably go back to Edmonton but even there it’s getting harder and harder find
affordable housing. They have some, they have some but yeh it’s just gets
complicated and I actually moved from Edmonton from a fairly a really decently
priced place ‘cause my family’s like, please come out here. We’ll be able to help you
more and.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And yeh just we’ll be able to do more and be there for you more and so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So yeh it’s been interesting.*5
F:
Yeh. So when you moved out from Edmonton, did you move straight into with your
sister and your brother in law?
R:
I didn’t ‘cause they were actually living with his parents.
F:
Okay.
R:
Um so I actually found an apartment I don’t even remember how ah by the library I
think their called Brown Stone or Brown Street.
F:
Okay.
R:
Uh apartments, so I was there and the guy made me a deal saying that because he
really wanted me as a tenant and he was having trouble finding a good tenant. He was
like you wouldn’t believe who I’ve had apply for the place. So he’s like, I understand
you can’t afford it let’s say six hundred dollars a month for the first year and then next
year can we bump it up to eight? And I was like, six hundred you know will be hard
but I can do it.
F:
Yeh.
203
R:
And um I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to pay eight in the next year. And he’s like
that’s okay like we’ll just see where you’re at.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And come the second year he wanted the eight hundred, I couldn’t do it and my sister
um was pregnant and gonna have the baby and she’s like, can you come and help.
And so they offered me four hundred dollar rent to come and help.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it didn’t stay that for very long but but yeh it was like yeh okay I can come and
help and now.*5
F:
Okay. So between the apartment and here um have you had any issues with housing
adequacy or suitability? Like has it been up to health and safety standards or required
major repairs? Has there been enough space for the number of people living there?
R:
Um.
F:
Or I guess the ones you’ve looked at as well.
R:
Yeh, the looked at there was actually only two that were like wow this is enough
space and or little more space. It either went from super small like a closet.
F:
A bachelor.
R:
Yeh well even a one bedroom like the one bedroom, the door frame was smaller than
average and you into the room and I’m like, I think my sister’s pantry is larger than
this room. So yeh it really went from closet size to this extra room. And the two older
ones, probably built in the sixties, seventies, were the ones that seemed to have more
room.
F:
Yeh.
R:
They were both one bedroom and they had loads of space um and actually yeh one,
one that had mounds of space and storage was nine hundred and the other one was
eleven. So I think those two were actually the cheaper.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Of all the other ones that I looked at. Um the ones in Stony oddly seemed to be
smaller than the ones in Spruce. Um and I don’t know why that would be but that it
was and there’s ah.
R:
R:
Ah there’s one apartment in Stony but across from the library by the retirement home.
204
F:
Yeh.
R:
Or whatever they wanna call it. And I hope they change landlords like they’re
unsuitable apartments anyways.
F:
Yeh.*5
F:
So what would you say is the barrier between you and finding your own space or
being able to rent somewhere?
R:
I think I think it honestly it comes back to availability.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because if there was more available I don’t think prices would need to be as high.
F:
Okay yeh.
R:
That being said I know taxes keep increasing and, and so the cost of everything is
going up um what I use groceries for example what I used to be able to get for two
hundred dollars I mean it was bare bones but I could kind of skate by. Is now the same
about four hundred dollars like a lot of groceries seem to have doubled or tripled in
price and I’m just like what?
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I understand that part is their increasing costs kind of like here, the taxes went up
so all the property taxes went up so my rent increased. And so I understand that point
too and there’s people looking to make a profit but I think overall if there was more
available.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I think people would charge ah more decent or affordable rent because they couldn’t
get that much from somebody who’s desperate.
F:
So you think you need more competitive yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay yeh. That makes sense.
R:
That’s kind of a theory.
F:
Yeh. Market theory.
R:
Yeh. * 5
205
F:
No that’s all right. Um what do you feel is the biggest reason or the biggest driving
force behind the housing issues that you’re having? That um you aren’t able to find
somewhere to stay?
R:
It maybe narrow sighted but I think just not being able to afford it.
F:
Yeh. That’s what I was thinking, I didn’t want to um.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Put those words in your mouth but I I was wondering if you were on the same page,
yeh.
R:
‘Cause I mean they wouldn’t be ideal but there’s each time, there’s been at least one
where okay I this would be doable but it’s way out of my price range. And so yeh like
I know that my that eight hundred dollars is pushing it like I should be between six
and.
F:
And half of your AISH money yeh.
R:
Yeh and and that it would be hard like I’d have to ah like I’d have to lose my
telephone and um everything like and because they keep raising their prices and I have
the bare minimum for my phone as well and yet I know that would be something I’d
have to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Give up and so then but do you, because then I have no way to contact anybody,
nothing in an emergency.
F:
In this world it’s pretty difficult to not have a phone yeh.
R:
Yeh so yeh definitely I mean it’s not like there’s a whole bunch out there always but
definitely the affordability is my main issue.
F:
Yeh, yeh I thought that sort of how it sounded. That’s such a difficult one when
you’re on a fixed income but rents keep.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Fluctuating.
R:
Yeh it really is because and when I talked to AISH last about it their like well you can
earn up to eight hundred dollars a month part time and I’m like but if I can’t work part
time then then how is it because I know that well even if I could I know I’m an
unstable employee now because I get sick a lot. If I get hurt I’m out for weeks at a
time and there’s just like, like I was fired from a part time, just before I ended up not
being able to work. I was fired from a part time retail in a job, in a mall store.
F:
Yeh.
206
R:
Because their like we can’t rely on you. Like you’re absolutely right you can’t and
that was so hard for me because I, I know that I am reliable and punctual and all that
but because now I don’t have control over that it just I’m not.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’m not reliable anymore. Like I can’t I just can’t control that.
F:
Yeh.*5
R:
I it may not be the Stony Plain kind of field but in driving around and such.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I can only think of less than a handful of apartment available. Um it seems strange
but I know my sister just found one. We thought it was businesses but it turned out
that apartments were on top of the business. *5
R:
And yeh I can’t other than potentially offering subsidies or or building more
apartment buildings. I really can’t think of what else they can do um ‘cause I know the
city, well Spruce and Stony are growing but other than homes like I can’t think of
where people are going which would explain why there’s not a whole lot of
availability in apartments. Ah I see more and more like people are renting out homes
and or rooms in their homes ah but because that’s what I’m coming from that’s not
really what I what I’m looking for.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Ah and even even that I saw last the last couple times I looked people were asking
seven fifty, eight hundred just for a room in the basement and shared kitchen and pay
for laundry plus adding on for power and cable and all that I mean we don’t even have
tv, ah we do Netflix but that’s about it. *5
F:
It’s a lot cheaper than a cable package.
R:
It really is and you watch it a lot more than.*5
F:
And they stayed with the boys in so where?
R:
No I stayed with them just this year I moved out. So this year I moved seven times
between having two hospital stays. I’ve moved seven times. And it’s not that easy
like you’re at the mercy of the public to rent a room either in their basement or their
home, whoever’s opening up their home. So like I wondered if you’re doing a study
all you gotta do is look on KIJIJI and most people around here are using it for a room
207
to rent and there’s anywhere between sixty one or seventy seven to two hundred and
thirty one looking at any given time. Granted some of those people could be from
Edmonton but I was, I was even looking around and snooping for Edmonton homes
and there was one place that was I think only four hundred, charging for the room in
Edmonton. And there was more than two thousand that looked at that site.
F:
Wow.
R:
So.
F:
Just from that ad. So you’re getting that from the um?
R:
That was from an Edmonton area.
F:
New counter?
R:
Well no if you.
F:
KIJIJI page?
R:
Go on KIJIJI.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’ll just tell you how many hits that, that ad had.
F:
Right. Okay.
R:
So out here it can it I like last year when I was looking a lot of the time there I think it
was two hundred and thirty three was kind of an average. And it some of them while
they were still a new ad maybe seventy one.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I do think some of those people would have been from Edmonton right? Because
the ad’s from all over.*6
R:
To get housing or.
F:
Interesting. So.
R:
What’s in Stony Plain for housing? Do they look after their own or is it Edmonton
too?
F:
There’s no affordable housing, no technical affordable housing.
R:
But is there a subsidy for people to fill out that helps them with their rent? ‘Cause
there’s supposed to be a government subsidy.
F:
It falls under the Capital Region Housing. Like you were mentioning in your (inaud).
208
R:
See to me that’s not right. ‘Cause Whitecourt wasn’t, wasn’t ten thousand people
maybe twenty or thirty years ago when I was there and they had their own Welfare
office. As far as anyone getting their subsidy.
F:
It’s hard with us um being so close to the city to cut off the Capital Region Housing
there and start our own. I mean that’s why we’re doing this study is we need to find
out what the problems are and how we can fix them because I mean.*6
R:
With all the heart and Spruce and Stony and the Parkland area, and then there’s no
services.
F:
Yeh and that’s ah I mean getting, bringing that direct rent subsidy or the affordable
housing, the low income housing in is it’s a long process.
R:
I think Edmonton took too much power and their not looking out for, they, they took
on too much. And it wasn’t their right. Like that’s that’s how Spruce Grove and
Stony Plain um person who lives dwelling in Spruce Grove and Stony Plain should
feel.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
So. Because when I go to the city and they say there’s no housing and when I go to
the other office and they say there’s no housing. Like they should have had every
form available from Capital Housing for anybody in need because they are a
Government office.
F:
Well it’s definitely a problem that there’s no housing and that’s um that’s what we’re
hearing. That’s what we see. So hopefully we’ll be able to change that at some point
here because that’s um I mean it’s unacceptable for those people who don’t have a
place to live. Even one person without a place to live is one person too many so and
like I said our Council has been has been really good and really supportive and they
want to know what they can do but that’s ah that’s what we’re trying to figure out. *6
F:
Yeh.
R:
But, as far as housing goes that that’s my major comment like Spruce Grove is a big
enough little city and the area with Parkland that they could have had their own
housing years ago. And they obviously, no Mayor obviously cares, cared about any
poor people in town to take the bull by the horn and make housing for their own locals.
Both Stony Plain and Spruce Grove? Like how can I not say that when I come here
and there’s nothing.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
I wasn’t expecting I would be in need.
209
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But I could have been on, on if there was something here me and my, me and my, I
could have had my kids and me together and maybe the Government could have
helped me making sure I had the child support for each kids and then I wouldn’t need
it for any length of time.
F:
Yeh. Yeh that ah.
R:
There honestly was no help for me.
F:
That child support would have been a huge, huge advantage it sounds like. So how did
you find the place that you’re living in now?
R:
I just looked on KIJIJI.
F:
Just KIJIJI. You said you’ve moved seven times in the last year? Wow. Just in and
out of private, like renting a room?
R:
No I was in and out of the hospital, I was at my sisters, I was at another place here
renting in town.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I was at ah another place before that renting in town and then I had come from my
parents place too. Like they, she didn’t realize how hard it is to find any housing and
she doesn’t realize how hard it is to find work and, and to have honest ah honest wages
to make sure you can qualify for your housing, right? So.*6
R:
And then when there’s a waiting list of five years? And I I even called them on that. I
sent them an email to tell them I’d been on the waiting list with, with for more than
five years. They never even contacted me back. So I’m gonna fill out forms and see if
I can just keep my name on the waiting list for that apartment ‘cause it’s quite new.
F:
Now do you get help with filling out forms here at FCSS? I know that they can be, can
be really helpful with that form stuff or just sorting out.
R:
Here I probably could and I had actually been here for housing and they just gave me
two names of two apartments that I didn’t qualify for.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And they didn’t tell me.
F:
Didn’t qualify for?
R:
Here.
F:
For income or credit?
210
R:
That there was a rental supplement of any sort. So again this is where the public is
being reached and coming for help and that didn’t come up from the woman here that
there was a supplement available.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I need to know if that is available from the Edmonton CMHC for out here. And I
don’t think it is.
F:
Yeh that direct, I think she would have let you know.
R:
So that means the city and the town are shy of any help.
F:
Yeh, yeh I don’t know if that direct (inaud).
R:
So why should Edmonton look after another city and another town? That’s not right
either.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You can’t blame Edmonton, when it’s out here that did it right?
F:
Yeh they call it the Capital Region so I know there is an agreement, it, obviously it’s
not working as well as it should if you’ve had these troubles but um there is an
agreement. It should be working better than it is.
R:
The first, the first I looked enough on line with this year to find out about the subsidy.
And the only reason I wasn’t desperately looking on line is ‘cause I went to that
goven…government office and they said there was no subsidy. And I didn’t believe
that in a heartbeat but that’s what I was told.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So.
F:
That’s ah.
R:
I’m wondering how many more people were told that, so.
F:
Well I’m sure, yeh that direct rent subsidy I don’t know if that is, I think it’s at least
difficult to get out here if it is available. So I don’t think their trying to steer in the
wrong direction but I agree that’s it’s not helpful if um if you can’t really nail down
the answer. So without being able to get ahold of Capital Housing. Have you tried to
call them?
R:
But the thing is.
F:
Or just email?
211
R:
When you go to the city, when you come to this office, when you go to the other office
and you find out there’s nothing, you realize well there’s nothing. And nobody cared
to find out. *6
F:
No. That’s for sure. So what um we can wrap it up here it’s just about just about been
an hour, holy moly. Um, what would you like to be able to do to improve your
housing situation? What um what would need to happen or what supports would you
need in place? What would you like to do to improve your housing situation?
R:
Oh I’m just gonna wait, like I’ll just put up with it whatever I have to put up with.
And if I don’t like where I’m at I’ll find another room for rent or or my name will
come up on the list and I’ll try for the subsidy that’s four hundred and if I can’t get that
I can’t have that apartment. Well I could probably but I don’t qualify, they still need
you to qualify. And I won’t stick around Spruce Grove for when, forever you know
like I just won’t.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
It’s not going to be a permanent thing for me. It’s not, it’s not there’s nothing
appealing about Spruce Grove to me.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I haven’t had a nice time here.
F:
Well I’m so sorry to hear that.
R:
Well I mean I’m not alone. So.
F:
Now is there anything else before I turn off the recorder and let you go for the
morning? Um that you’d like to discuss about the housing out here, do you feel
you’ve covered?
R:
No I like.
F:
All the bases?
R:
I know roughly what’s available and if you don’t have any more information for me
about even one building that’s zoned off for that in either Stony or Spruce then you
know. I didn’t know it’s that bad.
F:
There is the affordable, affordable housing building in Spruce Grove. There’s not one
currently in Stony Plain. Do you have information on the one in Spruce Grove?
R:
Um that’s pardon me that’s the one I’m on the waiting list for.
212
F:
The waiting list for, okay. Yeh unfortunately at this point the only one um that I’m
aware of, out here but yeh like I mentioned that’s why we’re doing this study. I really
appreciate you giving your input.*6
R:
I’m twenty nine, I have a father out here that we don’t really see eye to eye so I
moved here to be a family and that kind of went haywire. And I’m stuck because I
can’t afford to move but my rent is just about thirteen hundred dollars.
F:
Yikes.
R:
For a two bedroom um there’s not much options out in Spruce Grove so it’s kind of
stay where I am and struggle and hope to get through.
F:
Yeh.*7
F:
Yeh. Good for you, good for you. So currently you’re in an apartment then?
R:
Yes.
F:
In Spruce here, you said it’s two bedroom. How long have you been there?
R:
November of 2013 I believe.
F:
Okay, so.
R:
Two and a half years.
F:
Yeh. 2013, yeh. Okay awesome. And when’s your lease up?
R:
It’s been up for awhile so.
F:
Okay.
R:
Every time the market goes up my rent goes up eighty or a hundred dollars, so.
F:
How often does that happen?
R:
Once a year.
F:
Yeh?
R:
So in November it’ll go up to thirteen eighty four, estimated.
F:
Really? That’s ah tricky.
R:
Yeh.*7
F:
What would you say are the biggest um the biggest causes of your housing issues?
213
R:
Lack of affordable housing, lack of help to get to be able to afford it like there should
be more subsidy programs. I think they should be building more houses out here.
More schools because even the school system right now it’s really messed up like one
school has twenty kindergarten classes but grade one there’s only two. So where and
that’s for every school so how are the kids gonna be divided? Because if there’s ten to
twenty kindergarten classes, twenty kids in each class like there’s so much to think
about when.
F:
Yeh, wow so twenty kindergarten classes that’s crazy.
R:
I don’t know how they do it.
F:
Yeh, in one school?
R:
Yeh and like right now my daughter because she has a speech problem she’s in
Broxton but she’s not gonna meet their requirements next year because she’s doing so
well so she’s going to go into a regular class.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
So then I have to walk her to school because the bus system isn’t hand to hand and I
don’t trust anybody with her.*7
F:
Oh okay. Yeh. No kidding, so what do you feel is preventing you from improving
your housing situation?
R:
Everything. The income, like I’m lucky because I have a really good psychiatrist and
because of my anxiety I can’t move.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I no longer feel safe there either because my sister know where I live.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I’m fighting for sole custody of my daughter and all the people in the building
now it makes it very leery to want to live there thinking ‘cause I have I’m , I’ve been
fortunate enough where my dad’s helped me so I have some really nice stuff. And if
an addict comes in and breaks in I’m screwed, I’ve lost everything.*7
F:
Yeh. Well do you um so I guess I was asking what supports you would need in order
to improve your situation into one that you would be happy with.
214
R:
Ah Social Services should be, if the rent goes up they should be upping the money as
well I think. There needs to be definitely be more housing because you can’t own on
Social Services so to rent anywhere you’re looking at least twelve hundred dollars.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And that’s not plausible anymore. With everything that’s going on in the economy
and the world and it’s people need help and I’m just hoping that this will help get more
housing out here because we need it.
F:
Yeh and that’s as I’m sorry to hear your situation.
R:
It sucks but it’s work.
F:
But I’m very thankful your sharing it with us because that’s why we’re doing this
study. That’s um trying to find out what people, what’s stopping people from finding
the housing that works for them so thank you so much for sharing it. Is there anything
else you wanted to discuss? Otherwise I’ll just turn the recorder off so my battery
doesn’t die.
R:
Um is this going to help hopefully get more housing out here or?
F:
Well what we’re doing um so we have the study. And once all of our results are
together, they’re going to be compiled and they go to the University of Alberta. We’ll
get back a final report and that’s what we’re going to use to set some priorities. This is
phase one of Stony Plain’s five year plan to reduce poverty and homelessness. So the
great thing about this is we have some regular good Town and Council support ah for
improving this. No one wants to see someone without a suitable place to live so this is
gonna help us figure out what the problems and hopefully we can take steps to address
those problems to reduce the poverty and homelessness.*7
F:
And it was all hygiene or was it affordability as well?
R:
Affordability I mean I even looked in Spruce Grove and the affordability was crazy it’s
like I could never afford that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like we’re talking between sixteen hundred and nineteen hundred a month. And that
was just for a two bedroom and I’m like wow. I went and looked at this one place and it
was so run down.
F:
Yeh.
R:
The gentleman that was renting it, I swear he was on drugs because it was like, wow I
am not living here.
F:
Yeh.
215
R:
Like he had video cameras everywhere and biker looking dude and he pulled me and
my, my spouse aside and my son was with us and he said, can you ask your son to go
outside? And I’m like, what? He’s like just so you know I have a medical marijuana
license, I’m like whoa, done, I’m out of here. Pit bulls all over it’s like what’s really
going on here? Yeh after that it was like, oh my god.
F:
No kidding, sounds like.
R:
It was pretty scary, yeh.
F:
Might not have been the full story.
R:
Oh yeh, yeh.
F:
Oh that’s crazy. So all right but so once you found the basement suite and you were
able to afford that one you’re happy there? Is it?*8
F:
Yeh. Nice. So you came out here specifically looking for ah the mobile home?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Did you guys have any trouble finding it? Was it sort of the first one you looked at?
Or was it?
R:
Pretty much the first it was right away.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like I actually didn’t expect to find one so quick but we found one very quick.
F:
Well that’s good.
R:
Yeh.
F:
And what are you paying there between your lot and mobile home?
R:
It’s expensive, um I pay I don’t pay lot so.
F:
Okay.
R:
And we don’t pay water ‘cause that’s included in our rent, so which is nice yeh.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So we pay fourteen fifty which is pretty high for rent.
F:
Yeh and that’s just renting you don’t own the?
R:
No.
216
F:
Mobile?
R:
No we don’t own it. Fourteen fifty for rent and then um we pay our gas and our
power.
F:
Okay.
R:
Which is depends on the time of year it’s cheaper you know in the summer but in the
winter it can get pretty high.
F:
Yeh no kidding.
R:
So it can get between power and heat can be three, four hundred dollars a month.*9
F:
Well um do you think there’s anything else we should know for addressing housing
issues in the community? Anything we haven’t touched on or that you’d like to
reiterate?
R:
Um I don’t think so. I think that’s the biggest thing I find out here is just the housing.
Like there is not a lot of reasonable housing.
F:
Price wise?
R:
Yeh um the community support is phenomenon like it’s way better than Edmonton.
You know like they have supports there but I think they just have so many more
people.
F:
Yeh.*9
R:
So other than that I I think the only thing that they really need out here is some sort of
more affordable housing I think.*9
F:
Yeh. And now is that as far as transportation, lack of anywhere else to go? Or
affordability?
R:
Affordability, um.
F:
Availability?
R:
Availability, I don’t know where I would move to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um right now we’re just kind of here.
F:
There you go.
217
R:
Paying extreme rent, but, what do you do? *10
F:
There you go. So when you came to Stony Plain, how was it finding an apartment?
Was it pretty easy, was it?
R:
It was pretty easy.
F:
Yeh?
R:
At the time. Now they say like um they’re completely full and I’ve looked at other
places to rent that are cheaper and there’s just nothing out there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Not even a basement suite.
F:
Really. So not private or through landlords or?
R:
No.
F:
Rental companies?
R:
It’s like wow.*10
F:
Yeh. There you go. So you had you didn’t have difficulty finding housing when you
first moved here but you mentioned that that’s changed and now you’ve looked for
somewhere else that might have a bit more room or be a bit more affordable and it’s just
not happening?
R:
No, there’s nothing unless I moved to to um Spruce Grove into that affordable housing
but there’s a wait list and I’ve been on the, what’s that called? Rent subsidy list?
F:
Yeh.
R:
Since I moved here in August so like two years, three years ago.
F:
Yeh just about three years.
R:
Yeh. So I don’t, I don’t qualify for that yet, so and they said that could take even a
couple more years so.
F:
Really? And do you hear from them or do you check in with them?
R:
Every year.
F:
Every year?
218
R:
Um hmm.
F:
So how, have you gone and looked at any other places for rent like you mentioned in
Spruce Grove or?
R:
No.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause that’s the only place I would move into is into the affordable housing.*10
F:
Can you think of any services that aren’t available in the Stony Plain area right now?
R:
Low income housing.
F:
That would be helpful, yeh. Yeh I hear that one.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
For sure.
R:
You know I, I do see that their building move over at Spruce Grove and I was gonna
look into that but.
F:
Yeh with the waiting list uh I know a number of people that are on the waiting list for
the low income housing so it’s a it’ll be really nice once people are able to find
somewhere.
R:
Is there anything like that coming to Stony Plain?
F:
That’s actually why we’re doing this study.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh is sort of figuring out what the needs are for this community um so it’s
conversations like this and like the survey you filled out that are really gonna help us
decide where to put our priorities.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
So.
R:
Well Stony Plain’s growing and if you you know younger community, younger people
coming here and staying here and then we’re gonna have to have something.
F:
Um hmm yeh you can’t continue growing.
R:
Or you’re gonna cap on the rent because every time your lease comes up it goes up a
couple hundred dollars.
F:
Is that what’s happened to you with the apartment:
219
R:
Yeh.
F:
What were you, do you know what you were originally paying two and a half years
ago? Just for curiosity.
R:
Hmm.
F:
Of how much it’s kind of gone up every year?
R:
I’m trying to think of what it was.
F:
I know it’s asking a lot, what were you paying three years ago?
R:
I don’t remember three years ago but I know um I signed a six month lease ‘cause I
wasn’t sure what was going on.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And then after that six months it went up fifty dollars I think a month and then I signed
a year contract, a year lease and then that went up another I think it was a hundred and
then again I signed another, another one.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Another year and it went up again so my contract is up in June again, the end of June.
F:
And it’s gone up.
R:
And it’ll go up again.
F:
At least a hundred and fifty dollars since.
R:
Two fifty.
F:
A month, two fifty a month.*10
F:
So what would you say is the main cause of these housing issues for yourself
personally?
R:
Um, lack of funds lack of availability um yeh like if you’re in a community where rent
is so high then I think whatever means you have should be able to at least pay for that
and then on top of that give you living expenses like I physically am physically
mentally cannot work. So to me the Government, if their gonna put me on their systems
should be at least paying my rent in the full not just a third of it and then say oh well
here’s a little bit for this and that and the other thing which is fine but and the end of it
all my other expenses or other like food budget and whatever is going to pay rent.
F:
And then there’s decisions to be made that shouldn’t necessarily have to be made.
R:
Right. Yeh.
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F:
So.
R:
Yeh I can understand okay like your, your family is now smaller so move into a
different buil….you know different um a two bedroom or a one bedroom whatever, I
can understand that but to not even pay half of the rent is just doesn’t make sense to me
so.
F:
Um hmm so the support you’re receiving doesn’t reflect.
R:
No.
F:
The true cost of living in this community.
R:
No of course not.*10
F:
So do you feel like anything besides the income piece is preventing you from finding
more appropriate housing or more affordable housing or improving your situation?
R:
Well I’ve looked and there’s just nothing here. So I really haven’t been able to think
about moving so.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause of one that’s a cost I can’t afford and it’s not like you’re gonna get moving
expenses paid for by the company you’re working with or whatever so.*10
F:
That’s good to hear. So what a we’re getting pretty close to the end here. So we can
wrap up right away but what would need to happen or what supports would you need in
place in order for you to improve your situation?
R:
Rent cap would be nice um income geared housing would be good, um affordable
housing in Stony Plain. I know their trying to get more in Spruce Grove but I really,
one I can’t afford to move there but if I had to I guess I would.
F:
Yeh.
R:
If I was on the, if I was able to get in there and have decent rent.
F:
If that would make the difference yeh. So for you mostly it’s been the availability and
affordability.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Do you think there’s anything else that we should know for addressing housing issues
in this community?
R:
I can’t think of anything.
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F:
Okay. Fair enough. I think we’ve driven the affordability and availability right home
so no that’s a really important.
R:
Unfortunately it takes a long time to build that kind of stuff so.
F:
It does but that’s why we’re looking at it now. I know for a lot of people it couldn’t
come soon enough.*10
F
So how much where, how much was the second house in Stony Plain charging you?
R
Twelve hundred bucks but that wasn’t including any.
F
So twelve hundred plus utilities.
R
Yeh and he wasn’t working out of town so he was doing town jobs for eighteen dollars
an hour.
F
Yeh that would make it.
R
Yeh and I wasn’t able to work because of Alana so.
F
Difficult. So have you had to, you’ve had to move a couple of times?
R
Um hmm.*11
F
Yeh. Awesome. So what would you say is the core cause of your housing problems
then is it the.
R
It’s just the affordability of everything. Everything’s sky rocketing like just to get even
an apartment now is fourteen hundred bucks a month not including anything. And then
to like me not being able to work ‘cause of my child right and to afford all her medical
stuff plus all the special needs that she has I have to be in a house and the house is a
mortgage payment. Like even for a three bedroom little house is like two thousand
bucks a month.
F
Yeh and it’s hard when it’s you’re paying a mortgage payment but you’re not owning
anything.
R
Yeh.
F
You know your rental is as much as. So would you say, what do you feel is preventing
from being able to improve your situation? Would you say it goes back to the same
thing? That just the affordability that.
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R
The affordability. Like I was looking at because everybody’s telling me to go. Sorry
where were we?
F
We were. What’s I guess, what’s in the way of you improving your situation?
R
Pretty much the affordability you have everything because the all the doctors and
everything are telling me, even my family physician said that if I got my LPN he would
hire me on. Because I would explain to people what even a CK Level was, I was
explaining to a nurse what that was. And so I was looking into student funding but
because I’m black listed because the black listed means that like I don’t have a job. I
can’t have a job in order to make payments because of my daughter’s illness. I would
not be eligible for student funding so basically I don’t have the money to to be able for
student funding to be able to fund me to go to school or better myself. *11
F
So what um do you think there’s anything else that we should know for addressing
housing issues in the community? Like you’re in a pretty unique situation but overall
just the issues with the availability of affordable housing. Do you feel that there’s
anything else that?
R
Well I think like putting up more sites with better like prices for housing like for people
who can’t afford a mortgage type thing would be back because literally you’re going
through. You’re going through. And um just like so people could have a place to go to
like see okay well that one’s only. So like it’s literally it would be great if there was
like places there for like fourteen hundred bucks or lower on one website so people
would look at and be able to see.*11
R:
Hep C but um on the treatment it affects your white blood count so what I felt is I
wasn’t gonna do a housing change.
Yeh.
Like at that time I didn’t have the energy to move like even though it was a struggle
where I lived it was like just going day to day.
And that’s when you were living in the trailer?
The trailer yeh.
On the land where the shop is now.
Right.
Okay so did they have to howcome you were in the trailer and not the shop at that
point? Was it just not the the furnace and the?
Well my sister was inside the shop.
Okay.
And she didn’t want me to live with her, we had previous like ah disputes. We were
roommates for five years and moved quite a bit and mostly because we moved quite a
bit that she didn’t, she didn’t want to attempt to do it but my father being like that he
has four daughters and not just one.
Yeh.
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
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R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Like I was allowed there as much as she was allowed there and he could see that I had
a factor with housing that was not like something, he wasn’t ready to move either any
of us in his house but you know what I mean?
Yeh.
He was you know he like as long as there was no problems on the space and the we got
along with his workers when they were there during the day. Like once they’re not
there, like especially during winter times there’s not very many people around. In the
summer it gets a little bit more busy but.
So then there’s workers in the shop during the day fixing the equipment and stuff?
Yeh.
Okay so right now it’s just you in the shop and there’s no one in the trailer.
Yeh.
So you sort of have the shop and the property?
Well there’s workers right now too.
Right.
Yeh but there’s no one on the property.*12
F:
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
on EI.
F:
R:
F:
Right.
R:
for me wouldn’t be something I could afford.
F:
Could reliably.
F:
R:
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R:
Yeh, so I’ve never went back to signing anything for like thirteen hundred or in the
case with my roommate ‘cause I charged him less that I was gonna pay.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I was gonna pay a thousand and he was gonna pay five hundred but I’ve I decided not
to start signing rental contracts that got me in binds so.
F:
That you were tied to?
R:
Yeh. Even though I’ve lived in some, what more than struggling situations I felt that
at least in a legal perspective I haven’t been at residential tenancy hearings any more.
F:
There you go.
R:
So no one’s looking for money from me.*12
R:
But the thing with it is you know like I you know there was an incident with my dog in
the apartment building that should never been where they asked me to leave the
apartment. But I was asked to leave over like my dog having a fight with another dog
and nothing happened in the terms of you know actually the little dog bit my dog and I
took the little dog and the owner of the little dog to the emergency youth, emergency
pet ah vet but ah the thing with it is I owned a pit bull. So like I couldn’t just like look
at it like that was gonna be okay so I was renting off an engineer, he was from Egypt
actually.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And he had bought this apartment, condo for his daughter but she ended up studying in
Toronto so like it was air conditioned in summer which if I ever live in an apartment
again I would like an air conditioned apartment but.
F:
They get a little stuffy in the summer.
R:
I just think that what I found is I was I needed to experience something different ‘cause
I was working to pay my rent kind of thing ‘cause my rent was so high so like at that
point in time I didn’t see Seba Beach without, I thought I would make it at Seba
Beach. It was like a make it or break it situation but I think that in terms the woman,
the woman that I rented from she had raised her kids there and then I don’t know when
she’d gotten married but in court she kind of posed herself as a single woman even
though she wasn’t a single woman like she lived in a new house. I just know maybe in
a different situation with someone who kind of wanted to work with me, moving out of
town would have worked for me but I was in like a place where a woman wanted to
you know sell a house. It went up for sale after I left and she wanted me to rent to own
it. Right and I did look at um doing a rent to own trailer for sixteen hundred dollars a
month.
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F:
Like a mobile home?
R:
Yeh a mobile home and what I ended up doing to keep my job was financing a car
because I didn’t drive a car that I could keep the youth like I used to drive youth
around and then they’d give me mileage.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I did lock myself into a five year term of a car but I’m actually down to very soon it
will be two years.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I’m over halfway through the car financing and I see the end of it now. Like I see
that I can survive this and I can be more free to have more money for rent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause that’s been four hundred and eighty bucks a month. So that’s also played into
the situations of why I don’t have enough money for rent. Right.*12
R:
And I haven’t like applied for apartments yet or looked around to see if something can
work out but I what I know is like I went on one ah this two gay guys were
interviewing people for this place they had.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I went to this really beautiful house in off you know kind of down west
somewhere right.
F:
In Stony?
R:
Past Stony.
F:
So rural?
R:
Yeh rural thing and ah they had had a problem with their former tenant like having a
dog and the dog had all these puppies and they kept the dog outside. So it didn’t sound
like they had worked out the situation with their former tenant before but I did go on
like a lengthy interview when I was for Native Counselling with these two gay guys.
And another place I tried for is a trailer out by Alberta Beach.
F:
Okay.
R:
I know someone they moved to Grimshaw now but this hair dresser lived in this trailer
and she wanted out of her contract so she put an ad in KIJIJI or something so I phoned
her up and the owner never got back to me but the trailer I think was twelve hundred
bucks a month.
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F:
Yeh.
R:
So like I think that I could if I have work I could probably look at paying a thousand
dollars a month for rent and getting something like a trailer. Some kind of living
situation where people are like I see the odd one where people are living in the county
and you know they got a place to rent to people right.
F:
Yeh. Or part of a house, a suite yeh.
R:
A mother in law suite or something right.
F:
So when you left the place over the doggy day care in Spruce Grove, did you look for
anymore official housing or were you tired, like you mentioned you were tired of
dealing with the tenancy board and dealing with landlords and whatnot you just went
straight to.
R:
My dads.
F:
The trailer by the shop. Okay.
R:
Well I’d never done that before.
F:
You were just tired of renting and dealing with landlords? *12
R:
Well I had actually had never not living in an apartment setting or basement suite or
whatever like the things that I had never not done is I had never hauled water.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’ve never I still haven’t chopped wood I probably learn in the summer but they teach
us there at the Ctiy of Edmonton. I’ve never chopped wood, I never had lived in the
county other than Seba Beach. So when I got there they put the trailer up by the sewer
so that I did have a flushing toilet and the water was running but everything broke
down. Like the electrical went out on the trailer, the plumbing stopped like everything
the trailer fell apart right. It was just an old trailer so the maintenance on the trailer
would cost more than the trailer’s worth to fix right. But what I did learn like I started
to have to haul water like only my sister had water, there is a big bottle of water in the
shop. That’s how you have drinking water but myself I would you know haul the
small gallons of water and start buying drinking water and start using the pool so I
found the system ‘cause I had city passes to have free swimming in the city. I had the
free leisure passes in the city.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I’ve applied and I got ahold of Vicki I believe her name is at the Tri Leisure and
said I’m not using this for leisure I’m using this to have a shower in order to go to
work I need to be clean. So can I apply more often and she didn’t see a problem she
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says I can apply as often as I need it. So even though FCSS when it wasn’t Kye I’d
have to explain sometimes it’s okay by Vicki.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I think I had one free pass where you didn’t have to pay the twenty I always check
that but she only gives them to me knowing probably that I’m gonna get lots in a year
is the swimming passes. Right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then what I had to do once I moved into my dads is I’d pay for the septic calling
out there and this month I was able to pump it out myself ‘cause there is a pump
hooked up but in the winter time everything’s frozen all the hoses and stuff. I had
never done it before so I didn’t go try.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I was able to manage that and it was kind of like a bad story of how the Robin
Williams and the RV gets poop on his pants like I gotta get a better system for hooking
up the hoses but you just pump the septic into the bush ‘cause there’s like deer and I
even seen a female moose last year like there’s lot of wild animals out there. There’s
been a bobcat there’s an own on the property, you can hear the woodpeckers so like
there are some things like when I moved to Seba I was scared of coyotes.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Now I don’t really walk in the bush but.
F:
No.
R:
I don’t fear that the coyotes that I hear that are sounding so close are gonna come and
get me so the experience has been good for me in some ways but I’m like I’m a person
that always just kinda paid rent had these certain services and had no idea when they
stopped what it was gonna feel like right.
F:
So right now, you do have running water and a bath tub and what not but how long
were you living in the trailer with no running water, no plumbing, no sewage, no
shower.
R:
Well at the beginning I didn’t use the tub so I never had a tub in there but I did have
water where I could wash my dishes and use the toilet so that was probably for less
than a year I would say that that happened. And not over the winter, so the first first
like spring, summer that I was there I had the use of the sink. And then once the trailer
wasn’t properly winterized ‘cause that’s another thing I didn’t anticipate needing to do
some of the pipes burst holes and I got ahold of like the guy who had helped, he was a
worker for my dad and he wasn’t working for my dad anymore but I got ahold of him
and he felt that I should get a totally new sink.
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F:
Yeh.
R:
To be able to hook up the water and so I would just use a hose at that point and kinda
make myself an outdoor system of heating water outdoors and washing the dishes
outside so a table and a sink like that. And so I used the pool. So I lived like that for
um you know two summers I did stuff outside and two years I lived like using, like I
bought myself a little kinda porta potty.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Thing from campers village where you change the bags inside the porta potty and then
you have to take them and throw them in the outhouse or on the, we do burn garbage
sometimes so you’d burn garbage but. I lived with no toilet for two years and no bath
for years, and electricity. And then I gave up watching tv for five or six months but I
do watch quite a bit now.
F:
Yeh.*12
F:
And what does sil stand for?
R:
Semi Independent living. So they have someone work in an office and the youth live
in their own suites and their under age youth like some of them are seventeen not
eighteen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But the child services like they still pay for them to live there until their twenty three.
So their apartment’s paid for and their food they get food through food either money or
grocery coupons but as adults I think that like for myself I don’t think I would belong
in like a sort of three quarter way house for people coming off drugs or whatever. I
did live in one at one time in the city, three quarter way house but I think there’s
housing like low cost housing for people with like other needs like addiction needs or
um having places that look at housing needs because when what I said about the sil job
part of our job for awhile is they told us to phone up apartments and ask them if they
would take youth to live there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like would you have a seventeen year old come and live in your apartment, would you
have an eighteen year old live in your apartment. How much is your rent? Well of
course the rents were too high and they didn’t do that so it didn’t work out right that it
happened but they did invest some time into doing that and I think that’s the thing here
is how would the housing change where some people that weren’t pet friendly would
be pet friendly. Or some people would say well could you look at lowering your
damage deposit? To let people come in.
F:
Okay.
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R:
Like if maybe there was a housing worker that could help people.
F:
So sort of negotiate on your behalf.
R:
Right.
F:
Okay. That’s what you think would help you say when you’re leaving when you have
to leave the shop eventually you think the biggest, the biggest help for you in finding a
new place to live would be some kind of worker to reach out on your behalf?
R:
Well that I think that helps and I think the other thing that helps is like not just for me
but for everybody in general is it’s like if ah like years ago I worked when I started
school and they had rental agencies where all they did the company is take the ads
right but they would take them internally through this company so they didn’t have to
place an ad in the paper. The company would place the ad for them and like we don’t
have any kind of housing workers here is what I’m saying like social workers don’t out
here don’t deal with housing at all. Like the two social workers that sit in Spruce
Grove for income support they don’t help people get housing at all. Like they you
know give you do you through a work source you know work search stuff they’ll give
you help with that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know they’ll tell you how much you’re allowed for rent which I think is about
four hundred dollars right that they give a workable person. But where are you gonna
go with four hundred dollars? Like in the city they suggest I go live at Dwayne’s
place. Which is an old backpackers hostel which used to be a hotel converted where
people could have their meals and have a suite right.
F:
Okay.
R:
And like I don’t find that that was suitable for me because first of all I was off drugs
twenty three years when I was seeking help so I don’t really want to be with everybody
that quit yesterday. But that being said I think if you have a worker that you talk to
and they go well Denise you gotta give up this or you gotta settle for this maybe they
don’t even have to phone about the places for you but it’s kinda somewhere where
they have information. Well did you know that there’s openings in these apartments or
something like.
F:
Okay.
R:
Like people look at this stuff about the housing problems here.
F:
So somewhere dedicated connecting you with housing that exists?
R:
Right.
F:
Okay.*12
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R:
Yeh no I just think that you know like I guess the you know I’m gonna pursue maybe
some of the housing out here still and maybe I’ll come back and talk to Kye about how
it’s going for me. Because she is a person you know I’ve mentioned other than not
kinda talk to anyone. Like tell her how it’s affected me or whatever like that and the
deal with it um is you know I’m sure people are trying you know what I mean like you
know I don’t I’m not trying to come off sounding like everybody that sits in their nice
house with their barbque’s looking out on street thinking they don’t care about people.
Like they have these initiatives I was reading about the one where their gonna put
sweat lodges in Edmonton down where fox farms was and I work with that man one of
the elders, Will Campbell he was out here doing some work right but someone has to
be in charge of the money they would put forward. But I think that there needs to be
more money put in to housing in terms of what’s going on and how do you help the
people get the housing and if you can’t help them directly through um even with the
Tri Leisure they told me that they have no monthly passes that they can give out free
now. I think that should be looked at and I think other things like the Parkland Food
Bank expanding the type of food their giving out to maybe involve more perishable
food.
F:
Now did you know of anyone else that was using the Tri Leisure Centre the way that
you were to sort of shower and clean up that was in a.
R:
Well I met somebody that I’d met through a the Twelve Step program that was living
out on an acreage with their water cut off ‘cause they hadn’t paid their bill, that was
they were doing that.
F:
That was doing the same?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Cleaning up there and stuff. Well you are very resourceful you figured that one out so
okay I’m gonna turn this guy off for now. *12
6
Populations at risk in Stoney Plain
6.1 Teens/Youth
R:
Well ah we deal with it a lot at Outreach. Most of our kids, I guess you wouldn’t call
them homeless in the traditional sense of homeless. They live with their friends
sometimes um they’ll be one of the them who’s getting some sort of government
assistance and so many of them will be staying with them or their parents friends will
take them in, in the short term. Usually ‘cause most of these kids are having conflict
in the home that they’re in. Sometimes the conflict is, there’s shared conflict, and
sometimes they are just a victim of the conflict. There’s a lot of substance abuse
issues that are tied in with this. Least with the kids that I deal with.*1
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R:
R:
F:
R:
Um hmm.
R:
F:
The key chain.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Of all of the.
R:
All ages. *1
F:
Any other sub-populations that you guys see a lot of? They’re either homeless or at
risk of becoming homeless, we touched on the single moms, single men, those with
mental health or addictions issues. Any age groups or ethnicities or status?
R:
Youth. Youth is a big one for sure. That in between you can’t live at home anymore
for whatever reasons. Perhaps domestic violence, perhaps addictions, perhaps mental
health and yet their still trying to go to school. They have no job. Where do they get
support and where do they find housing? Again the landlord’s not gonna want the
sixteen year old to be renting a room and where do find the financial assistance
anyways? Um that’s where we get a lot of that, that couch surfing population we
know nothing about. Um that the teenagers just going to stay with a friend or and
eventually sometimes those couches run out and where to go.
R:
Yeh I was gonna say young adults like between sixteen and and twenty five for exactly
the same reason, or their pregnant or their parenting and um you know life happens
and they perhaps are staying at home and they have that family support. Um but you
know there’s some, there’s some young girls that are going to I always say it wrong uh
Braymar? Is that the name of the school? So they’re getting on the bus at six thirty in
the morning to go, with their little one in a car seat to go to downtown Edmonton to
get on another bus to get to the school to go to school all day because there’s a daycare
there. And then getting on the bus at whatever time they have to, to come back to the
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community. So good for them. Right? That they’re doing that like wow that’s really
amazing to see. That’s not gonna last you know that’s just a reality right, they can’t do
that with a little one at seventeen years old. Right? *3
6.2
Single parents
R:
I see a cross all spectrums from the guys living in the bush to the ones being abused
and so they’re now homeless ‘cause they can’t afford the the place that they’ve been
sharing with their partner. To um lots of young moms, that’s a big population. And
their housing is very unstable even if they have housing the reality is that they can’t
maintain it. Um so they definitely can’t maintain it on financial supports that they get
from the government. They need to be working but even if it’s, it’s low income um
lots of women leaving situations where there’s domestic or not that haven’t worked
and they’re looking for housing for themselves and their children and the reality is is
that their marginally employable. For the most part they’ve been staying at home for
the last ten, fifteen years and getting that job to support themselves is almost
impossible. And the housing is way too expensive. *1
R:
Lots of people with children. * 2
R:
Single income families, it’s a big one too.
R:
The single moms, especially the young ones.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Because that’s the only way they stayed in a home is they kind of go from guy to guy
and they kinda end up with more kids on the way. And it just kind of, that’s how they,
yeh that’s how they they battle homelessness is they just find the next guy.
R:
Yeh.
R:
To support them.
F:
Give them a place to stay.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Sure.
R:
Right now the young moms I deal with a lot of them are staying with their parents
which is awesome.
233
R:
Yeh if they have.
R:
But if we had.
R:
Family around. *2
F:
So how do you see that in comparison to Spruce Grove or Parkland County rural?
R:
More um single family homes, single families in Spruce Grove um that’s what I see
more of.
F:
Why do you think that is?
R:
It could be the type of housing here, ah.*2
R:
It’s unreal.
F:
Do you have dependents? You said you have one.
R:
I have a daughter and I love to do stuff for her but it makes it hard because after rent
and bills I have like thirty dollars left for the month.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I have to try and figure it out and it’s not easy.*7
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I don’t know how parent s, especially single parents are expected to survive.
F:
Yeh. So how has um being a single mom, do you think affected your ability to find or
keep appropriate housing?
R:
It makes it really hard because you wanna do everything for the child so that their not
feeling left out or, what’s the word, unloved or you know ‘cause her dad’s not around.
And she she has an attachment to any male that comes around because she’s missing
that. So I try to be both parents and do everything for her but it’s really hard because
after rent and everything you have a certain amount that you can spend on food and
then if you smoke you can’t smoke because you can’t afford it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I’m trying to do everything by myself and maintain my sanity and it’s very hard.*7
234
R:
I’m a forty year old female. I have two children, one that’s living with me right now,
one that’s with my mother. I’m a Health Care Aide by trade and I don’t know what else
to tell you.*8
F:
Nice. With the one dependent, how old’s the one dependent?
R:
Thirteen.
F:
Boy, girl?
R:
Boy.
F:
Nice, you’ve got your hands full.
R:
Oh yes. *8
R:
I just think the affordability like and it’s not just even for single parents, like you know
even double income families some double income families just don’t make enough.
Like the minimum wage in in Canada is ridiculous. There’s no way you could live off
that. Like it just floors me, even for somebody let’s say, let’s say I didn’t work health
care. Let’s say I worked at, at the Dollar Store. There is no way full time I could pay
my rent, my bills, my medications, child school costs, for don’t even mention after
school activities.
F:
Yeh.*8
R:
Okay I am almost forty one, I’ll be forty one next week. Um I am a single parent of
two. I am on disability and I live in a two bedroom apartment here in Stony Plain. *10
F:
So how do you feel that being a single parent has affected your ability to either find or
keep housing in this area? Or do you feel that it hasn’t?
R:
Um I really don’t think it has. I’ve always been single so.*10
R
Okay I’m twenty three, my name’s Kayla. I have two little ones, one’s known as a
critically ill child and the other one’s healthy as can be and she’s five.*11
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6.3
Seniors
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
So your mom lived in the van with you?
Yeh.
This fall?
Yeh.
She’s eighty eight years old.
Yeh.*4
R:
And older population, too like I mean we do get like the one the sixty too like I mean
marginally housed. There’s fifties, forties, like it’s across every age group and it’s
across men, women, everything.*
R:
We get people too at retirement age but don’t have the funds to retire. So they need to
keep working in order to pay their rent but they physically can’t do what they’ve been
doing their whole life so.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Our clientele is more the sixty-five plus and I have to be honest in that clientele I do
not see ah many people coming to me at that age that they don’t have a home. That
their either well they could be staying with family so I guess you could consider that as
not having a home ah but they’re not in emergency crisis. But I do get the calls for the
let’s say fifty-five to to sixty.
R:
Absolutely.
R:
Four. Like you know.*1
R:
Ah on the seniors side of things we’re finding more and more seniors um the housing
issue becomes even a a bigger problem if they’ve never lived in the community. Um
because when it comes to lodges and things like that, there’s a waiting list and part of
that waiting list in the past there’s always been a question, do you live in the
community? If you don’t, that’s a mark against you. So for instance my parents who
are aging and live in St. Paul um and my sister and I both live out in this area. I”ve
already started to tell them you’ve got to start moving this way so when you hit a lodge
or a long term unit that I can actually be here to support you. Um because I see my
mom and my grandmother in it and you have to be in the same community. So for the
aging population housing is an issue too because there, the facilities there’s not a lot of
facilities out here. And yet our population has grown tremendously but they forgot
about the growth for the seniors. Um and as the populations aging and we’re having a
lot more seniors in our community as we go up um a hundred turns 65 a day so, so that
236
just tells you the population is is growing. But there’s nothing out here, like, housing
keeps growing but the seniors housing isn’t growing. So I’m finding the seniors are,
no place to go. It’s time to move off the farm but there’s no place to go.*1
R:
Um well the youth clients are more already here and just because they can’t move
farther than their own community so their couch surfing. But when it comes to seniors
I’m finding their coming out from the county. Um and because there’s no places in the
county ah like subsidized homes. Because you go from ah and I know our Ministry is
looking at this right now is you go from living in a home and most of them are
farmers. Um from there when you sell your farm, what are your next alternative and
it’s not sell the farm and still live in the county with my neighbours and everything but
live in a subsidized or lodge. ‘Cause there is no lodges in the next available lodge for
some of them is Stony Plain or Onoway.
R:
Or Evansburg.*1
R:
My clients.
R:
So it’s (inaud).
R:
Don’t have a choice but to stay in the area. The seniors.
F:
So why do you say that?
R:
Because their family is still around here or their family is too far away and they just,
this is where they are and this is where their staying and they don’t see it as an option
so even though their homeless or their struggling to make their payments and what not,
they’re not willing to look at moving into a a different municipality or moving closer
with their kids or anything of that nature. ‘Cause it’s either too far or this is where I
grew up and this is where I’m dying. Like this is, that’s a lot of what I hear, this is
where I grew up and this is where I’m gonna end. You know and I get a lot of that so
when I get clients who are homeless or struggling with living their costs and what not.
Um there’s no other option I mean they can’t pay their utilities this month and they’re
far behind and their utilities are gonna get cut off. We’re trying to find somehow to
get the utilities back up and say, no matter what give them all year long summer and
winter, here’s your budget give them a hundred dollars each month. Even though
you’re over paying in the summer, it’ll balance out in the winter. And so we’re trying
to tell people that. ‘Cause they don’t want to leave their home, they still want to live
there. So in order to do that you gotta budget, so one of the things you don’t want to
do is miss a payment on utilities. You know that kind of thing ‘cause they don’t
wanna leave their place. You know and so once you find them a place they don’t want
to leave that place. And especially when it’s in their own community. I know we’ve
had, in Onoway, no Villeneuve opened up a place and it’s a very nice place but my
seniors are like, yeh it’s beautiful but it’s in the middle of where? What are my
237
options to go shopping? How do I get shopping when I don’t have transpor…when I
don’t have my driver’s anymore? Ah when my family can’t come then what? What
am I gonna do if I need something and nobody can come and bring it ‘cause I’m way
out here. It’s a beautiful facility for those who have family who live there, it’s a
beautiful facility. But for my seniors who can’t find anything but they can get in there
‘cause there’s an accommodation opening, they’re not willing to do it. And you, you
can’t force them even though they can become completely homeless, you can’t force
them to go there because seriously then I’m dealing with them phoning about
transportation and how do I get my meds? And I’m lonely and I’m, oh my god like.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So as a service provider it it I get it.*1
R:
You know I work handling early childhood and my seniors so I kinda, I see the youth
as an issue. Seniors not as high as the youth but that middle stage and when I say
seniors I talk sixty-five and over. Where people struggle is between fifty and sixtyfive, fifty-five and sixty-five. Because a lot of them at that point either for health
reasons lose their jobs or there is no jobs or so it’s a really, that’s the age group that
falls through the cracks. And when we have meetings and I talk with other people that
talk openly not just senior related, I’m hearing people between thirty and sixty like to
me that is even higher homeless area than I figured out here. So it’s not just youth, just
seniors. Like that middle age group is getting, we’re forgetting them. There is more
than I think we see or know about. And that’s why this study for me I think is gonna
open maybe some of that information up. ‘Cause you see I mean you hear of people
the families who are living in a tent at the trailer park.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Well that’s homeless. Yes it’s kids and it’s youth that are but the mom and dad are
there and their what? Thirty, forty years old. That’s homeless and like when we talk
about those families quite often.
R:
Yeh.
R:
We’re thinking more of the youth and the kids that are in that tent.
R:
Yeh.
R:
We’re forgetting about that parent who’s thirty or forty. *1
F:
That makes sense. Okay um for our next question here then we’ll take a quick break.
Uh which populations do see as most at risk for homelessness in our community? Is
there any group that jumps out you that you’re seeing? It sounds like there’s a really
238
diverse group across the board. You’re seeing all ages, all citizenship, status’ out of
province um but is there any one that jumps out to you that’s struggling the most with
these housing issues?
R:
Elders.
F:
Yeh?
R:
I see, I see elders taking the brunt end of the stick ‘cause the nowadays the kids grow
up fast. Back then the elders didn’t grow up fast so they so like she was saying they
want to be by family right? So they want to bring in their homeless people and then it
becomes a problem for them. So they end up moving on somewhere else.
F:
Okay.
R:
Maybe living with their daughter someplace a little more peaceful. So the elders
always get the brunt end of the stick back home.
F:
Okay.
R:
And yet they’re trying to be so nice but they take their being taken advantage of.
F:
Interesting.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Well if it’s anything like Paul Band too they’re the only ones with money because they
get their pension incomes.
R:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
And they get the old age security and the GIC and so they’re the only ones with money
so everyone comes in and moves in with them and then.
R:
R:
Yeh, that’s.
Suddenly their seventy five years old and supporting three generations of family.
F:
Right.*2
R:
And like I heard there’s other seniors that have problems like paying their utility bills
or they start to have problems right on their budgets. Even thought that they have
accommodation and all I know is if there was more like um I don’t know if there was
more maybe public awareness that there is people out there. *12
239
6.4
Immigrants/Migrants ( out of country and out of province)
R:
Um although I would say I’ve seen a change in just the dynamics like the school
population in general. You do have more you know um people that they move from
Grande Prairie for a short period of time and then they’re here for a short period and
then they’re out to Drayton Valley and they. Do you know what I mean, like they just
seem to move more. Um yeh or they’re from Eastern Canada living here while
somebody is working in Ft McMurray.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So see a little bit more of that than what it used to be ten years ago. Um and certainly
more of an immigrant population although that’s not a homeless population, that’s.
F:
So you would say that the homeless are at risk of becoming homeless population that
you deal with is still mostly local?
R:
I’d say mostly local.
F:
Although.
R:
Yeh.
F:
The community may have changed.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay. *1
F:
So do you mean, coming from out of province or out of country?
R:
Out of province.
F:
Out of province?
R:
Yeh ‘cause especially from the Maritimes and B.C.
R:
And Ontario.
R:
And Ontario, yeh.
R:
Yeh, B.C.
F:
Okay. * 2
240
F:
For sure. So what about you Sherry you’ve seen lots of life long residents are seeing
the same thing a lot of coming in from out of province or out of country?
R:
Their (inaud) a complete mix.
F:
Yeh?
R:
I see a little bit of everybody yeh it just depends what happened in their lives and yeh
but yeh we’ve got from clients from Africa, clients from England, clients from down
the road and they grew up in town, yeh. *2
R:
I probably see mostly Stony Plain, Parkland County residents but um I think over the
last two years a lot more people coming from out east as well and wanting to live here
and being referred by word of mouth to our office.
R:
Primarily from this area, Stony Plain and you know as far as west as Wildwood. But
some people do come from Edmonton and Devon. I’m not sure if Devon is considered
in the community but the majority of them are from the area.
F:
Okay.
R:
There’s a few who have come from out of country but they’ve been um minority. *3
R:
I had to I’d say the majority too probably stay in the area. I’ve had some that have
gone to Edmonton or have had to a couple that went to B.C. just to kind of flee. Flee
the abuse and because staying in a small community with the offender right there who
are at risk and so they have left the community but the majority still stay. But I’ve
only doing it for eight months so it’s not a long time.*3
6.5
Working Poor
R:
Working poorer people who just immigrated out here from somewhere say in Eastern
Canada where you sold your house for a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars. Well
when you get here that’s what you can afford to buy and move into. But that’s the.*1
6.6
First Nations
R:
I think our First Nation population deals with this more than yeh, the non First Nation
population. Um and they’ve got a system all to their own where they live with
Grandma or Grandpa or live with Aunt and Uncle.
241
R:
Um hmm.*1
R:
R:
F:
R:
Um hmm.
R:
F:
The key chain.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Of all of the.
R:
All ages. *1
F:
So do you find they often leave your First Nation community?
R:
Sometimes.
F:
Okay.
R:
They have the barriers to cross and they come back.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So you see a lot of them trying to make it somewhere else.
R:
Yeh.
F:
And when it doesn’t work out.
242
R:
Yeh.
F:
Come back. Okay. When they leave, where do you most often see them going? Is it
to Edmonton? Or is it like Susan says they avoid those big cities, do you see them
coming more to this area, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove?
R:
Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, some Vancouver.
F:
Okay.*1
F:
R:
F:
‘Cause you’re Metis?
And I’m Metis.
Yeh.*12
6.7
Families/Returning Families
R:
You know I work handling early childhood and my seniors so I kinda, I see the youth
as an issue. Seniors not as high as the youth but that middle stage and when I say
seniors I talk sixty-five and over. Where people struggle is between fifty and sixtyfive, fifty-five and sixty-five. Because a lot of them at that point either for health
reasons lose their jobs or there is no jobs or so it’s a really, that’s the age group that
falls through the cracks. And when we have meetings and I talk with other people that
talk openly not just senior related, I’m hearing people between thirty and sixty like to
me that is even higher homeless area than I figured out here. So it’s not just youth, just
seniors. Like that middle age group is getting, we’re forgetting them. There is more
than I think we see or know about. And that’s why this study for me I think is gonna
open maybe some of that information up. ‘Cause you see I mean you hear of people
the families who are living in a tent at the trailer park.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Well that’s homeless. Yes it’s kids and it’s youth that are but the mom and dad are
there and their what? Thirty, forty years old. That’s homeless and like when we talk
about those families quite often.
R:
Yeh.
R:
We’re thinking more of the youth and the kids that are in that tent.
R:
Yeh.
R:
We’re forgetting about that parent who’s thirty or forty. *1
243
R:
Like one of the ladies that I know that came here um left a situation in the east. Came
here to live here with her sister and her and her three children had to move in to the
one bedroom basement. The room, the one bedroom in the basement that’s where they
live, her and her three kids ‘til she could try and get on her feet right?
R:
Um hmm.
R:
And that’s.
R:
(inaud) to think about them.
R:
No ‘cause you’re listening to the kids story right? Like.
R:
Well because you think they, they have a house right?
R:
Yeh they have a shelter.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh.
R:
But they really don’t.
R:
No they don’t.
F:
Not permanent. *1
R:
If I look at specifically Stony Plain what I see more, is the families like the husband
and wife whether their common-law, married, doesn’t matter. Uh but she’s never
worked and his job may have changed or he’s lost his job so he’s been the sole
provider. They are paying gross amounts of rent, um that’s what I see all the time.
Specifically Stony Plain, that’s more what I see from here and my so that’s it’s a whole
bunch of issues like, it’s a two income world, um it’s encouraging the other partner to
get a job. He’s not making what he used to make up in the sands and so you need to
look at survival and so it’s a really touch conversation but that’s more what I see from
Stony Plain.
F:
So you see families who have hit a rough patch or.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Have undergone some kind of.
R:
And can’t get through.
244
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they actually have it within them to get through it but it’s but she wants to stay
home. Well that’s not gonna happen. *2
6.8
Divorced
R:
I think there’s a group of people who will be coming into greater risk in ah upcoming
five to ten years and that’s a whole collection of women who have been divorced or
separated for years and they worked in um a, maybe social services or um nonunionized environments and now their turning sixty-five and they didn’t contribute a
whole lot to their CPP and they don’t have pensions and they’ve lived in apartments or
rentals for years. And now their soon to be come unemp … unemployed because they
retire but they won’t actually ever because they can’t afford to but as rents keep going
up their not going to be able to do it.* 1
6.9
Detached individuals
F:
Good. So we’ll do one more question before we take a quick break then. And that is,
which populations do you see as most at risk for homelessness in our community? Is
there any sub-population that jumps out to you that you see more of? Or is there a
common denominator among the clients that you see that are facing these housing
issues?
R:
I think for the single men it’s it’s the most ominous for them because the services they
can access through income support are so limited so what little services I can offer
them I are not supplemented by anything from income support so I think they’re at the
greatest risk and they’re at the greatest risk. And they’re the ones that have that I will
often say you’re gonna have to go into the city into the shelter system because I can’t
access anything for them.
F:
Do you mind explaining why it’s different for single men and single women or do you
feel it’s different for single men and women?
R:
It’s not well maybe I honestly think single women get treated a little bit better, yeh
than the men do. I think the men are, are given a pretty rough ride right away.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Why this system to get them.
R:
You’re a man go to Edmonton and.
245
R:
Yeh.
R:
You can survive on your own so um the single women can still be pretty tough to have
to get them to access services particularly if they uh if they’ve kind of have a history
with income support and they’ll sometimes get a rough ride from them as well. Uh it’s
the women with children that access the most help. The younger the children are too
you can often we’ll be able to help them uh get a damage deposit or rent together or
something. Someone I had today I was able to get her help because income support
was helping her. I could bring Salvation Army and so yeh. So it’s, it’s the men that
are.
F:
Interesting.
R:
That are, yeh, and now I’m seeing maybe you are too Linda older men that are losing
their jobs in the three months that they had saved up to be able to pay their rent and
hoping to get back to work. I’m running into that now so.
R:
I think generally it’s people living in poverty, whether it’s men or women or single
fathers or single mothers but if you live in poverty homelessness is very very close.
But I would guess that women with children are at a higher risk for homelessness.*3
R:
But it plays a part not so much in ah um like I never have problems with my landlords
in terms of noise or you know stability that way but economically I’ve suffered like ah
I’m a single person, I’ve been single. *12
6.10 Retired Individuals
R:
fine print.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I used to work at Canadian Tire part time*4
R:
Yeh.
R:
And I think there’s a huge number of women that are in that category and back when I
was in my if you look at you know it took you a long time to earn more than thirty
thousand dollars. And you may never have earned fifty thousand dollars and yet when
246
you look at what seniors housing costs or especially if as you become debilitated, I
think somewhere in there there’s some big gaps.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
For those women.
R:
You know.
R:
So whatever issues we have now it’s gonna be exacerbated.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Tremendously.*1
6.11 Uneducated/unemployed/Unskilled
R:
What the population I see is ah low ah low educated, low educated? That doesn’t
sound good. That sounds my education was pretty low. So I mean I would say
probably ninety percent of the people I see are higher, have not completed grade
twelve. And then low skills as well so they haven’t gotten into a skilled type of
employment so and that goes across every age group that I see.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh unskilled workers for sure is the.
R:
Yeh.
R:
For me.
F:
So regardless of the age or the status where they’re from? It seems to be that.
R:
Yeh.*2
6.12 Mixed
R:
Ah for me I get everything from people looking for their first job ever when their
teenagers to professionals that are looking for their next professional position,
everything in between. And ah so in terms of where my clients come from it’s the
whole Parkland area and every different type of person.
F:
Okay. Do you find that their usually have been residents of the tri region for a long
time?
247
R:
Ah we get.
F:
When come to access you?
R:
A lot of people that ah come new to the area come to a service like mine ‘cause they
don’t know the market very well. So they come to see me so we see probably a higher
percentage of new people in the community, but we do get people who have lived here
their whole lives and it’s really quite a range.
F:
Okay. So you see all kinds. *2
F:
For sure. So what about you Sherry you’ve seen lots of life long residents are seeing
the same thing a lot of coming in from out of province or out of country?
R:
Their (inaud) a complete mix.
F:
Yeh?
R:
I see a little bit of everybody yeh it just depends what happened in their lives and yeh
but yeh we’ve got from clients from Africa, clients from England, clients from down
the road and they grew up in town, yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
And now most of my clients are from ah they’re from court ordered or they’re from
referral from Social Services. So it makes it difficult like I said the community is small
and you know the housing is such a big demand there. Like she was saying you got
people living under people and there it’s just so hard for anybody to grow up I guess.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know.
F:
And are your clients only, only from Alexis or do?
R:
Yeh.
F:
You deal with?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
248
R:
Well sometimes we do get the odd person from Hobbema or we’ll get a member that’s
coming back from Vancouver or something.
F:
Okay.
R:
And that’s looking, looking for a way a better way of life I guess and it’s hard to help
them because they’ve got no fixed address.*2
R:
And um I was actually surprised at the amount of people from that area that are
coming in. Some of them have been here three months, some of them have been here
for two years kinda you know um and kinda thing um you know there’s a large part of
um lifelong residents of Parkland County. We see quite a few from well I don’t know
if quite a few is the right word or not but from Devon because people from Devon,
maybe their doctor is here so their doctor refers them.
F:
Okay.
R:
Or the psychologist is right in our office and she like refers people like candy so if you
know if they’re from outside, from outside the jurisdiction and they come in then you
know they’re from there and um I would say that um and even in talking with other
colleagues that we have an influx from people from Paul Band um that we’ve been
seeing, and Alexis.
F:
Okay. Great, thank you. You guys.
R:
I’d say the majority of the people I deal with have an address in Spruce Grove, Stony
Plain or their lifelong people hard to always know but lots haven’t for sure I mean just
the area growing population so fast in the last few years ah I would say probably the
majority of people that live here have not lived there, lived here their whole lives. *3
F:
Okay are you, would you say their mostly from elsewhere in Alberta or from?
R:
Um.
F:
Elsewhere in Canada?
R:
Tough to say don’t know if I could answer that accurately, definitely we see the same
things that a lot of the people coming from the east coast to, to work here um but I
can’t say exactly how many I don’t know that number.
R:
I’ve never really delved into that. I just know that most of them come here for at least
a few years.
F:
Okay.
249
R:
Um but not really sure where they came from or how long they’ve lived here.*3
7
Impact of housing issues on Stoney Plain’s populace
7.1 Stigma
F:
There when you need it. So have you ever felt stigmatized because of your housing
issue? Did you feel that it was harder to apply for say jobs or different apartment
buildings?
R:
Ah not really harder, they all know about Tina let me tell ya.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
‘Cause I mean she did it not to myself but quite a number of others, quite a number.
And there was quite a number of them that bought individual duplexes because of her.
Because she couldn’t keep peace with nobody.
F:
Really.
R:
Yeh. She was one vicious, vicious woman I’ll tell you.
F:
Yeh that sounds like a situation you’re glad to be out of.
R:
Yes.
F:
It’s too bad that it had to end that way but um.
R:
But what do you do.
F:
I’m glad you’re in a place that you’re happier with now. *4
F:
For the food as well? Like dry goods or do you guys have a?
R:
Um no food where we we’ll feed you there. Like we eat a lot at you know we feed
kids a lot at Outreach and what we do because there’s a stigma attached to stuff like
that we just feed everybody. Right? And we’ll just do it like today’s hot lunch today,
today’s soup day, today’s Thanksgiving Day. Right?
R:
Everyone.
R:
Everyone.
R:
So that you’re not pointing.
250
R:
Yeh we do, we do the same thing. Yeh it’s not that you can’t eat ‘cause you’ve got
food at home it’s we all eat together.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So it’s not a program per say? It’s something that you guys have sort of set up on?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Informally?*1
R:
R:
Um hmm
R:
I think you see a little bit of that I’m starting to see a lot of advertisements on
television that are sort of going at the mental health sort of issues.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
About the, I don’t know if you guys seen it the repetitive ones.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
There’ll be two people talking, I’ll make some derogatory comment and you’ll say
something and they’ll do it again and again. And then they’ll show you what you
should say. So I think I think we’re starting to see more ah willingness or forcing us to
look at it in a different way. Ah I think it’s a hard conversation to have with a group of
people who we all are who work in service ah we are doer’s for people. That’s what
we do that’s why we’re all sitting here. You’d have a completely different
conversation with people of industry and business and really those are the people who
need to come to the table to, they have all the money so. If you’re gonna have any
change happening, those people have to be on board. Right?
R:
And the service groups and I mean lots of those like the Rotary their part of business
and industry.*1
R:
Um the doors been closed once already to them. So why knock on the door, why
knock on the door again? Um I would also I would say racism because I haven’t
personally seen it myself but I hear a lot of First Nations people coming in to my office
and and saying well I’m the assumption I guess maybe too that there’s racism, I’m not
251
gonna go knock on that door because I’m just another Indian coming, this is what
they’re saying to me right? So their understanding of, of that or they’ve heard that too
so.
R:
I’ve noticed that in terms of rental because I’ll phone and I’ll ask about a place and oh
yeh sure, sure and then by the time they get there and they see the person then all of a
sudden it’s not available.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Anymore, so that’s one I run into quite a bit in terms of getting into housing. I think
some of the barriers to service to do relate to the size of the community and people
may be embarrassed to access our services as well. And and we’re located here in the
Town Office so maybe for some people it’s kind of hard to come here you know. You
at least have you’re in a medical clinic.
R:
More neutral right. Yeh.
R:
Yeh so that’s so that accessibility of.
R:
With ah some of the one of the most power thing, powerful things I’ve heard in my
own education was they had some women come to one of our classes. And what one of
the woman, women said there was uh she had the social workers come in to her home
and you know she was a single mom with children of course. And she said what she
said to the ah social worker was um, I’m poor not stupid. So sometimes when there’s
poverty, there’s assumption that you know either you’re uneducated or you’re illiterate
or you’re don’t.
R:
Misunderstanding.
R:
Have the skills.
R:
Misunderstanding of what it is.
R:
Of poverty, there’s an assumption there that you’re dumb or you’re stupid or you can’t
learn or but that comment stuck with me all these years. I’m poor, not stupid.
I think um um just understanding what the services that there seems to be, I think a fair
amount of people on PDD. Um so their ability the client’s ability is to understand that
it’s okay to ask for help. So something as simple as I want to talk to someone because
my worker just comes and sits on the couch and I want to go swimming or I want to
volunteer or whatever the situation is right? And so them being able to understand that
so when they’re in a situation where their cheque didn’t get deposited for whatever
reason and they don’t have any money and their late on their rent that it’s okay to ask
for help right, so um. I guess just basic understanding with some people with
developmental disabilities that it’s okay to ask for help right. You know what I mean
it’s kinda goes back to the premise that when you’re teaching your children that the
R:
252
Police Officer’s your friend it’s okay to ask for help. So that kind of premise with
some of those people right. *3
R:
…I could afford but um but yeh the landlord’s like every time you called even if there
was a vacancy sign out.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It was just so rude and like yeh the last time I called their like, why would there be
anything available there’s nothing ever available. I’m like you have your vacancy sign
out like if nothing’s available why why is out? I mean you usually have it off or no
vacancy.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And suddenly it says vacancy so.
F:
That’s why I’m calling.
R:
Yeh and oh yeh it was just rude and I’m like okay I will not be calling again thank
you.*5
F:
So have you ever felt stigmatized because of the housing issues that you’re going
through? Like when dealing with service providers or um government with AISH or
with landlords or?
R:
Yeh with AISH, with AISH it definitely took awhile um I don’t know if it counts as a
stigma but they they were like, if you’re living with family why are you paying rent
and why are you paying so much rent and it’s like well because their mortgage isn’t
cheap and that’s part of the reason they asked me to move in was because my rent
payment was supposed to cover one of their mortgage payments.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And, and yeh it just took a long time for them to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Get where I had to provide proof of all this stuff and and then that further added ah
hostile gap with my sister and brother in law ‘cause their like they shouldn’t have our
information and of that.
F:
Oh yeh.
R:
Like well yeh I get that and I’m totally on your side but unfortunately yeh if they
don’t they can cut me off and then what do I do.
253
F:
Yeh.
R:
And you won’t get money then it was just such a chain reaction.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um lit…in looking for places a lot of I had a few people that wanted me to go back
and find my records from when I was renting from an apartment or something like
that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
They wouldn’t take, they wouldn’t take that I’ve been here five years and been paying
rent. They they didn’t like that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Ah so that made it kind of tricky ‘cause I know I have those records somewhere but
with a memory that’s kind of like a sieve it’s like.
F:
Yeh it doesn’t make it easy.
R:
No um.*5
F:
Have you ever felt, I guess on that same note stigmatized because of your housing
issues? Do you feel that you’ve been treated differently or lost out on any opportunity
because of your?
R:
I think so. The one lady was so rude about things, you know she’s like well you could
do this, this and this and it’s like, if I could have done those things I would have done
them. You know what I mean?
F:
Right.
R:
Like it’s not like I’m not wanting to work. That’s not the issue at all.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know but that’s how she treated me. Like she was almost ten times better than
anybody that walked in off the street. And it was like, wow okay.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So yeh.
F:
Oh that’s too bad it’s the last thing you want to hear. I’m sorry about that.
R:
Yeh.*8
254
R:
She’s like try for that. And I’m like mom I won’t qualify ‘cause you need so much
money down.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Right and then you gotta put time and effort into it which wasn’t a problem but at my
age my credit is shot from years ago when I was younger. So to not have any credit you
know and to be trying to afford my own place it was very difficult as a single mother.
Very difficult. Like I know I’ve went to Income Support, I’ve come to FCSS, I’ve been
to the Food Bank you know what I mean. And those are things years ago I had too
much pride I never would have done. Now it’s like if I need it, I need it.*8
F:
No, I hear that quite often. I get that. So have you felt stigmatized by your housing
issues with any services or with any um say with your job or have you felt that you
were treated differently or lost out on any opportunities because of your struggles with
housing or to cover the?
R:
Oh yeh we can’t afford to do anything with our with our children or anything so that’s
really rough.
F:
Um hmm.*9
F:
That’s good. Now have you ever felt discriminated against because of your housing
situation or accessing services or you felt that you missed out on any opportunities
because of your housing situation?
R:
No. I don’t think so. *10
F
Right. So have you ever felt that you lost out on any opportunities or were treated
differently? Have you ever felt stigmatized by your housing situation?
R
Oh yeh. I’ve when I went to the Alberta Works in Spruce Grove ah the lady was
discriminating against me because I was a young mom. And told me that I could easily
get a job and blah, blah, blah. And I’m just like yeh I had all the paperwork and
everything and she would just roll her eyes at me and everything and it my mom was
there and she was like, you do not roll your eyes you’re here to help somebody. And
she said, I don’t have to help you if I don’t want to. And my mom’s like excuse me you
guys are here to help not judge and roll your eyes. She’s like she has a lot on her plate,
yeh she may be a young mom but she’s doing a lot more than young moms actually do.
F
Yeh.
R
More than average.*11
255
R:
I had an infrared one last winter that went one winter and during the winter it just
konked out and it was like, gotta get to Home Depot before six o’clock because this is
my only means of heat and I won’t be able to stay there for it freezes up.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So the thing with the living situation is there is an urgency that people you know that
first of all your body you know cleanliness. You don’t wanna go down so that you
start to smell and that people around you. So you get conscious that you’re at the pool
having a shower, right, so I started using the hot tub now I’m swimming so it’s all
been a good process too but there’s a part about you kind of feel ashamed of yourself
and that you get in to these living problems and then the other part is there’s a bit
living on the edge where like people were worried that I would use my oven for
heating my trailer and then what if I fell asleep and the gas you know like you know I
gas myself? Or what if ah you know I froze out there in that trailers so like those are
all things where I’m lucky that I have been off drugs and alcohol a long time and I
have a support system. But I had to sort of look at people like I gotta work on what
I’m doing and that’s why I think this year was like, my sister moved out of the trailer.
She’s in a trailer now in the RV park in Stony.
F:
Okay.*12
R:
He ah you know gives counsels me in not going to my employers and telling them my
health issues right away. Try to start working see how it goes, don’t expose things
right away right. So the biggest thing I think with you know I contacted hep c through
drug use.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But it was also 1988 or ’87 and now we’re into 2015 so it’s like not a thing I should be
punished for because of what happened to me and so the Parkland Food Bank. Like
you go through a yearly assessment and you have to produce your records.
F:
Yeh.
R:
For them. And this year like the January that just passed is I brought them my EI
records and they had lost my file and they asked me for it again and I don’t know. I
told the lady like I’ll bring it again but I would kinda like to know I sat down and
talked to you what happened with my file. But I think like that’s something you get
used to kina dealing with is people are just people and sometimes I’m sure there is
some judgemental part of like I don’t have kids. You know like I don’t look unhealthy
like what’s going on in my life that I would access these services so sometimes it’s
hard to go.*12
256
R:
But there’s no such thing really as free wreck. Like if you look at sports equipment
like I just bought myself actually you know I got a little bit of money from my ah dad
you know he gave us all a little bit of money to help us out. I went and bought a
bathing suit for myself, a two piece ‘cause I can wear shorts you know into the pool
right with the top.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And like what I think sometimes you know is you get tired of second hand clothes and
you get tired of the food bank and I think what happens to you is like you think you
did something wrong in life like you kind of take it on as a personal thing. And I think
how I’ve learned to stay out of that is going, no it’s not a personal thing it’s kinda like
a bad luck thing. I wish my luck had been better but I can’t say I could have
anticipated this any better like I had some years where I was a carpenter. I was a
healthier worker and I just didn’t anticipate it coming and I think it’s like if you know
you got in an accident or you got diagnosed with cancer.
F:
Yeh.
R:
There’s a certain amount of you know it happens to people and so where I’m more
peaceful with it now is this is what happened to me and I’ve learned some things from
it. I’ve found who my friends were and who they weren’t and the other part with
family is like I can express today that you know like um it’s okay you know like I
think I’m okay with ah having a lower budget and somehow it all kind of works itself
out. Like you notice other people more in your similar situation and you can have
empathy for them. So like you you don’t have to look at it as a negative all the time.
And like even coming here to talk to you today it’s like, I go okay well you know I’m
sure there are some things I could have done better like not give up on the housing
pursuit kind of thing. I might be in a different situation today but it was, it is what it is.
And so even knowing they have these things where they ask people like today I go, I
think that’s excellent. Like you even saying that other people want to keep their pets
right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know I think.
F:
You’re not alone.
R:
Right, the biggest thing is like they had a big picture in the ETS in the Churchill
Square Station that has these workman that says, homelessness happens to everyone.
And like the saying, you’re only a pay cheque away from being homeless yourself it’s
like I still believe I am homeless right. Like in the situation I’m in I don’t have a home
‘cause I don’t have a permanent lease like where I can kind of build anything or plan
257
on being there next year. There isn’t that security to it, it’s like a week by week, it’s
like kinda staying at a motel.
F:
Right.*12
7.2
Lack of social support (bounced around, schooling, belonging)
R:
Or bounce between and there’s five families living in one home which to me was as
good as being homeless. Um I think that’s another huge issue.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh and that’s kind of it travels too right? They’ll be on Paul’s First Nation and then
they’ll be in Stony Plain with Grandma and then they’ll be in Edmonton with.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Someone else. And then they’re back and forth between a whole bunch of
communities. So I mean that obviously affects other parts of their life like school. Um
because there’s just huge gaps in education and yeh, and then it becomes a vicious cycle
as well.
R:
Yeh.
R:
For other things down.
F:
That’s definitely.
R:
The road. *1
R:
Yeh, yeh and some of some of the kids that come to The Center I mean you’ve got two
Bosco Homes in town here and the kids go to Columbus Academy um and so those
kids you know their moved out to Stony Plain to live in these houses. Um but we
know that once they turn eighteen they’re shipped out again. They’re not going to
become residents of this community. Um they’re usually sent back to Edmonton and,
and into assisted or semi-independent living situations. But then you’re right, they
don’t have the appropriate skills.
R:
Yeh.
R:
To know budgeting and to know how to pay their rent all those sorts of things, buy
their groceries and all of that. And next thing, you know there was heart breaking
258
example, I was watching the news one morning and and they were talking about how
cold it is outside and ah (inaud) is out there and their talking to these youth giving
them warm clothes and things. Trying to get them connected to resources and there’s
one of our girls, you know, she was living on the streets. And she was still a youth,
she could have gone to the Youth Emergency Shelter. But her boyfriend wasn’t so she
didn’t want to leave him and there they were interviewing her and she was one of those
kids that was shipped out here for a period of time but then once she turned ah I think
she was sixteen when they decided, no back into Edmonton to a different facility.
More secure facility. And in the end she’s on the streets so in the end, what have we
accomplished. So. Yeh. So that’s what we’re seeing.*1
R:
Maybe the difference with the kids that are homeless is that they quite often some of
them have not felt a sense of community in their own home.
R:
Right.
R:
Before that.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So when they’re in Edmonton on the street there’s sort of that pseudo family um.
R:
Right, it’s a different reason.
R:
Thing that happens there. And it’s the first thing that they ever, I mean it’s
dysfunctional at, at at.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
It’s finest. But it’s the first thing that they felt really a part of.
R:
Right. Yeh their the reasons are different but.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They still all look for the lights*1
R: Saw that study I thought, I want in on this because I’ve had a hellish time this year for
sure.*6
R:
Like honestly there, there’s no room for the son to go you know like. I’ll be very
honest I haven’t paid my child school fees. You know it’s hard for him to go um pick
options, let’s say.
F:
Yeh.
259
R:
Because I can’t afford it. Like he brought forms home the other day, one of the options
was eight six dollars. It’s like yeh, no. Choose something else ‘cause I can’t do it.
F:
For school options?
R:
For a school option, yeh. And it’s like wow, you know. If it wasn’t for the school
letting me make monthly payments and SFI having the health benefits it would be
atrocious.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Well that’s good that the school’s let you make those monthly payments.
R:
Yes.
F:
That’s awesome.
R:
Definitely.*8
F:
So how would you say that these housing that you’ve sort of dealt with since 2006
have affected your mental health or your physical health or your relationships with
friends and family. Your ability to earn an income or do you feel that they haven’t
affected those?
Well I think the way that they affect them is first of all I think there’s a certain amount
of bitterness that you think that people can come along and like I have two sisters, not
the one that’s also experiencing the housing problems. But two sisters that don’t have
health problems and friends that don’t have um economic problems like myself and I
think you’re excluded sometimes from social setting like people don’t like think to call
you up. Like recently a friend of mine they had a dinner for his girlfriend and they all
went to Earl’s and I said I couldn’t go Earl’s was too expensive for me on my budget
and the reply I kinda got was, well we’re trying to feel good about herself. It was like
I’m okay with not going I think I needed to say no but that continually like my sister
I’ve been helping with her dog to come and stay with me the odd days and I said like
even in our family like they insist on going to places like the Sawridge to eat when
they get together and stuff and it excludes you so you just don’t go after awhile. Like
you’re not included it in fact they quit asking you ‘cause, unless they pay for you to go
you know. My sister got married a long time ago now I think it was in the late in
somewhere in the ‘90’s but I had to ask her to pay for part of my shoes ‘cause she had
a big expensive wedding at Millwoods Golf Course. So I think how it affects you is
that you start thinking like the pursuit of money sometimes you know like we are okay
people, I’m an okay person just cause I don’t have any money. And the other part with
ah ‘cause when I worked as worker and they always said well you guys can do free
wreck. Well I took lots of youth to free wreck and you’re taking them to places where
other people can afford to buy a beverage like a pop. And like if the worker is.*12
R:
260
7.3
Social problems
F:
Yeh, so how would say that when you’re having housing issues and when you were
living in the van and trying to find a place um, how would you say those affected your
daily life? Did they affect your physical health? Or your mental health? Your
relationships? None of the above?
Well I’m I haven’t had a relationship in god it’s what six or seven years.
But how about your relationship with your mom or your siblings or your daughter?
Uh my daughter and I got into a little heated discussion once and we kind of sorted
things out.
Well tensions are running high when you’re.
Yeh.
Looking for a place to live, for sure.*4
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
It’s, it’s I feel bad because the youth in that area um the youth are the ones that are
sacrificing a lot more ah and that um sometimes it’s just parents who don’t have the
education.
R:
Um hmm.*1
R:
Anywhere it’s wh…to Edmonton and they end up on the streets.
R:
That’s usually what happens.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
The kids that I know that have gone to Edmonton, that’s if they don’t come back to us.
R:
On the street.
R:
They end up on the street.
R:
Yeh we’re having trouble housing them and keeping them off the couches here. Um
many, many and then they turn it turns really bad because they may not, they may not
have been into drugs when they were couch surfing but once they get into Edmonton
it’s almost like, that’s, you have no choice but that’s what you’re going into. So then
they become addicted and homeless on the streets of Edmonton. Now with that said
there are some people from the community that go back and bring ‘em or even
sometimes families eventually try to bring them back into the community. But I find
that they either stay or there’s only one other place they can go.
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R:
Um hmm.
R:
And that’s Edmonton.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
With the youth.*1
R:
R:
I mean it’s the drugs and alcohol they they go into play after, after the sun goes down
‘cause of the homeless and there’s no place for them to rest their heads or live
appropriately like you were saying in some of the questions that I was reading there.
And their health deteriorates because of that because they don’t get enough rest. And
then the kids as, the kids ‘cause it’s such a small small community. The schools over
here and the homeless are not too far from there. You put two and two together and
eventually it’s gonna snowball into broader addictions and. So it plays a big role in
our community and and something has to be done about appropriate housing.*
My world just adds to it.
R:
Yeh.
R
They’ll just snowball and snowball until ‘til one day they finally see the light I guess.
One day somebody will help themselves I guess and hopefully that happens soon.
Because it’s getting, getting bad now. Like in my community I hate to say it and
there’s been a few gun shots in the in the core area and mostly that’s because there’s a
and you do see houses that are nice houses that are worth about eighty thousand
dollars, no windows. Yeh.
F:
It’s scary.
R:
Scary is right. My grandkids gotta live in that community and that’s the reason why
I’m here.*1
R:
There needs to be some supplement coming in. And that it’s directed strictly to rent so
that they can’t spend that money on.
R:
Well the that’s another whole issue right? That’s where that mentorship comes in.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So I mean it’s teaching them it it’s about teaching them. And they are, they are
sponges. I mean my emails are full of questions, these girls want to know what where
to move on to next, what to do.
R:
Even just some of the basic skills that their lacking.
262
R:
Oh.
R:
Like.
R:
That’s in my survey.
R:
R:
Use cloth diapers instead of disposables if you can’t afford disposables.
Life skills.
R:
Or make your own baby food, you know it just takes a bag of frozen vegetables.
R:
That’s the mentorship.
R:
They have no clue that you can even do that kind of stuff.
R:
*2
No that’s the mentorship. Budgeting. Getting their licence. I harp on that big time.
R:
I mean, I guess that’s a place to run away to. I’m not too sure but you know we’ve had
a few people come back in body bags from Vancouver. So it’s ‘cause their homeless
so what can, not very much you can about that situation. ‘Cause they, they want to
make a better life for themselves and they didn’t find it. So.
F:
And it’s pretty far out of your reach at that point.
R:
Yeh.*2
R:
Outside of domestic violence um you the people that I see in in policing not just in
domestic violence but those that are committing the crimes um there’s definitely a
correlation between high rates of committing. Addiction issues, other issues um
there’s a correlation between the high rates and whether or not someone has stable
housing. You’ll see you know a lot of the offenders that have high rates of um crime
are the ones that are very transient, who don’t have any permanent place to stay or any
kind of place to set their feet on the ground and have that as a starting point.*3
R:
Ah and then of course affecting relationships with friends and family. I’ve never
actually felt this place as a home like I don’t I’m not very comfortable inviting people
over or anything like that. Um and it’s not incredibly close to any of the places that I
would use.
F:
Yeh
R:
So like the library, it was nice before because I could just kind of walk around to the
library.
263
F:
Absolutely, awesome they have a lot of resources there.
R:
They really do ah and yeh we would go all the time ah since living here it’s only been
once that I’ve managed to walk that far.
F:
Yeh, that’s a pretty good hike from here.*5
R:
And so there’s that and of course the relationship with family um because they are my
family sometimes there’s strain and then when we get around our parents or whatever.
F:
Yeh.
R:
They’re like why are you guys fighting, like what’s this tension?
F:
Bringing other issues in, yeh.
R:
And you’re like, yeh it’s hard to separate because.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I mean you’re with them all the time and you just need the space.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And.*5
F:
Did you move straight to Spruce Grove or did you try and move to the city first? You
said something about Edmonton housing.
R:
No ‘cause I, me and my kids and my parents were all here and they were here.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
So I paid rent from them. Which wasn’t a big deal for me to have housing in some
ways but the thing was any time I felt fine I had to family support to have the kids
back with me.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I was outnumbered by doctors, nurses and family when they could have just
coughed the kids back up to me and the dads of the kids.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You know which which meant if I had custody of the kids again I could have had child
support which would have meant maybe meant I didn’t have a housing issue because I
would have had some funding right?
F:
Yeh, so you had, your parents had the boys?
264
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And then you were renting so not in the same house as the kids?
R:
For, for the most part the times that I wasn’t physically or mentally capable of working
I think were two years really bad and a portion of this year.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And that’s from the kids, my oldest was eight to twenty-one. So I had, I haven’t
mathematically figured out how many years that is.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But that’s you know that’s well over ten years right?
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it should be thirteen years or something right?
F:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
So in thirteen years I’ve mostly kept part time work and I thought it was unfair for
them not to agree with me ever to maybe have me and the kids in our own place again.
I just had no support.
F:
Yeh.
R:
To get the job done. And, and just wasn’t allowed so because I got depressed I have
no rights about my kids, for like it it and it doesn’t help me to be undepressed when I
can’t get any results. Now that the boys are twenty-one and seventeen it hurts a whole
lot less. But the thing is my family.
F:
(inaud) make some choices themselves.
R:
Still ganged up on me and still what turned against me for twenty years.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I’ll always be hurt by that.
F:
Right, so they kept so did your parents have two places then? Two homes?*6
F:
Yeh. Yeh that must have been a frustrating situation not being able to.
R:
Well it’s still going on. Like I think, I think I wouldn’t mind trying to get into the city
but I was trying to get typing on line jobs and most of that’s garbage. You have to pay
for an ad but it’s sort of like a chain like one, one person buys, you buy and someone
265
makes money so then you’re trying to sell to make money yourself and I think I want
to check with someone that understands the law better than that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because if I make a bunch of ads I don’t want to get sued for it all.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I don’t think it’s quite right. I think it, it it’s border line fraud and crime itself.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I really didn’t want to get involved.
F:
A good rule of thumb is you should never have to pay to do your job.
R:
Yeh and and that’s the thing they have a registration fee and I think if I bothered to
make an ad like next month I was thinking to try a few ads just to see if anything
would come in to get a pay cheque.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And um I thought to just put registration fee applies and that there was different
opportunities within this organization and I think I’m gonna I, it the one guy I text or I,
I emailed him and he said I can put registration fee applies. So that way they’re not
surprised when they get on to the site hey? So but I haven’t got a cheque from them at
all and I and I even wrote away to two of them and it was an ad that I found and it
never said registration fee applied. So I didn’t you know.
F:
Yeh I’d be cautious with those.*6
F:
And it’s March, November, December, January, February, yeh about five months. So
okay so how come you left there was it um a problem.
R:
We weren’t getting along anymore.
F:
Okay.
R:
I wouldn’t have left there until the kids were eighteen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Until they were away at school or.
F:
At least their close to eighteen.
R:
Working a job. I mean I might even go back there after a while but ah.
F:
Yeh. So how did you find?
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R:
It’s not worth it for, for what my parents for how we feel about each other.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know, so.
F:
Well it’s hard to live when there’s tension like that, hard to live in the same house. So
how did you find a place?
R:
Well see they always picture themselves as my friggin’ hero when all they did was
break my heart. You know, they took over and they didn’t want to give me my kids
back so uh. And I had zero support from Justin’s dad and Joey’s dad is a foreigner
who went back to his foreign land, you know like he’s from the States and he’s a long
ways away.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So when when my son didn’t even get to meet him, I just got insulted all the way
around for the sake of the children. ‘Cause they haven’t had it fine to me. So. *6
R:
And I’m fighting for sole custody of my daughter and all the people in the building
now it makes it very leery to want to live there thinking ‘cause I have I’m , I’ve been
fortunate enough where my dad’s helped me so I have some really nice stuff. And if
an addict comes in and breaks in I’m screwed, I’ve lost everything.
F:
Okay.
R:
And I know what addicts are like ‘cause I used to be one so I mean.
F:
Yeh, that ah.
R:
I’m dealing with a lot of legal problems ‘cause my sister stole my identity and it’s just
non stop and I’m trying to figure that out and my credit’s shot and I there’s just so
much.
F:
Yeh. No kidding.
R:
Life is a living hell right now. *7
R:
Is treating us.
F:
So what do you, do you mind expanding on that a little bit? Why what do you mean
their meant to hurt you?
R:
Okay like in our buildings well A building, everyone knows each other and it’s scary
as hell because everyone’s phoning Children’s Services on each other.
F:
Okay.
267
R:
And to stay out of it you cannot talk to anybody
F:
Okay.
R:
Because if you talk to someone or they see something that they see is wrong they’re
immediately phoning. Now Children’s Services isn’t there for the parents or the kids
it’s favourtism.
F:
Okay.
R:
Like my nieces and nephew got taken away from me because their mom abandoned
them apparently. But now I'm not allowed to see them. Which doesn’t make sense to
me.
F:
How come you’re not allowed to see them anymore?
R:
Because the mom, my sister forbid it and that’s the whole big issue in itself.
F:
Right.
R:
So like on top of everything it’s, my life is a Jerry Springer show. Like my sister was
married and had three kids and I was she had postpartum depression after Liam. And
she was a junkie before so I helped her get off Oxycontin like three times.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then she got pregnant, she stayed off and then she had Liam and she started
again. So I was raising her three kids plus mine and then taking care of her house and
everything and then she got us into cocaine.
F:
Oh no.
R:
And then that happened and I got out. Thank God. And I’ve been clean for a very
long time but.
F:
Good for you.
R:
She’s still messing with my life like she slept with my father’s (inaud) their still
together.
F:
You’re daughter’s father? Yeh.
R:
And it’s just escalated it’s been four years of hell. I’m trying to get sole custody I’m
trying to deal with all this but I’ve got Legal Aid wants money and I can’t pay them.
And I can’t get a lawyer to get sole custody and it’s just like a never ending battle.
F:
Yeh.
R:
There’s no end to it.
F:
Well I’m glad you got out of that situation. That’s a very brave thing to do so good
for you. Um.*7
268
R:
I did find like ‘cause in the sum…last summer we almost split up. And um there was
an apartment which was cheaper than most and I did get approved to go in there. I was
gonna leave him because he had some behavior issues I guess like tinge of we ended
up finding out I was because of his health issues so I ended up staying and we worked
through it but um I would have had to get rid of my cat. At that time it was just the cat
so and uh um guinea pigs but we would had to get rid of them to go in there. I mean
we almost had to but we ended up staying but that um even that’s still a thousand
dollars so that was like low income, lower income.
F:
I know.
R:
So that was insane.
F:
I’m shocked by.
R:
Especially if I didn’t have like right now yes I’m ah I’m doing it by myself anyway
but my you know it’s tough.
Yeh.*9
F:
7.4 Health Problems ( physical & mental)
F:
Ah so how would you say your housing situation affects your life? Does it affect your
physical or mental health? Or your relationship with friends or family? Anything
else?
R:
Ah well, it definitely affects the physical and mental both um location ah like I can’t
do a lot of stairs and a lot of older buildings don’t have the elevators.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um so at my old, my old apartment I was on the third floor so it would take me like
ten, twenty minutes to get up the stairs ‘cause I’d have to I’d get so many of them like
okay I need to stretch.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um here thankfully I just have the one set but even that can be like there’s some, a
few days sometimes I just, I stay downstairs because I can’t get up the stairs. Um and
then of course living in the house with family and and depending on their relationship
like I said before with my brother or my sister and brother in law their fighting would
take a tremendous toll.
F:
It would.
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R:
And yeh I’d be like why can’t these guys get along but just all around like anything
you can possibly imagine ah now with them being separated there’s still that to some
extent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But not as much however, now now I get to hear the one sidedness so like something
happens and it’s, it’s just bitter talk and I can’t do it. I understand you need to get it
off your chest but I’m not the person to do it with.
F:
It would wear on you for sure.
R:
It really does.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It really does. And pardon me, they um yeh so a lot mentally for sure.
F:
Yeh.*5
F:
I yeh no kidding. So how do you feel that your housing situation um affects your
every day life? Do you find that it affects your mental health? Or your physical
health, your relationships? Or ability to?
R:
It affects my mental health because I get stressed out and then when I get stressed out
it affects my physical because I have PTSD and I IBS so that makes me puke and I get
really sick and I can’t do anything.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I have to stay on my medications and try to keep myself calm all the time
otherwise I’m down and out for days.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I can’t be like that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I always have to be raring to go.*7
F:
Yeh that’s a tough situation. So how would you say this housing situation, especially
with you possibly having to switch buildings or have to move to Spruce Grove or some
other community uh in the summer. How would you say that affects your everyday
life? Does it affect your mental health?
R:
It does.
270
F:
Or your physical health, you relationships?
R:
It affects all of it because I physically cannot move that’s why I get the little bit of help
through AW because physically I just I’m I just can’t do it. So I’d have to hire it out
um which I can’t afford.
F:
Right.
R:
Mentally like I said I haven’t thought about August and it’s coming really quickly so I
just take it day by day.
F:
Just the stress of it?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh. So would you say it affects your relationship with your friends or your family?
R:
Of course, because I’m stressed and they’re they can see that I’m stressed and it takes a
toll on them too.
F:
Right.
R:
So they see you know mom’s stressed and what are we gonna do and (inaud) probably
feels like he’s gotta do something right? Being the oldest and he can move out but
where is he gonna go?
F:
Um hmm.
R:
What’s he gonna do right?
F:
Yeh I can see that.
R:
Um hmm.*10
F
Yeh, yeh if she’s got a compromised immune system I understand. So what are you
currently paying to rent the acreage house?
R
A thousand dollars a month.
F
Okay. And is it is how many bedrooms?
R
Two.
F
Is it enough room for you guys?
R
There’s two bedrooms but because Alana of her sickness she has to be in the same
room ‘cause I’m up every three hours with her doing.
F
‘Cause you have to do the blood tests.
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R
Her meds.
F
Even over the night?
R
Blood tests and her medicine, she’s on a gravity feed bag so and I have to put her
medicine in there she’s on solcar, blycazade and polycose powder plus bedoprotein
because her body eats away at her muscles. So her body needs this stuff back in her
body otherwise she has risk of going into seizures and hypoglycemic coma. So I’m
literally up every three hours giving her medicines for forty five minutes each time.
F
Really. That must make your days pretty difficult. How do you find enough time to
sleep and get your own energy to?*11
F
So things that are non-negotiable. So how would you say your housing situation
affects your every day life? Your physical or your mental health? Your relationship
with your friends or family?
R
Well when people want to go out and do stuff with you, you can’t because you don’t
have the money to so that’s a big strain on having actual friends. And being able to
actually have the gas to go out you know. And then. And then like my family, like it’s
a stress on them because I have to leave Chloe with them so then their using their
money to support Chloe while I’m in the Stollery with Alana.*11
F:
So how would you say that these housing that you’ve sort of dealt with since 2006
have affected your mental health or your physical health or your relationships with
friends and family. Your ability to earn an income or do you feel that they haven’t
affected those?
Well I think the way that they affect them is first of all I think there’s a certain amount
of bitterness that you think that people can come along and like I have two sisters, not
the one that’s also experiencing the housing problems. But two sisters that don’t have
health problems and friends that don’t have um economic problems like myself and I
think you’re excluded sometimes from social setting like people don’t like think to call
you up. Like recently a friend of mine they had a dinner for his girlfriend and they all
went to Earl’s and I said I couldn’t go Earl’s was too expensive for me on my budget
and the reply I kinda got was, well we’re trying to feel good about herself. It was like
I’m okay with not going I think I needed to say no but that continually like my sister
I’ve been helping with her dog to come and stay with me the odd days and I said like
even in our family like they insist on going to places like the Sawridge to eat when
they get together and stuff and it excludes you so you just don’t go after awhile. Like
you’re not included it in fact they quit asking you ‘cause, unless they pay for you to go
you know. My sister got married a long time ago now I think it was in the late in
somewhere in the ‘90’s but I had to ask her to pay for part of my shoes ‘cause she had
a big expensive wedding at Millwoods Golf Course. So I think how it affects you is
R:
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that you start thinking like the pursuit of money sometimes you know like we are okay
people, I’m an okay person just cause I don’t have any money. And the other part with
ah ‘cause when I worked as worker and they always said well you guys can do free
wreck. Well I took lots of youth to free wreck and you’re taking them to places where
other people can afford to buy a beverage like a pop. And like if the worker is*12
R:
More of a longer life right but I experiencing housing problem ‘cause my health failed
and I, I don’t think and never will not think the two come hand in hand ‘cause they do.
F:
Right.
R:
‘Cause like how can you go out and get better housing or how can you work the hours
that require you to pay rent when you’ve been paying twelve hundred bucks a month
when you can’t work at that anymore. Like you can’t work I couldn’t work like the
hours I did before.
F:
Because of your health issues.
R:
Yeh. So like the thing of having had that experience is there wasn’t a place for me to
go really.*12
7.5 Transient lifestyle ( no roots)
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
So how long have you been living in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain area?
Oh off and on from 1987.
Okay.
87, no 86 I guess it would have been.
So twenty eight’ish years?
Yeh.
Twenty nine years?
Yeh.
Okay and how many times have you had to move because of housing issues in that
time? Either the rent got too high like you were saying and you had to leave or um
those legal issues that you had at the last building. How many times do you think
you’ve had to move?
Oh God I wouldn’t wanna count.
Lots?
Yeh, I used to live at one time in Springwood which is now I mean I was there for
what was it? ’86 July of ’86 until I believe it was ’88 or ’89, no it would have been
’88.
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F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
‘Kay.
‘Cause I was living in Edson with a fellow that we were, well he says I gotta house he,
he was a divorce.
Yeh.
And my dad passed away. And he was an alcoholic and I said either the booze goes
or I’m going. I give him a choice.
Good for you, yeh.
Well he choose the booze so I said, adios. And dad passed away in April, April 25th
and mom asked me to come and stay with her at that time ‘cause they had a house in
Breton hey. And she didn’t want to be there alone.
So you left Spruce Grove for Breton to stay with your mom.
No I left Edson.
Oh okay.
‘Cause I had already left Spruce Grove.
Okay.
Yeh.
All right then you came back to Spruce from Breton.
Yeh.
Okay and you’ve sort of been here since then you said ’88.
Yeh.
Or so.
Since basically ’88 I guess, ’88, ’89.
And you’ve had to move multiple times.
Yeh. *4
R:
You know over at The Center we see the kids and they get quite um The Center almost
becomes a second home for a lot of kids and they’ll come in and they say, well we’re
leaving now. You know it creates such a transient lifestyle and that’s what these kids
are growing up in because their parents are going wherever they can afford to live.
And we’ve had so many families, you know whether it’s single mom or whether it is a
two parent family, moving out of this community ‘cause they cannot afford to live in
this community. So you know we, we see that that transient nature for sure. And
that’s what kids are growing up in and learning.*1
R:
Outside of domestic violence um you the people that I see in in policing not just in
domestic violence but those that are committing the crimes um there’s definitely a
correlation between high rates of committing. Addiction issues, other issues um
there’s a correlation between the high rates and whether or not someone has stable
housing. You’ll see you know a lot of the offenders that have high rates of um crime
are the ones that are very transient, who don’t have any permanent place to stay or any
kind of place to set their feet on the ground and have that as a starting point.*3
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R:
Well I think with the male clients their certainly more likely to be transient and I’ll see
them a lot less but ah with the with the moms that are you know fleeing or or getting
out of a bad marriage I see them for at least the first three months quite a bit and then
probably once, once or twice a year after that. If they stay and they’ll settle in. And
the seniors we deal with, well they stay.
R:
I think the majority stay in the area ‘cause their residents of the area or if their coming
in from as far as Edson they’ll go back to Edson but I would guess definitely staying in
Alberta*3
F:
R:
Okay. There you go. You, you’ve moved around quite a bit in the area. No kidding.
Well and I think when it comes down to like ah I don’t know in the city because
there’s different ways you get connected like ah I knew about the Y buildings because
other people I knew had lived in them. Like they had a Y apartment downtown and
when I moved in the Y building, like there’s one I lived behind Rosie’s when it
existed. It’s not Rosie’s anymore.
Yeh.
On one hundred and first street and I paid about two hundred and fifty dollars rent.
When I lived at Metis Housing I paid um me and my sister lived together and we paid
two hundred and ninety four rent, subsidized rent. And I was in school at the time.
Yeh.
At Nechi, Keyano College. They’re both ah doing schooling at at Pound Maker’s
Lodge. My rent before I left the city was thirteen hundred dollars in my apartments
both my apartments in Garner Towers it was at about twelve hundred and the
apartment I rented that I moved out of before the house I rented at Seba.
Yeh.
My rent was thirteen hundred dollars, utilities included, nice apartment on a hundred
and fourth street but it was like everything I was doing to survive.
Yeh.
So all my money would go to rent and my vehicle right.*12
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
R:
Yeh, and I’m trying not like I do know like when I at Fort Edmonton one of the things
kinda that my experience of how I’ve been living helped me with too is I was in Native
Studies from 19 no 2000 to 2002 but I had flunked the English I finally passed the
English in 2007 the English 101. I don’t know if I would finish my degree but out of
two years in UofA I got one year of credits but I went to school and ah in a Bachelor of
Arts degree at the UofA I was a student there full time for two years. And I worked at
Lister Hall in as a housekeeping and for population research lab there so I more or less
lived on campus moved to the campus later, not the full time studies I lived in
Clareview and took the train. But I did have an experience like living where I worked,
walking to work living in a pet free building like kind of getting all your needs met at
the UofA there.
275
F:
R:
Yeh.
Area and ah I liked that it was a less stressful time in my life and it always seems that
moving me back or myself am moving back to the city would solve a lot of my
answers. But the problem kind of being though is that maybe there’s some way being
around like rurally that I could work something out here, you know what I mean like
even like what I was saying about my Fort Edmonton job is I got, I’m an Aboriginal
Interpreter there.*12
7.6 Unsuitable housing/ “Housing trap”
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
Where were you living for those two and a half years?
In and out of my van.
Oh my goodness.
Yeh.
That’s a long time, what did you do in the winter?
I.
The van?
The van, you got it.
Wow. When would that have been from, what years do you know?
Oh God, well I even did it until well we, we got evicted from that one in down by ah
Sobey’s.
Oh okay. *4
R:
I looked at one at Stony Plain it was, no.
F:
No.
R:
No.
F:
Was it that it wasn’t safe or it wasn’t suitable or.
R:
It was old and it was kind of grubby looking.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I mean you don’t know what’s lived in there before you.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Bed bug situation type of thing. Ah.
F:
So would you if it came down to it would you have gone there? Or would you have
stayed in the van and the hotels? And whatnot?
R:
In a situation like that I would have stayed in motels. And, and the van.
276
F:
Would that one have been affordable? Like if you had to stay there, was the pricing
okay for it or was it still expensive.
R:
It was a little on the expensive side because I mean you had to buy your meals on top
of it hey.
F:
Um hmm, um hmm.
R:
I mean, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s a catch twenty two you know.*4
R:
And I work with ah one of the areas there’s a mobile home park and I think a lot
people get into mobile home parks because you see the ad’s you can get a trailer for
forty nine thousand dollars and amounts that they can buy into to either own or to rent.
But then when you add in the lot rent and the taxes and the mortgage their paying and
then the power um it and it they all just keep increasing so if each one of them
increases by three percent. That’s pretty quickly a fifteen percent increase and the the
high it’s a fairly highly transient area. And where I see it and the work I do is with one
group like that we’ve had five presidents and three new boards in the space of two
years. So you don’t get any momentum going to try and ah execute some of the
programs and things that they want to offer particularly for their kids. Because they’ve
it ends up being quite unsustainable ‘cause people keep leaving.
R:
And lots of people who are just starting out ah you can’t buy land because you have to
buy land ah you can’t get a mortgage on it so you have to buy it outright. So they
can’t do that and so that’s why they pick mobile homes as a their entry point figuring
that they’ll only have you know they can save for two or three years and get out but
that’s not the reality once you move there. You might be there.
R:
(inaud)
R:
Ten years from now if you can keep up but some are not.
F:
You see it as a vital option to once they’re in it, they find that’s it’s not. Is that what?
R:
Um hmm. I think so.
R:
Their trapped.
R:
Yeh and their trapped.*4
R:
Anywhere it’s wh…to Edmonton and they end up on the streets.
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R:
That’s usually what happens.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
The kids that I know that have gone to Edmonton, that’s if they don’t come back to us.
R:
On the street.
R:
They end up on the street. *1
R:
I was gonna have just add.
F:
Yeh go ahead.
R:
A bit to that. I think in the county we have some little pockets in the hamlets where
it’s, people stay a long time ah long beyond the life span of the accommodation itself.
And so it would be ah substandard housing that they.
F:
Right.
R:
Choose to stay in and so um people, some people live like in a camper the kind of you
pull off the back of a pickup truck and they live in that year round.
F:
Right so that would.
R:
So.
F:
Fall into the unsuitable or even inadequate.
R:
Yeh so I think there, there’s some pockets of that whether it’s in your actual collection
or not.
F:
And you find that they tend to sort of congregate? Like you said the hamlets?
R:
Um yeh there because the hamlets have diminished in size over the years and there’s
housing in them that um they just stayed in and they don’t repair it. I mean those kinds
of things.
R:
Yeh they have.
R:
Their (inaud) or they could be owners.
R:
Yeh we have those seniors in, it’s kind of funny ‘cause now that you said that I don’t,
they have a shelter so I don’t think of them as homeless but realistically the shelter
278
they’re living in, has no power no water. They’re using an outhouse and it’s a dirt
floor, so they’re homeless.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
We have some.
R:
It’s not adequate housing.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So that’s homeless.
R:
And the one’s I don’t know.
R:
There’s a lot in the hamlets.
R:
That wouldn’t be specifically seniors, they would be mixed age.
R:
Yeh.
F:
And that’s why.
R:
I didn’t come across the dirt floors but I came across some very dirty floors.
R:
Maybe that’s what I found, they weren’t dirt floors. No it was a dirt floor.
R:
But there is.
R:
Had to clarify that definition.
R:
There’s quite a few people.
R:
In the public.
R:
That don’t that do have outhouses or staying in places that have outhouses and they
just bring in water they need as they need it. *1
R:
Yeh same mix of people um for sure um some that are short term leaving a situation,
some are long term they’ve been living in their camper for years, right. And that’s
become their permanent solution. Um and then our biggest thing is you know with
279
their lack of permanent housing comes the inability to give them proper food. Because
they don’t have a kitchen, they don’t have a fridge, they don’t have so then that
becomes the new challenges. Then we can’t give them the full support that they need
because they don’t have somewhere to handle it. Yeh. Even those that are living in
the Grove Motor Inn are in temporary places like that right? They just have a
microwave or maybe have a microwave.*1
R:
I see, I see elders taking the brunt end of the stick ‘cause the nowadays the kids grow
up fast. Back then the elders didn’t grow up fast so they so like she was saying they
want to be by family right? So they want to bring in their homeless people and then it
becomes a problem for them. So they end up moving on somewhere else.
F:
Okay.
R:
Maybe living with their daughter someplace a little more peaceful. So the elders
always get the brunt end of the stick back home.
F:
Okay.
R:
And yet they’re trying to be so nice but they take their being taken advantage of.
F:
Interesting.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Well if it’s anything like Paul Band too they’re the only ones with money because they
get their pension incomes.
R:
Yeh, yeh.
R:
And they get the old age security and the GIC and so they’re the only ones with money
so everyone comes in and moves in with them and then.
R:
Yeh, that’s.
R:
Suddenly their seventy five years old and supporting three generations of family.
F:
Right*2
F:
Lucky you. Being an Auntie is the best. Um so what’s your current living situation
like?
R:
Um well for a slightly reduced rent I watch this guy a couple days a week.
F:
Yeh.
280
R:
And yeh living here with, with my brother in law and brother. Well done. I’ve
looked several times at leaving uh one for my own space and two the living situation,
very bad.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um.
F:
In what way?
R:
Well especially before ah my brother in law and sister did not get along, they had
some huge fights.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It was hard to be a part like in the house often being made to be a part of it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And having to watch this little guy.
F:
(inaud)
R:
Yeh and it’s just like it’s hard and it was, it was. So yeh it was getting really stressful
and when I get stressed I get tense and that just makes.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My condition worse and so and I thought it would be easier if I had my own space for
watching him because then there would be no, no pre disposition I guess?
F:
Yeh.
R:
To attitudes or anything like that and so ‘cause depending on where you watch him
different things come up like, I can do that here and I can do that there, and you’re like
well no that’s.*5
R:
Yeh even calling, they’re like well we have this waiting list. Always the same story.
Um.
F:
So you followed up and their not?
R:
Yeh.
F:
You’re not getting any different answers?
R:
Not getting any different answers.
F:
Wow.
281
R:
However, since going there I just keep hearing the worst things that like, their, they
um, they don’t give you a copy of the lease and then suddenly come at you and say
like this is the rent it’s increased. Or that you need to get out. So people were
transferring, some of the places I was looking at were saying that they were getting
people from there in emergency situations. Like I just found out that I have to leave
my apartment, it’s the sixteenth of the month, and their just telling me that my lease is
up but like I don’t even have a copy of the lease to go back on and so yeh it was pretty
crazy some of the stories I was hearing about affordable.
F:
Yeh. Yeh if those stories are true that’s a, that’s a tough situation.
R:
Yeh. Well and I mean one may be gossip but yeh random places and people who are
also saying the same thing but yeh, that’s my thought if it’s true do I really want to be
there?*5
R:
And come the second year he wanted the eight hundred, I couldn’t do it and my sister
um was pregnant and gonna have the baby and she’s like, can you come and help.
And so they offered me four hundred dollar rent to come and help.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it didn’t stay that for very long but but yeh it was like yeh okay I can come and
help and now.
F:
So how?
R:
And now five years later.
F:
Much are you paying? What’s your share here?
R:
I am now paying.
F:
For rent?
R:
Six hundred dollars a month again and I was supposed to have the basement and the
living room downstairs which has never actually worked out. And so uh yeh I I have
my room and then it’s the shared kitchen and shared laundry.
F:
Okay.
R:
Um yeh and and then.
F:
Yeh and just for the recording the sirens are toys.
R:
Yeh. Some of them. So we uh yeh it’s yeh and then occasionally it’s ah I have to put
out additional money like they got a travel trailer so, so my rent increased because they
need to be able to afford the travel trailer and I was like ah that’s not how it works.
F:
I don’t know if that’s totally fair unless you’re using the travel trailer.
282
R:
Yeh not so much. So yeh it’s been weird things like that and so yeh it yeh it’s been an
interesting roller coaster rent wise.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so.*5
F:
In what way are they unsuitable?
R:
They’re, they ah keep having problems come up like there was ah water issues and
balcony issues, balcony issues and window issues. There was just a lot of issues um
‘cause I knew a couple people who lived there. And ah they were saying come on over
the rent’s pretty decent which was about I think it was ten fifty, um so still more than I
could afford but um but yeh the landlord’s like every time you called even if there was
a vacancy sign out.
F:
Yeh.*5
F:
Yeh. I don’t blame you. No kidding so have you had any other issues with your
housing?
R:
Um here, here there is a few issues um that still haven’t been fixed um so some
leaking and ah the the use of a wood fireplace which my sister and brother in law are
really big into.
F:
Yeh.
R:
They have to extend the tile which down, down stairs, this one they can use all they
want but they want to use the one down stairs and they have to extend the tile ‘cause
it’s not up to code. And the electrical in here I think the guy fancied himself a
handyman and it’s just bad. There are sockets loose.
F:
I’ve seen ones like that.
R:
Yeh it’s just weird and yeh a couple times you flip a switch and there’s some little
shocks and sparks you’re like I think we’re just gonna put some tape over this so
nobody uses it.
F:
We won’t use this one.
R:
Yeh, you just kind of, what is going on? Ah my other apartment, or my apartment the
only issue I ever had with it, they the central heating or what I assume was central
heating. You know the old apartments that have the radiators or whatever they travel
along the bottom of the walls.
F:
Yeh like in hotels and whatnot?
283
R:
Yeh. So they they had those and and whatever heat they set it at all year I wouldn’t
turn my heat on at all ‘cause that thing was just going it was so hot in there.
F:
Really?
R:
Yeh at times at it would be minus thirty and I’d have my balcony door open like that
much because it was so hot so and I don’t do well in the heat anyways and I’m like
seriously how are people not walking around in bathing suits?
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s really hot.
F:
It can’t just be me.
R:
Yeh exactly and and it wasn’t just me like my neighbor would come over and she’d
ask me like did you turn your heat up or something? Like, no it’s off, it’s just off.
F:
Did you ever have a chance to ask the landlord about that?
R:
Yeh they said they had to keep it that hot because um because they didn’t want the
pipes to freeze which never did happen but they often had issues with their pipes and
water.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So like you’d hop in the shower one morning there would be no water and just yeh it
was, it was a lot of water issues with that building.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um and then yeh other than that which can’t really control I guess would be um a lot
of pot smoking. So you’d be like it would be hard to breathe or just stinking.
F:
Like hallways or?
R:
Hallways and even on the balcony you’d go outside and it would come through your
doors so yeh that was pretty brutal.
F:
Yeh. Yeh that’s nothing you should ever be forced to smell.
R:
No.
F:
That’s.
R:
Yeh and there’s just sadly nothing, nothing you can do about it. I mean you can talk
to management, you can call the Police but really an apartment you can’t there’s just
so yeh yeh that was pretty hard.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And you don’t really get a lot of that in a house.*5
284
R:
But even this year there was sixty one on one. There was a very cheap living
arrangement in a small a small room for rent um because where I’m at like there’s not
a bath tub and there’s not a proper kitchen.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
So it’s not very comfortable.
F:
Right.
R:
And ah but there, there would have been an opportunity but there was sixty one
looking for that and it would have only been three hundred paid and if as long as you
look after the yard like the shoveling and the mowing and keep the house the clean,
you would have been allowed to get a hundred dollars back. And that’s ultimately the
best deal I saw anyone give out.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And it was grabbed up quick.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I didn’t get it. So I mean that’s just, and and like the girls I’m working with at at
Liquor Depot, one she said she’s paying four hundred but she’s got her and a friend in
that room. So it’s only two hundred each. Which is, which is poor living conditions
too to share a room.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And he’s not even the.
F:
For adults.
R:
Same sex as her.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um but their sharing because he’s got expenses down east and a home down east to
pay on and he can’t afford anything more.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And she, she’s just working part time and can’t afford anymore.
F:
Wow.*6
F:
Yeh. How have you found those private situations? Have, has there been enough?
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R:
Their not perfect, like your it they weren’t that bad but they weren’t perfect. Like I
smoke cigarettes and I only smoke outside and ah the one place I only stayed two
weeks because he gave me my lease to read and I wasn’t allowed to smoke on the
premises. That meant even outside. So I said well I can’t even stay here, I didn’t
know I can’t smoke outside on in the yard and he said no so I left. So it was panic
here, panic there.
F:
So have you?
R:
And that I even incurred more debt ‘cause it was just flooky, the only way I could
afford moving around like that my VISA limit increased and I got a new MasterCard.
So I incurred like three thousand debt over this last year just coughing up damage
deposit and. That’s no fun.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
For anyone, rich or poor you don’t need debt. *6
R:
I feel like I’m stuck.
F:
Okay.
R:
I can’t move and I can’t afford to stay there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And it’s I’ve had to take a roommate but even that doesn’t help because the bills are
insane, like.
F:
Yeh. So you have a roommate right now at your apartment?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
I had my best friend move in.
F:
Oh okay oh that gentlemen that’s with you?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay, cool. Yeh that um how much so do you split the rent right down the mddle
then?
R:
Yeh. He pays six hundred a month but that I don’t know how the hell.
F:
At least that must help you out a little bit.
R:
Well I do.
F:
It’s not ideal.
286
R:
I do like a five hundred dollar grocery a month because there’s three of us to feed and
that doesn’t even.*7
F:
Yeh. Yeh no kidding. So you’re finding it a little um tough even with the renter.
How is it for ah space or is it suitable? Is it?
R:
It’s small.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like there’s nowhere for, I’m lucky ‘cause there’s a school across the street but
there’s no room for anything. The dining’s room small, you can’t like the stuff that I’d
love to have I can’t.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because there’s no way that it would fit in there.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I, I just really I don’t know it’s, retarded.
F:
So is this the only place you’ve stayed in Spruce? Like this apartment or have you
been in other buildings before this?*7
R:
I lived with my sister until some stuff happened and everyone got split up.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then I moved into a basement suite and they were really cool but I needed to be,
‘cause it was so dark it was making me depressed.
F:
Oh yeh.
R:
So I moved into this place thinking it would be good and it’s just turned into hell
zone.
F:
In what way?
R:
They’re letting addicts in now so there’s a bunch of junkies around and people are
sneaking into the building and it’s not safe anymore. It’s worse, it’s getting to be like
Edmonton.
F:
Okay.
R:
The sec…there they don’t know, you can’t get any help. They don’t wanna fix
anything in the apartments but their supposed to.
F:
Yeh.
287
R:
And they want to they want us to pay all this money but we’re not getting anything.
F:
Oh okay. So you say your fridge isn’t working or.
R:
It keeps, they keep telling me that my freezer’s too full and I laugh at them and I say
there’s nothing in my freezer because you guys said that was the problem. So how is it
my freezer?
F:
Yeh.
R:
I need a new fridge and I’ve been waiting like four months.
F:
Does it? What’s wrong with the fridge?
R:
It gets plugged and then it starts leaking water all over.
F:
Oh, nice. So okay. Um are there any other repairs needed to besides the fridge, to the
apartment?
R:
The, all the cupboards are old they’re breaking. I’ve had the I’ve asked them to caulk
the linoleum, they won’t do that so it’s lifting. I’m worried about water damage under
the fridge because of all the leaks. Ah they haven’t recaulked the toilet, my tub is the
the glaze is cracked so it makes it dangerous because Lila can slip and it’s just like a
never ending story.
F:
Yeh no kidding, um well I would say make sure that if you’ve been trying to get the
fridge fixed that you have your efforts documents.
R:
Well there’s a sign saying.
F:
In case the flooring underneath does get damaged I would just make sure you’re
documenting.
R:
Actually that’s a good idea.
F:
What you’re doing with the fridge. I have no idea what’s going on but if um yeh just
keep track of what you’re doing.
R:
It’s just so stupid there’s a little piece in the back of the fridge that just gets clogged
with gunk and he comes in and he empties it and he goes away. And then it does it
again.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So now I’ve taken to just fixing the fridge myself because I’ve watched what he does.
F:
There you go. Well that’s really too bad about the fridge, I’m sorry to hear that or
some of the other.
R:
Gotta love boardwalk.
288
F:
Yeh troubles that you’re having. Um have you had any other issues with your
housing?
R:
Not yet. *7
F:
Okay when you first moved out from living with your family when your family got
split up. Did you have any trouble finding a place or was it pretty easy to find the
basement suite? Was it pretty easy to find the apartment?
R:
No it was really hard it took me months to be able to get out.
F:
Okay. And were you able to stay with your family for those months or did you have
to, what did you do between finding the basement suite and leaving your family’s
accommodations?
R:
I was living with my sister in her basement. I was paying half I was paying about
three thousand dollars a month because I paid half her mortgage, half her bills, half the
food. Because she was struggling, her husband wasn’t making as much as he was and
she still want to live her normal life style. So I helped her do that and that resulted in
both of our families being ripped apart.
F:
How were you, how were you able to do that if your only getting sixteen, sixteen?
R:
I was off Social Services at that point and my ex was working.
F:
Okay.
R:
Making good money.
F:
Oh. Okay gotcha. So how did you end up finding the basement suite that you moved
into?
R:
Ah me and my ex and my daughter were supposed to live together and that lasted for
like three days and he the cops had to come and he was escorted out. So I kept it for
about a year and then I moved into this place.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So that my sister and them wouldn’t know where I was and then they got in contact
with me and they had me, it, it got insane there for a little bit because I was helping my
friend and his two boys.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause he just got custody and had nowhere to go.
F:
Okay.
289
R:
So he was staying with me and then she dropped off her three kids because Children’s
Services was involved.
F:
Your sister did?
R:
With me so I had six kids in the house and then two with me and then my friend and
I’m trying to raise all of them and you know and then you know Children’s Services
came in and took them and it it was hell and I’m still trying to like I want to find a four
bedroom because I wanted, I want my nieces and nephews to come and live with me
but I’m not fit right now because I only have a two bedroom.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I can’t find that.
F:
Yeh. Okay. Yeh that ah wow I can’t believe six children. That must have been.
R:
All under five, or no six.
F:
Oh boy. That must have been pretty crazy.
R:
It was fun. Very strict when you have six.*7
F:
anything yourself?
R:
my income.
F:
R:
like it.
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
290
F:
R:
F:
I’m glad to hear that. Um, so when you were finding, where did you live before the
basement suite?
R:
Ah in the ABC buildings in Stony Plain.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh just in the C building.
F:
And, so why did you leave?
R:
The lease ran up.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh the lease ran up and they didn’t want to renew the lease, so.
F:
Yeh. Looking for someone else.
R:
Yeh.
F:
So how was, did you have any trouble finding the basement suite that you’re in now?
R:
It was difficult yes. There’s not a lot to rent in Stony Plain that’s actually decent.
F:
Yeh. So did you look at some that you think weren’t decent as far as safety or
hygiene?
R:
It was more hygiene than anything.
F:
Okay.
R:
The safety wasn’t an issue because I find Stony Plain pretty safe, you know what I
mean?
F:
Yeh.*8
F:
R:
So what’s your um your current living situation like?
Um well my twenty two year old daughter has health issues like bipolar and severe
depression and stuff like that so she just moved back home and we are living in a three
bedroom trailer right now so she’s, my living room is her bedroom.
Yeh.
So it’s pretty cramped.
F:
R:
291
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Yeh no kidding. And you said you were in um in Parkland Village so that mobile
home?
Yeh.
There right? Excellent. How long have you guys been in Parkland Village?
A year now exactly.
Okay. Where were you before that?
Edmonton, um actually it’s terrible because we were in um ah Capital Region
Housing.*9
F:
Okay. You’re used to it. Sounds good. So what is your current living situation like?
You said you’re in a two bedroom apartment.
R:
Right.
F:
Um how do you find it?
R:
It’s cramped a little bit.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um I live in the living room so.
F:
So the boys have the bedrooms then?
R:
Yeh.*10
F:
Yeh. Well would ideally what would you like to be able to move into?
R:
Well my hopefully my oldest son is going to move on, not hopefully but he will be
moving on right?
F:
Yeh he’s nineteen.
R:
He’s nineteen, he’ll be twenty in September so.
F:
And you said he’s getting married. Future wife?
R:
Yeh so maybe they will move to a different community I don’t know but she lives in
the city so I don’t know I would like to have a two bedroom and keep a two bedroom.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Then I’ll go down to a one.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’m used to living in the living room for the last almost three years so.*10
292
F:
Yeh. Okay, um so besides the affordability or the availability, have you had any other
issues with your housing? Is your apartment needed any repairs, has it needed any.
R:
It’s always needing repairs, um I give a call and or an email and their usually pretty
good with coming up and.
F:
That’s good.
R:
Dealing with it within a couple days or whatever so.
F:
Okay but it meets um it meets your standards as far as health and safety?
R:
Yeh.*10
R:
And then they slap on this stupid insurance policy that you have to have their
insurance. I said I already have home insurance through my insurance company.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
No we have to have this insurance I said what’s this insurance gonna do for me?
Nothing. It’s not even in my name it’s in their name so I’m paying their premiums. I
wasn’t impressed by that.
F:
Yeh so.
R:
So I called the Landlord Tenant Act and they said there’s no regulation whatsoever on
that. She’s like I’ve never even heard of that. She goes so there’s no, there’s no
governing nothing about that.
F:
Did you have to cancel your own home insurance and go on theirs, or are you paying
both?
R:
I’m paying both because their insurance policy is worth nothing.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Like it’s useless. I don’t even know why they made us do it but they said, no we’re
everyone that is renting with us will have to sign this. So it was either pay eleven
dollars and fifty cents a month or a hundred dollars a month, extra because it’s in their
lease so you either sign the lease or you don’t. If you don’t sign a lease then you’re
paying another hundred dollars a month so my rent would have went up to two hundred.
F:
To rent monthly?
R:
Um hmm. So it’s like I will pay the eleven dollars and fifty cents and pray that nothing
happens because on every insurance policy, if you have another insurance policy you
will have to go through them first.
293
F:
Uh huh.
R:
They both say that.
F:
That could be ah.
R:
Good luck with that.
F:
An interesting situation.
R:
But the only thing I think it’s gonna save me is that one’s not in my name.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s in the building’s name. Like.
F:
So you have your personal insurance at least?
R:
I hope.
F:
Yeh that’s a strange situation.
R:
Yeh I wasn’t impressed by that, I’m like I already have home insurance I can prove it
to you.
F:
Yeh.
R:
No.
F:
Well good for you for calling the rent.
R:
The Landlord Tenant Act.
F:
Yeh.
R:
She says there’s no governing law against that because it’s in their lease. If you don’t
sign the lease then you don’t sign the lease.
F:
But then you’re paying more for rent.
R:
I was like I would rather pay eleven dollars and fifty cents than a hundred.
F:
Yeh I suppose.
R:
Yeh but they keep on jacking up and that’s one thing Alberta doesn’t have is a cap on
on rent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So that’s unfortunate ‘cause people can just charge whatever they want.
F:
Yeh . Yeh and with uh so little like you were saying there is so little availability in
Stony Plain that gives them even more free reign.
R:
Um hmm.
294
F:
To set their own prices because people will need to find a place to stay.
R:
Right.*10
F:
R:
Yeh.
Yeh.
on EI.
Right.
for me wouldn’t be something I could afford.
Could reliably.
Yeh, so I’ve never went back to signing anything for like thirteen hundred or in the
case with my roommate ‘cause I charged him less that I was gonna pay.
Yeh.
I was gonna pay a thousand and he was gonna pay five hundred but I’ve I decided not
to start signing rental contracts that got me in binds so.
That you were tied to?
Yeh. Even though I’ve lived in some, what more than struggling situations I felt that
at least in a legal perspective I haven’t been at residential tenancy hearings any more.
There you go.
So no one’s looking for money from me.*12
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
R:
But the thing with it is you know like I you know there was an incident with my dog in
the apartment building that should never been where they asked me to leave the
apartment. But I was asked to leave over like my dog having a fight with another dog
and nothing happened in the terms of you know actually the little dog bit my dog and I
took the little dog and the owner of the little dog to the emergency youth, emergency
pet ah vet but ah the thing with it is I owned a pit bull. So like I couldn’t just like look
at it like that was gonna be okay so I was renting off an engineer, he was from Egypt
actually.
F:
Yeh.
295
R:
And he had bought this apartment, condo for his daughter but she ended up studying in
Toronto so like it was air conditioned in summer which if I ever live in an apartment
again I would like an air conditioned apartment but.
F:
They get a little stuffy in the summer.
R:
I just think that what I found is I was I needed to experience something different ‘cause
I was working to pay my rent kind of thing ‘cause my rent was so high so like at that
point in time I didn’t see Seba Beach without, I thought I would make it at Seba
Beach. It was like a make it or break it situation but I think that in terms the woman,
the woman that I rented from she had raised her kids there and then I don’t know when
she’d gotten married but in court she kind of posed herself as a single woman even
though she wasn’t a single woman like she lived in a new house. I just know maybe in
a different situation with someone who kind of wanted to work with me, moving out of
town would have worked for me but I was in like a place where a woman wanted to
you know sell a house. It went up for sale after I left and she wanted me to rent to own
it. Right and I did look at um doing a rent to own trailer for sixteen hundred dollars a
month.
F:
Like a mobile home?
R:
Yeh a mobile home and what I ended up doing to keep my job was financing a car
because I didn’t drive a car that I could keep the youth like I used to drive youth
around and then they’d give me mileage.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I did lock myself into a five year term of a car but I’m actually down to very soon it
will be two years.
F:
Okay.
R:
So I’m over halfway through the car financing and I see the end of it now. Like I see
that I can survive this and I can be more free to have more money for rent.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause that’s been four hundred and eighty bucks a month. So that’s also played into
the situations of why I don’t have enough money for rent. Right.*12
R:
Well I had actually had never not living in an apartment setting or basement suite or
whatever like the things that I had never not done is I had never hauled water.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I’ve never I still haven’t chopped wood I probably learn in the summer but they teach
us there at the Ctiy of Edmonton. I’ve never chopped wood, I never had lived in the
county other than Seba Beach. So when I got there they put the trailer up by the sewer
296
so that I did have a flushing toilet and the water was running but everything broke
down. Like the electrical went out on the trailer, the plumbing stopped like everything
the trailer fell apart right. It was just an old trailer so the maintenance on the trailer
would cost more than the trailer’s worth to fix right. But what I did learn like I started
to have to haul water like only my sister had water, there is a big bottle of water in the
shop. That’s how you have drinking water but myself I would you know haul the
small gallons of water and start buying drinking water and start using the pool so I
found the system ‘cause I had city passes to have free swimming in the city. I had the
free leisure passes in the city.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I’ve applied and I got ahold of Vicki I believe her name is at the Tri Leisure and
said I’m not using this for leisure I’m using this to have a shower in order to go to
work I need to be clean. So can I apply more often and she didn’t see a problem she
says I can apply as often as I need it. So even though FCSS when it wasn’t Kye I’d
have to explain sometimes it’s okay by Vicki.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I think I had one free pass where you didn’t have to pay the twenty I always check
that but she only gives them to me knowing probably that I’m gonna get lots in a year
is the swimming passes. Right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then what I had to do once I moved into my dads is I’d pay for the septic calling
out there and this month I was able to pump it out myself ‘cause there is a pump
hooked up but in the winter time everything’s frozen all the hoses and stuff. I had
never done it before so I didn’t go try.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But I was able to manage that and it was kind of like a bad story of how the Robin
Williams and the RV gets poop on his pants like I gotta get a better system for hooking
up the hoses but you just pump the septic into the bush ‘cause there’s like deer and I
even seen a female moose last year like there’s lot of wild animals out there. There’s
been a bobcat there’s an own on the property, you can hear the woodpeckers so like
there are some things like when I moved to Seba I was scared of coyotes.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Now I don’t really walk in the bush but.
F:
No.
R:
I don’t fear that the coyotes that I hear that are sounding so close are gonna come and
get me so the experience has been good for me in some ways but I’m like I’m a person
297
that always just kinda paid rent had these certain services and had no idea when they
stopped what it was gonna feel like right.
F:
So right now, you do have running water and a bath tub and what not but how long
were you living in the trailer with no running water, no plumbing, no sewage, no
shower.
R:
Well at the beginning I didn’t use the tub so I never had a tub in there but I did have
water where I could wash my dishes and use the toilet so that was probably for less
than a year I would say that that happened. And not over the winter, so the first first
like spring, summer that I was there I had the use of the sink. And then once the trailer
wasn’t properly winterized ‘cause that’s another thing I didn’t anticipate needing to do
some of the pipes burst holes and I got ahold of like the guy who had helped, he was a
worker for my dad and he wasn’t working for my dad anymore but I got ahold of him
and he felt that I should get a totally new sink.
F:
Yeh.
R:
To be able to hook up the water and so I would just use a hose at that point and kinda
make myself an outdoor system of heating water outdoors and washing the dishes
outside so a table and a sink like that. And so I used the pool. So I lived like that for
um you know two summers I did stuff outside and two years I lived like using, like I
bought myself a little kinda porta potty.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Thing from campers village where you change the bags inside the porta potty and then
you have to take them and throw them in the outhouse or on the, we do burn garbage
sometimes so you’d burn garbage but. I lived with no toilet for two years and no bath
for years, and electricity. And then I gave up watching tv for five or six months but I
do watch quite a bit now.
F:
Yeh.*12
8
Needs
8.1
Centralized services
R:
My clients.
R:
So it’s (inaud).
R:
Don’t have a choice but to stay in the area. The seniors.
F:
So why do you say that?
298
R:
Because their family is still around here or their family is too far away and they just,
this is where they are and this is where their staying and they don’t see it as an option
so even though their homeless or their struggling to make their payments and what not,
they’re not willing to look at moving into a a different municipality or moving closer
with their kids or anything of that nature. ‘Cause it’s either too far or this is where I
grew up and this is where I’m dying. Like this is, that’s a lot of what I hear, this is
where I grew up and this is where I’m gonna end. You know and I get a lot of that so
when I get clients who are homeless or struggling with living their costs and what not.
Um there’s no other option I mean they can’t pay their utilities this month and they’re
far behind and their utilities are gonna get cut off. We’re trying to find somehow to
get the utilities back up and say, no matter what give them all year long summer and
winter, here’s your budget give them a hundred dollars each month. Even though
you’re over paying in the summer, it’ll balance out in the winter. And so we’re trying
to tell people that. ‘Cause they don’t want to leave their home, they still want to live
there. So in order to do that you gotta budget, so one of the things you don’t want to
do is miss a payment on utilities. You know that kind of thing ‘cause they don’t
wanna leave their place. You know and so once you find them a place they don’t want
to leave that place. And especially when it’s in their own community. I know we’ve
had, in Onoway, no Villeneuve opened up a place and it’s a very nice place but my
seniors are like, yeh it’s beautiful but it’s in the middle of where? What are my
options to go shopping? How do I get shopping when I don’t have transpor…when I
don’t have my driver’s anymore? Ah when my family can’t come then what? What
am I gonna do if I need something and nobody can come and bring it ‘cause I’m way
out here. It’s a beautiful facility for those who have family who live there, it’s a
beautiful facility. But for my seniors who can’t find anything but they can get in there
‘cause there’s an accommodation opening, they’re not willing to do it. And you, you
can’t force them even though they can become completely homeless, you can’t force
them to go there because seriously then I’m dealing with them phoning about
transportation and how do I get my meds? And I’m lonely and I’m, oh my god like.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So as a service provider it it I get it.*1
R:
I mean our area goes right out to Wildwood, Evansburg, that’s people come in all the
way in to see me so they’re going to avoid it like the plague until they have no choice
and then they’re in crisis.
R:
Yeh, transportation’s a huge issue.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Just trying to get to work most of my clients don’t have vehicles or can’t get them,
can’t drive right now and to try to find work that fits their skill set what they’re
299
looking for within walking distance of their house or if their rural clients that’s even
harder.
F:
Right.
R:
So sometimes that has an impact on housing too because you know they need housing
where there’s trans, you know if there’s no transportation they have to be able to be
out walking distance so it has an impact on where they want housing.
R:
And so here’s for a dynamics in our community, the affordable housing is here.
Daycare’s are here and jobs are there.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Minus thirty does happen here. That was well planned.
F:
So that transportation piece again. Trying to get between those, when their spread out.
*2
8.2
F:
Education/Awareness/Information sharing
I was gonna ask that do you think that people are aware of the services or resources
that are available and they can’t access them because of transportation or any of those
reasons we talked about or do you think there’s an also an unawareness?
R:
I think the reasons that we talked about with the transportation stuff if what hinders us
from helping them. But from their perspective I think their lack of even know what’s
out there.*1
R:
They just don’t have those opportunities that, they come from low income families
most of them. So they don’t have the same opportunities that I had, to go on to Post
Secondary. But they would jump at it.
F:
So you’re seeing it as largely generational.
R:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
F:
And you think that giving them ah affordable, I don’t want to use the term affordable
housing after we were in such a discussion about that one, but somewhere to stay that.
R:
Well basically they need some.
F:
Get some start.
300
R:
Housing with some rent supplement where they basically the government would kick
in and, and.
R:
They need mentors.
R:
Yeh.
R:
These girls need somebody in their corner to help them through this.
R:
But they, financially their low educated.
R:
Right.
R:
So they don’t have, they don’t have the finances to even pay for rent.
R:
No.
R:
So.
R:
Even if they are working full time. It doesn’t.
R:
There needs to be some supplement coming in. And that it’s directed strictly to rent so
that they can’t spend that money on.
R:
Well the that’s another whole issue right? That’s where that mentorship comes in.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So I mean it’s teaching them it it’s about teaching them. And they are, they are
sponges. I mean my emails are full of questions, these girls want to know what where
to move on to next, what to do.
R:
Even just some of the basic skills that their lacking.
R:
Oh.
R:
Like.
R:
That’s in my survey.
R:
Use cloth diapers instead of disposables if you can’t afford disposables.
R:
Life skills.
R:
Or make your own baby food, you know it just takes a bag of frozen vegetables.
301
R:
That’s the mentorship.
R:
They have no clue that you can even do that kind of stuff.
R:
No that’s the mentorship. Budgeting. Getting their licence. I harp on that big time. *2
R:
I also find with my seniors a lot of them aren’t getting all the resources that are
available to them.
R:
Oh absolutely.
R:
‘Cause now everything is so technological you have to go on line and research. You
know guaranteed income supplement isn’t something that’s automatically applied for
so I you know probably see half of my seniors don’t even know there is such a thing.
Never mind having applied for it so you know it’s getting them on the process but.
F:
Yeh.
R:
There not on the computer, everything’s on line and on the computer and they may not
have family that’s around to help them with that and so suddenly they’re only getting
half of what’s available to them.
R:
That’s so true.
F:
It’s an interesting point.
R:
Oh yeh they’re so left behind. Even with the EI and stuff not everybody’s on the
computer to deal with the EI and all that kind of stuff and it’s so.
R:
And there’s no EI office out here and the seniors like that is like ‘cause I used to get
lots of seniors in but now they’ve kind of gone and got the resources but it was an
ongoing issue the seniors. And they weren’t getting nearly what they were needing. I
mean had one yesterday that was eligible for widow’s pension, CPP, she had no clue
like she had zero clue.
R:
Yeh.
R:
So that’s why it’s really important those senior workers that I can direct them like
don’t come back until you’ve seen so and so because they’ll tr…because for us we’ll
give them easy quick it’s easy to get the funds right.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
No, you need to go do the work ‘cause it’s way more funds.
302
R:
Exactly.
R:
So yeh that’s.
R:
And a lot of them need somebody to walk them through the whole process because.
R:
Oh they do.
R:
Finding the forms and filling out the forms and sending in the form is way too
overwhelming for them.
R:
Yeh and there’s lot so folks out here that should be on AISH. I mean we’ve done a
really good job at reducing those numbers but there’s still people that need to be on
AISH and that was I mean it’s helping them through that process too. So it’s often
times it’s not accessing the funds that their eligible for.
F:
So in seniors it sounds like there’s a lack of awareness of all the resources that is
available.
R:
Absolutely.
R:
We don’t even have really a senior’s office here anymore.
R:
No.
R:
No. But the FCSS have the yeh they have the workers that can help with that process
and.
R:
It’s just getting them to come in.
R:
Yeh, and they have to have.
R:
Yeh.
R:
They have to have help.
R:
They need help because I know we see it when they come to apply we notice it right
away and inform them well you’re you you know you.
R:
You should be getting this, that and the other thing.
R:
And their just clueless.
R:
Um hmm, and their families but I have friends that are older and I’m like, go see Lynn.
She’ll tell you what you’re eligible, oh, and they walk out I mean they’re just thrilled.
303
R:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause it’s not just like the low income or whatever it’s across. People don’t know
what their eligible for.
R:
With the income splitting.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And the everything.*2
R:
And the people who make the decisions are the politician’s and do they really
understand what our what our poor people are facing? Do they realize that ah single
person in income support gets three hundred and twenty three dollars for rent? A
single mom with one child is five thirty four, two kids I think it’s five thirty six for
rent. So I mean tho…that’s where it starts right? And it’s the people in power that can
make the decision. How many municipal governments understand the real dynamics
of poverty, in their community? I don’t know.
R:
Well they can’t, I mean how could they look at that and go hmm five hundred and
thirty four average rent is twelve hundred.
R:
That’ll work.
R:
No problem she’s got that.
R:
But they need to know those numbers in order to make educated decisions for the
population that they have in their communities.*2
R:
And I I mean I’ve invited I so government people who are in seats of they don’t come
into my office. They don’t know what our what we deal with or face in our offices.
And I mean it’s volatile, like I mean I work in a very volatile situation. We got sworn
at, yelled at, screamed at all the time because I cannot meet their needs. That is not
my.*2
R:
Not illiterate. [about services/resources]
R:
Sorry, what did you say?
R:
They’re illiterate.
R:
Or computer illiterate.
304
R:
Um hmm.*2
F:
Right, no rainy day fund to wait around on. Sure, so what what do you think can be
done to overcome these barriers? I mean with something like pride or shamefulness,
how do you see your to the awareness the technology gap, what do you think we can
do to get past these?
R:
Well what what back home there’s not enough motivation at all. You know in the
morning you got grade twelve students that just came out of grade twelve and still at
home I mean there’s no motivation to carry on their education. So I, I think I
personally think that you need to have more workshops, and keep them going and keep
them at that level where you know there’s something out there you know. You’re on
the nest, you hit a branch, you know you’re looking out, you want to leave after that
you know. You don’t want them sitting there hovering at the edge.*2
R:
Yeh. Sometimes you know (inaud) services really understanding what each agency
can do. I mean there’s a lot of information that we all have to bring to the table I know
we talked about um uh reducing poverty at one of our last community meetings. And
they were talking about at the upper government level and I’m like we need to talk
about it at the bottom level ‘cause there’s stuff that we could be doing already. But
they don’t not everybody knows what each other is capable of doing. And I I think
that in there needs to be more education around what services we can provide, what
services they can provide and so that you’re more informed when you’re dealing with
ah person in crisis.
F:
Okay.
R:
‘Cause there’s still like a I threw out daycare subsidy. Who understands that, who
knew that daycare subside will provide six weeks at six hours a day to look for
employment. And none of the agencies knew that. And I’m but those are the things
that would really start to reduce the poverty is to get that in place so that they can start
looking for work.
F:
So not only awareness at the, the client or individual level but also at the service
provider level?
R:
Absolutely.
F:
Okay.
R:
More collaborations.
305
R:
Yeh community connections it needs to be elevated to a different level of more
understanding. And I think that comes to going out to different unit meetings and
those kind of things.
F:
It’s that open communication between service providers who might have some of that
information.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
And I know we kind of have it going on in Spruce Grove but it being in mornings
you’re usually busy providing the services it’s you know ‘cause I know we have them.
One like I never get the chance to come to because.
R:
Yeh and it really doesn’t serve that purpose much anymore.
R:
No.
R:
No.
R:
‘Cause I know that’s kind of what it was designed for originally wasn’t it?
R:
More about sharing information but.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Not about like there’s some learning to do right? I think that that’s part of it.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Educating the trainer the trainers kind of deal. *2
R:
Yeh so that’s so that accessibility of.
R:
With ah some of the one of the most power thing, powerful things I’ve heard in my
own education was they had some women come to one of our classes. And what one of
the woman, women said there was uh she had the social workers come in to her home
and you know she was a single mom with children of course. And she said what she
said to the ah social worker was um, I’m poor not stupid. So sometimes when there’s
poverty, there’s assumption that you know either you’re uneducated or you’re illiterate
or you’re don’t.
R:
Misunderstanding.
306
R:
Have the skills.
R:
Misunderstanding of what it is.
R:
Of poverty, there’s an assumption there that you’re dumb or you’re stupid or you can’t
learn or but that comment stuck with me all these years. I’m poor, not stupid.
R:
I think um um just understanding what the services that there seems to be, I think a fair
amount of people on PDD. Um so their ability the client’s ability is to understand that
it’s okay to ask for help. So something as simple as I want to talk to someone because
my worker just comes and sits on the couch and I want to go swimming or I want to
volunteer or whatever the situation is right? And so them being able to understand that
so when they’re in a situation where their cheque didn’t get deposited for whatever
reason and they don’t have any money and their late on their rent that it’s okay to ask
for help right, so um. I guess just basic understanding with some people with
developmental disabilities that it’s okay to ask for help right. You know what I mean
it’s kinda goes back to the premise that when you’re teaching your children that the
Police Officer’s your friend it’s okay to ask for help. So that kind of premise with
some of those people right.
R:
Or even their knowledge of the services, who provides what.
R:
I was just.
R:
The service there.
R:
Thinking the same thing. That a lot of the clients don’t even their case worker or their
worker just doesn’t have the time to to tell them about the services so.
R:
Right, yeh.
R:
You know they’re, they’re often surprised by finding out they are entitled to a hundred
dollars more for something every month. And another barrier to the service is simply
the service itself is insufficient. I mean not enough money for a lot of the things so.
R:
I think there’s still some people too that um don’t trust the system and the service
providers um you know if I tell someone that I’m that we’re poor and my kids gonna
get taken away you know. Are they going to call the Police? Are who knows what it
might be so it’s easier just to try and suffer through and see if you can figure it out on
your own.
R:
I haven’t seen it a whole lot but I’m guessing that language can also be a barrier to
service. I know at ah Turning Points we have had different ethnic groups, you know
Philippine, Philippino, and some of the Asian population in there both men and women
and their accent is very heavy so you have to let them know you’re gonna, at least I
have to let them know I’m going to do my best to understand them with the accent.
307
And First Nation people as well. I think with sometimes with First Nations people it’s
not, it’s not only the accent and the the language barrier but also the understanding of
the cultural values. Like if you can understand my (inaud) ceremony. You know what
I’m talking about when I say such and such. And that’s a cross culture sometimes just
you know I may not understand what a Jewish person needs, culturally, so.
R:
I don’t know what the exact barrier is but I find like a lot of times I will refer a client
to a certain service and give them phone numbers but they need to do it on their own
and then you know and then I call them them the next time. Oh I haven’t gotten
around to it yet and so whether it’s you know maybe they have addiction issues and or
like time that their just overwhelmed and busy or if there’s mental health issues. Like
I don’t know but there’s a lot of times where it’s like hand holding that it’s like okay
we need to sit down and make that phone call together or like I have to constantly nag
for them to finally access it. I mean I don’t know I can’t pinpoint what exactly the
barrier is for each of those people but you know.
R:
They need that hand holding*3.
R:
the point.
R:
Yeh.
R:
R:
it’s um, I deserve this, like.
R:
Privilege?
R:
Privilege a sense of privilege and entitlement.
R:
Yeh.
R:
You know not with a majority of them but with some you know people that that’s what
the attitude is right? So can’t you just write me a five hundred dollar cheque? You
know, like that that kind of thing right so.
308
R:
I think a barrier’s also from the as service providers sometimes we miss the point in
what they want or need. You know we think they need that five hundred dollar
cheque, meanwhile they wanted something more basic than that. They needed ah for
example, they needed just to talk to someone and just for someone to listen.
Sometimes we make assumptions of what they need or what we think they need or
what they, what they want? I know I’ve fall, fallen into that as oh my goodness is that
what you wanted? Is that what you really needed, you know? ‘Cause you get off on
this service that we provide. Yeh, so.
R:
I think it’s too it’s awareness of services available ‘cause before like if I had never
worked in this field of work, like I may not have not known what FCSS was. Right
like there’s lots of like family members and friends, they don’t they have no idea about
all these things so if this person has come on hard times and now their finding
themselves in need of these services. They don’t really know where to reach out.
Even like I had one client who said you know, like had I known that you know you’re
support was available I would have left this situation sooner, right. You know and so
it’s just that awareness of everybody who, we are all aware because we work in this
field of you know all these services but a lot of people don’t.
R:
I think that’s a good point.
R:
Yeh and even on that sometimes we’re aware of the service but the service changes for
example what I found out yesterday was something and did not know the service had
had changed. Right and so I had just gave the wrong information to the client and
made the phone call and was like, oh okay. You know so being for for a for ourselves
sometimes when that when that changes but I think we do a good job in our
community. I think it’s with other service providers too that provides service in our
community for our residents if we don’t know, you know exactly what’s what’s
happening and so on and so forth, right. Or.
R:
Or they might know of like they know of like family and community services but not
realize what services are actually offered with you guys or something right.
R:
Exactly.*3
F:
So how do you think we can overcome that because everyone’s mentioned that there’s
some really quality services here. But that a lot of that we’re aware of people outside
of the social services world have no idea that they exist. So how do you think we
could overcome that?
R:
Asking the client what are their, what’s their awareness of the services in the area.
Like for them as what as well as um family members. Edu…’cause they have to have
the education, of services to be able to access them. So if we don’t ask them what they
know we will never know what they know or what they don’t know. And of course
the posters. This is what this service does, this is what this service does.
309
R:
I think a greater connection possibly with some of the health care providers in terms of
what services are there so instead of just giving them a medical diagnosis and a
prescription and sending them on their way. Maybe getting a little more involved in,
in edu…I mean we’ve tried I think we’ve tried to reach out to the medical clinics and
but ah they could do a lot too for the preventative social services piece. They really
could.
R:
Yeh and if there was, yeh if there was some way we could work differently with some
of Alberta Health Services services, whatever you know what I mean. Um that would
be because unless you know um the AADAC worker or the Mental Health Worker,
when you call and you get a fill in they won’t give you one ounce of information
because of of the legislation and FOIP and Health Act and this and that right. So um
so Ky’s on holidays and I call whatever we call AADAC now and um I’ve been
working with her with this, with this client all this time. He’s in my office right and I
give a call and you’re on holidays. They even look in the file that you know talk to
Linda from Spruce Grove FCSS bl…there’s no they won’t you can’t have that
conversation right so. Some kind of relationship building with Alberta Health Services
in a different way in what we’ve been doing um in the past.*3
F:
So that was a good way of you mentioned, making your clients more aware but what if
what about that part of the population that isn’t, they aren’t your clients. They’re not
they haven’t even come that far, as coming to you. Is that like you had mentioned,
posters and public awareness. Is that the way that you see it or do you have does
anybody have a different solution for that? Those who aren’t connected at all?
R:
Maybe even in ah different venues such as churches, you know may be the ah Minister
could offer some service, awareness of some services or.
F:
So the community groups?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R
Different community groups even at um across the church where they have the youth,
maybe informing the youth. Because I know sometimes children will tell their mom or
their dad, I was told such and such. In schools educating probably some of the older
children. I don’t even know if they have PTA meetings anymore. Those types of
venues.
F:
Okay.
R:
I’d like to see two things, I’d like to see um a big meeting and again this is kind of a
little dream ah a big meeting say in the big hall at the Tri Leisure of every service
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provider in the community coming together with their pamphlets and you know their
little table and everybody walks around. And you find out everything because a lot of
times we get the same agencies coming to the table and these you know committees
that we have which is great. But we’re definitely missing some of our, our key players
that just don’t come out very often. So if we had something big planned you know
then let’s get everybody there and let’s find out who everybody is. Um the unfortunate
reality of that is everybody’s taxed and so who plans the thing right so that’s, that’s
difficult. Um the other thing that I like right now that seems to be a bit of a um a
public education is this Friends and Family awareness. And I think that’s really
strategic because then you reach the people that maybe don’t need service but you’re
informing them so they can tell other people. But then you’re also reaching those
people that maybe they’re the ones that are embarrassed or don’t think they need help
or don’t you know, know what’s out there and they can access that without being
labelled as a victim or someone that’s in need or something like that so. I really love
the Friends and Family campaign. For just sending out information and sharing where
all the different agencies are in the area.
R:
So like you’re referring to like a career fair or job fair? But a service fair?
R:
Yeh, yeh, yeh.
R:
And I set those up in the past but like not on a large scale thing like when I was
working with in schools that the school would send out to all the parents hey we’re
having this and we’d bring in a whole bunch of service providers. Like you said with
tables and their pamphlets and stuff and really great responses and we did that at
several schools in the inner city and so it got the word out. I think that if it went
smaller scale it would be more achievable than like a huge thing right.
R:
Or maybe even piggy back. Like ah Turning Points has their spaghetti supper in
November, you could have a table like that of pamphlets.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Maybe not even the people there but at least some pamphlets or other what do they
have here in the spring where they have ah, I don’t know where different people go
with their services?
R:
Yeh the registration fair. They have it twice a year.
R:
You know where you can go and they show like um my goodness, home renovation
shows or whatever. They always have that.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And bring everybody, doctors, nurses, school teachers, school counsellors, not just you
know the the smaller agencies but everybody that works with people and.
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R:
And maybe we eventually could be color coded like so ah you know if it’s a service
from Alberta Health services whatever have a blue whatever. And mental health
services and Police services and parent, parenting programs. Just some sorts of (inaud)
that’s a big job too.*3
R:
And so other than a part time job I have been looking into somebody recently told me
about different subsidies and such like that in regards to rent. I haven’t, haven’t been
able to figure any uh sometimes the information on the websites is just makes it seem
even more confusing. I’m like, what?
F:
Yeh.
R:
So why am I doing this?
F:
Government websites aren’t always known for their ease and simplicity.
R:
No their not. And you, you talk to somebody and you’re just like wait I still don’t
understand what you’re saying like if this is what it’s for but this is what I need then
how does that?
F:
Yeh.
R:
How does that require, one in particular said it dealt more with they dealt with the
building and that company and they worked it through that way and then when I talked
to building their like no you pay us directly. So there was the miscommunication
between them as well.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so that that was pretty strange and just when I thought I had it figured out it was
suddently.
F:
Isn’t that they way?
R:
Yeh.*5
R:
Um I also with FCSS I, I’ve been told you guys offer a lot in seminars and such like
that and um help with funding or housing but I can’t seem to find out any additional
information and ah even finding a number for you guys today like I still couldn’t find
it. I looked for a few more minutes after you called, I’m like I have her number but
why is this so hard?
F:
Yeh.
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R:
And so trying to find trying to get access to that information seems really difficult or
tricky and the library has actually been the place where I’ve been able to find out the
most.
F:
Okay. Good to know.
R:
So yeh having more information at the library or just different places that are
accessible.
F:
Okay.
R:
I think would be very helpful as well to services that you do provide or can help with,
um.
F:
That’s really good to know and I can give you um our Information and Referral
Specialist’s number.
R:
Oh thank you.*5
F:
So you’re saying it would be really nice to have something that sort of stream lines that
process for you, makes the forms available, help people.
R:
That’s all that’s needed.
F:
Understand them and fill them out.
R:
We need to know what the rules are and and what’s available and what and uh what
you’re on if you qualify for what and how high you can go. Like I think the only
subsidy as far as I didn’t read everything but I think what’s available is four hundred
bucks. If I’m on AISH so that means I use my that means I do qualify for something
in town. I am on the waiting list and it’s that lower income place that has a one
bedroom for seven seventy one in a new building. And I think I was seventh on the
list in the fall, and I didn’t know I was just gonna try and pay it but you still have to
qualify so all these people that are renting a place were only saying you still have to
qualify. So they obviously don’t have the proper forms either when it’s the public’s
right to fill out that form. So it’s sort of exposure too right? Like what’s allowed
instead of keeping it hush hush for just the Government employees friends and family
right? Like that that’s what it’s kind of looking at when when it’s not easily attained,
right?
F:
Um hmm.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I think that was maximum*6
313
R:
Having to you know.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know like they’re in high school and they just get kinda thrown to the wolves.
Here you’re done, you’re done Grade 12, you graduate, good to go.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know like I didn’t know what I wanted to be until I was thirty years old. Honest
to God.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I pondered a bunch of stuff but really you don’t know.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So.
F:
Yeh that credit situation can be really scary. I think we all know.
R:
Oh yeh.
F:
People who have really gotten themselves into a situation.
R:
Like I went bankrupt by the time I was twenty one.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know I had friends and family that helped me burn a hole in my pocket with the
credit cards do you know what I mean? But you didn’t see them at the end of it going
oh here I’ll help you out.
F:
Pay the bill.*8
F
Right. So just the affordable housing piece right. So okay well if there’s anything else
that you would like to put into the study, any comments.
R
There’s not much known about FSCD. And like I didn’t even know about it and
neither did APFA or FCSS.
314
F
And FSCD is?
R
Family Support with Children with Disabilities.
F
Okay.
R
So like even a mom out there that has like a child with cerebral palsy or stuff like that
like you literally the Stollery if you had a meeting with the Stollery Social Worker,
would really be the only one who would tell you about that.
F
Okay.
R
‘Cause it’s only in Edmonton.
F
So just more I guess information on what’s available.
R
Yeh.
F
Okay.
R
For like supports, like that I had no clue and I was struggling with her for two years
with this. *11
R:
And like I heard there’s other seniors that have problems like paying their utility bills
or they start to have problems right on their budgets. Even thought that they have
accommodation and all I know is if there was more like um I don’t know if there was
more maybe public awareness that there is people out there. Like there’s probably
people that have basement suites that are sitting empty just because you know their
initiative to rent them or whatever like I just think that we don’t look at these things.
‘Cause Stony and Spruce Grove isn’t a low income place as much as Boyle Street
Coop and the area around there like you know you don’t think of that. Like I do look
at the donations to Parkland Food Bank when I go in Super Store and like someone
asked me the other day. They were actually asking at the store would you donate?
This was the first time I heard that but I thought, no I’m not donating right now and
then taking back but the thing I think that’s really good about that is that I don’t know
if that’s even the answer but I think there’s gotta be an interim to, you can’t build these
places fast enough to probably help the people that are experiencing problems. So if
you can’t, how do you make people more aware that there’s problems. Like that kind
of place my experience doing that is going I am a person you know I even ah contacted
the HIV network and like I haven’t gotten anywhere with that I’m gonna have to
probably go in person but I am a survivor of hep c treatment that has successfully
restored my liver like my liver enzymes right now aren’t, my liver’s not dying
anymore. So I’m gonna have.*12
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8.3
Need for different types of housing
R:
So that their not homeless or into anything. Even the youth. I don’t think we need a
shelter that can keep them from the age of fourteen because they decide to move out of
home until their eighteen. I think they need a shelter that can house them until and
have someone there that can guide them, where are you going now and here’s what we
need to do to get you out of here to get to the next place. But to work with them
whether it be three months or six months. I know we’ve had meetings where people
are like what is short term, for youth? Well short term can be a week, short term can
be a year. And we’ve had that okay well we have to distinguish when we talk about
things, what is short term. For me short term is anywhere it could be three months up
to six months, it could be a year. But even if we had something that was specific to
even just six months that would help us tremendously. Because a hotel room is great
fix for a night.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Maybe two or three nights but after that it’s not affordable. And Alberta Works, the
government cannot support them in that kind of facility to pay. So we need something
where the government can step in and say okay so let’s get you and work with them as
well. ‘Cause I know Alberta Works um can help a lot of people but when they help
the people too they have to help to make sure oh by the way in six months you also
have to have a job. ‘Cause their funding is maybe only three months or six months.
So we need to find a shelter that can help all of us including Alberta Works to get that
person on the right track.
F:
So transition or some kind of.
R:
A transition.
F:
Progressive.*1
R:
F:
Sure.
R:
R:
R:
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R:
Yeh. ‘Cause there’s no housing out here. Affordable housing to start them off.*
R:
I see lots of generation, generations living under the same roof. Like way more um in
the last couple years I’ve noticed like more like two and three generations all living
together in two bedroom apartment, six people, lots of kids. Like it’s very common
now.
R:
And how many people are living full time in camp grounds.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Glowing Embers is full of families.
R:
I know it’s full.
R:
All year long.*1
R:
Yeh the majority are from because we only serve, depending on the need they they
require they have to ah members or have lived in this community to have admittance
into (inaud) or another of our building. But we do have some buildings that cover
anyone in Alberta ah and again it depends on their level of need that they require and
that’s where we would see where people are um leaving home either a broken
relationship and um coming from another province or something. And they try to
access that um avenue or ah housing that we offer but again they have to quality for it.
And when I mean qualify I guess it because it’s only an independent and as I said we
only deal with seniors and they have to be able to live totally independent at ah that
age.*1
F:
Right. So you said Lori-Ann that you sometimes see people or elders escaping an
elder abuse or a situation where their being taken advantage of. Would you say that’s
the biggest factor that you see in your population? Or is there something else for the
seniors.
R:
No, basically that or um just needing some support, some help so and so having to live
with family ‘til they, ‘til they can get some housing. Unfortunately we all have, we
are, we or I will have wait lists in any of our level of care that we offer so you know no
one can just it’s very rare that someone come in and say I need a space and we say you
know you can have one tomorrow or next week. That’s really never comes by.
R:
Not the reality.*2
F:
So that transitional housing with the worker that is gonna turn something permanent?
317
R:
So how long were they in there for, like?
R:
It was just well the one in Stony the one I remember she was in there for a few months
but it wasn’t to be in there it was to get them into the next stage of housing to find
them appropriate housing. Right? And she was employed so I mean she could
sometimes the funds run out that they can’t access any more money from us or from
Salvation Army so they really need to stay somewhere where they can save up the
money. That’s the reality. I mean there’s a limit for us a damage deposit once every
three years. Well Salvation Army won’t give a full damage deposit so there’s
dynamics like that. I don’t know if I’d advocate for shelter in this community but I
think that we need to look at housing differently and I’m not even sure what that looks
like. But I do believe that there is some people that need more supports with housing
and not providing it is not helping our community.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
At all. *2
R:
We mentioned that emergency shelter stuff too. There isn’t one of those here. So that
means we gotta send them into the city and again transportation and stuff. That that’s
service that isn’t here but again I don’t know if we have enough need for it to have like
our own full time shelter like that. There needs something for short term. That um can
kind of take that pressure off while they get the stuff figured out.
F:
Right.
R:
Yeh back home we don’t have none of that ah we only have it for the elders.
F:
Okay.
R:
We only focus on the elders and ah and pre-school I do believe, but nothing in between
that yeh.
F:
That’s big.
R:
Yeh. *2
R:
But you know our education system in a way stinks because they don’t teach our kids
life skills.
R:
No.
R:
I went int.
318
R:
And parents don’t have those discussions.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Here’s how to manage your money. Here’s how much you should be putting in
savings. This is.
R:
So it all stems you know it all.
R:
I talk to (inaud).
R:
A domino effect from.
R:
When they I taught two days at the comp last term I guess I have another couple days
coming up for com class, a really important class that is like a gong show. It’s awful.
They don’t listen, it’s like they know everything.
R:
But kids are spoiled nowadays, they they their par…they get handed everything
handed down from their parents. They don’t know the meaning of responsibility they
don’t know the meaning.
R:
That’s not all that’s just.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Yeh.
R:
It’s a part of it though yeh.
R:
There’s just um yeh absolutely. *2
R:
I used um oh Alberta’s Support I guess you’d call it or where they, they would pay for
a certain amount.
The income support or?
Oh, damn it I can’t think of it right now.
Or is it a seniors benefit of your mom’s or?
No, no this was I’m just trying to think. Where in the world did I put that? I know I
have that god blessed thing. This is Sonia here, this is where we’re at now.
Okay. Is this the affordable housing?
Ah no. There’s no subsidized on that one at all.
Oh okay.
There’s no, I took it out of my purse I guess.
So is it this one? This Spruce Heights or the Westgrove Manor?
Ah.
Do you know? Or neither?
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
319
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Westgrove Manor.
Oh okay and that’s not the um.
The ah.
The affordable building?
Ah well this third and fourth floor are for seniors.
Oh okay.
Yeh.
Oh okay. So how does that work, are you and your mom in, are you guys sharing one
apartment?
Just one apartment.
Yeh.
We share it. We split.
Well for two people that’s not so bad.
We split the bills in half, everything is split in half we.
Yeh.
And this way. Any my mom had an infection last winter, not this one but the winter
before and she’s allergic to Sulphur. *4
F:
It sounds like. So how is um the place you’re in now? How are you finding that?
R:
I have.
F:
Building.
R:
Once I turn sixty five I have to get a chair so that she can sit to take a shower.
F:
Yes.
R:
And she needs support on the tub.
F:
Yes.
R:
‘Cause all there is is just where the soap bar is like, she, well she slipped and fell
be…once before and she’s afraid of taking another fall.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I don’t blame her.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And she asked and they refused her. So I’m just waiting ‘til I turn sixty five and I’ll
go bloody well ask for one.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
I’ll get it one way or another I will get it.
F:
Um hmm.
320
R:
I’m a determined person, very determined.
F:
Yeh.*4
F:
That’s for sure. So what um are there any services that aren’t out there that you
would like to see out here as far as social services or housing help?
R:
More housing, definitely more housing.
F:
Just more housing?
R:
Yes.
F:
Yeh, what kind of housing?
R:
Low income housing like for seniors and you know people on AISH and.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Or even those on social assistance.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
You know with families. I’m telling ya it’s a struggle.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And you’re allowed to make a certain a month and then they deduct dollar for dollar.
Which is a negative thought of too.
F:
Yeh.*4
R:
I mean there is young people, I mean they have families there’s two I mean that’s
understandable. But we like it, the only thing is the fire alarm. My mother’s knees it’s
bone on bone, there is no cartilage left.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And when you’re on the fourth floor.
F:
Is there an elevator there?
R:
There well yeh you can’t use the elevator when they spring a fire alarm.
F:
You’re right, yeh.
R:
You gotta use the stairs that’s the only thing, the only objection that we have. And
they’ve done it to us twice, one of us has a drill hey. Well they wanna know how fast
people can get out hey?
321
F:
Well I guess it helps them to know that they you might need help on the fourth floor
there.
R:
Yeh.
F:
It’s not all bad.
R:
No it isn’t.
F:
At least they know that you would need a hand yeh.
R:
Yeh.
F:
That your mom would need a hand.
R:
And then there’s others that are on oxygen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
When we had that fire drill well we had to go down the four stair you know floors and
we had we went out the back and then there was a drop off about yay deep, just like
this.
F:
Oh no.
R:
One lady well she’s got a wheeler and like.
F:
A walker?
R:
And she’s got her, her oxygen tank in it and I’m telling you that woman ended up in
hospital because of the drop hey? I don’t know if it was a heart attack or just what. It
could have been.
F:
Oh that’s not good.
R:
No good but I mean people that are on oxygen like that at that it’s not very good they
should have a you know a ramp or kind of a slant.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So that it would be easier access for them, it’s a dead drop.
F:
Yeh I think I hope she speaks to someone, it’s not very safe.
R:
Well it would be a concern hey.
F:
Um hmm well let’s hope the fire drills are few and far between.
R:
Well yeh they wanna make sure that their operating right and there’s no way you can
miss that cussed thing, god it’s loud.
F:
Well it serves it’s purpose I guess.
R:
Yes it does, oh dynamite. *4
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F:
That’s always good to hear. Well is there anything else, housing wise, that you would
like to talk about before we rap it up and I turn the recorder off?
R:
The only thing that I you know would like is ah, is a senior duplex, you know say if.
F:
Now what would you like about that? What are you envisioning?
R:
What I would like is one that is all one level instead of a flight of stairs.
F:
Okay.
R:
Up or a flight of stairs down all one level. But I can’t see that happening because you
have they have to have a, a foundation of some sort hey. Well my mother couldn’t
handle it anyways. But if it was for myself that’s something that I would be interested
in.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know.
F:
So a little bungalows something without ah.
R:
Condo I don’t ,you have to buy in that too. And on AISH you’re not gonna be able to
afford it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I mean it’s out of the question.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But who knows in the future? Think positive.
F:
Yes there you go and that’s why we’re doing this study it’s ah I think your perspective
is a a really important one for this study.
R:
Well it it covers.
F:
These are some great, some great things that you’ve covered here so, I really
appreciate you coming out and ah.*4
F:
So you don’t feel your current income supports all of your, your basic needs if you
were to move out?
R:
No. No and um unless I found just the right person or just the right place with that,
that’s looking for that low lower income or lower rent base which I mean every now
323
and then I’ve been lucky enough to find and extremely grateful for knowing what the
rents are.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And so other than a part time job I have been looking into somebody recently told me
about different subsidies and such like that in regards to rent. I haven’t, haven’t been
able to figure any uh sometimes the information on the websites is just makes it seem
even more confusing. I’m like, what? *5
F:
That’s a good attitude, that’s that’s very nice of you to do that. So besides um Stony
Plain and Spruce Grove creating their own sort of housing umbrella, do you think
there’s any other services that are missing out in Stony or Spruce that would be helpful
for people in your situation? Where the rents are so high and you’re on a fixed
income?
R:
Well no it’s like it’s like finding out and making sure all the forms are available and
that if anyone needs assistance filling out the forms for being either non-functional any
way whatsoever or blind of deaf or anything.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Um they just, they just need access to the Government funding because as far as I
know in Whitecourt how it worked is if you can’t afford your apartment and and
you’re allowed in there, there’s a portion of a subsidy that you can get that covers your
rent. So you can get into a place. No matter who you are.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like if you’re well enough to work I don’t know if you qualify. But like I know I’m
on AISH and I would qualify for whatever’s there and.
F:
So you’re looking at.
R:
So I was looking at the Capital Housing just last month some time and I have to get to,
I have a laptop but I don’t have a printer for it.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I have to go borrow, borrow an office and get some printouts done. And then I’ll
apply but see while my kids were younger, I didn’t want to go the city and be that
much further away from them. I wanted to stay in that same house. And it wasn’t
always easy to get along because every time I like I’d prove I’m working a job and
they they’d say, you’re not well you’re not well. Well I’m working a frigging job
leave me alone, what more do I need to do. You know do I have to conquer the world
just to get my kids back? ‘Cause that might as well have been what it what it was.
F:
That’s what it felt to you.
324
R:
Yeh . Nothing I could do was good enough to get my kids back so. When my kids are
eighteen and out of the house I’m gonna attack my kids legally. Like I’m gonna get a
lawyer and and their gonna pay even in their old age. ‘Cause I haven’t forgiven them.
F:
Yeh.
R:
They weren’t right. They weren’t nice and they weren’t right for the kids. They were
just its, a lot more going on but their gonna pay somehow. I promise you know, like.
F:
Well I’m sorry to hear that was so tough.
R:
It’s gonna, it’s gonna be polite and it’s gonna be some kind of court and I’ll find the
way to get the help I need. ‘Cause what like when the kids were young it’s pretty hard
to start doing stuff like that. Or they could have been a potential to hurt the kids right,
so.
F:
So.
R:
You wait. There’ll be some pay back.
R:
I’m on income support and I get fifteen, sixteen twenty seven a month and my rent is
twelve eighty four. They won’t, I was gonna transfer to Edmonton because it was
cheaper and you can get a townhouse for less.
F:
Really.
R:
But they won’t let me because my cat peed.
F:
Oh.
R:
So I have to pay for the rugs before I can go anywhere and.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s just an onward stuggle.
F:
So that’s like a something with your landlord? You can’t move out until the.
R:
Well I can move out but I’m gonna be in dept.
F:
Or you could move out but you have to pay for the carpet. Okay. I’ve gotcha.
R:
And it’s a big frigging hassle.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause boardwalk doesn’t do what their supposed to, my fridge has been broken and
they keep saying that they’ll bring a new one in and it doesn’t happen. Nothing gets
done, even the low income housing isn’t affordable. Ten percent below market value
is still like eleven, twelve hundred dollars.*7
That’ll be.
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R:
I lived with my sister until some stuff happened and everyone got split up.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then I moved into a basement suite and they were really cool but I needed to be,
‘cause it was so dark it was making me depressed.
F:
Oh yeh.
R:
So I moved into this place thinking it would be good and it’s just turned into hell
zone.
F:
In what way?
R:
They’re letting addicts in now so there’s a bunch of junkies around and people are
sneaking into the building and it’s not safe anymore. It’s worse, it’s getting to be like
Edmonton.
F:
Okay.
R:
The sec…there they don’t know, you can’t get any help. They don’t wanna fix
anything in the apartments but their supposed to.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they want to they want us to pay all this money but we’re not getting anything.
F:
Oh okay. So you say your fridge isn’t working or.
R:
It keeps, they keep telling me that my freezer’s too full and I laugh at them and I say
there’s nothing in my freezer because you guys said that was the problem. So how is it
my freezer?
F:
Yeh.
R:
I need a new fridge and I’ve been waiting like four months.
F:
Does it? What’s wrong with the fridge?
R:
It gets plugged and then it starts leaking water all over.
F:
Oh, nice. So okay. Um are there any other repairs needed to besides the fridge, to the
apartment?
R:
The, all the cupboards are old they’re breaking. I’ve had the I’ve asked them to caulk
the linoleum, they won’t do that so it’s lifting. I’m worried about water damage under
the fridge because of all the leaks. Ah they haven’t recaulked the toilet, my tub is the
the glaze is cracked so it makes it dangerous because Lila can slip and it’s just like a
never ending story.
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F:
Yeh no kidding, um well I would say make sure that if you’ve been trying to get the
fridge fixed that you have your efforts documents.
R:
Well there’s a sign saying.
F:
In case the flooring underneath does get damaged I would just make sure you’re
documenting.
R:
Actually that’s a good idea.
F:
What you’re doing with the fridge. I have no idea what’s going on but if um yeh just
keep track of what you’re doing.
R:
It’s just so stupid there’s a little piece in the back of the fridge that just gets clogged
with gunk and he comes in and he empties it and he goes away. And then it does it
again.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So now I’ve taken to just fixing the fridge myself because I’ve watched what he does.
F:
There you go. Well that’s really too bad about the fridge, I’m sorry to hear that or
some of the other.
R:
Gotta love boardwalk.
F:
Yeh troubles that you’re having. Um have you had any other issues with your
housing?
R:
Not yet. *7
F:
Okay when you first moved out from living with your family when your family got
split up. Did you have any trouble finding a place or was it pretty easy to find the
basement suite? Was it pretty easy to find the apartment?
R:
No it was really hard it took me months to be able to get out.
F:
Okay. And were you able to stay with your family for those months or did you have
to, what did you do between finding the basement suite and leaving your family’s
accommodations?
R:
I was living with my sister in her basement. I was paying half I was paying about
three thousand dollars a month because I paid half her mortgage, half her bills, half the
food. Because she was struggling, her husband wasn’t making as much as he was and
she still want to live her normal life style. So I helped her do that and that resulted in
both of our families being ripped apart.
F:
How were you, how were you able to do that if your only getting sixteen, sixteen?
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R:
I was off Social Services at that point and my ex was working.
F:
Okay.
R:
Making good money.
F:
Oh. Okay gotcha. So how did you end up finding the basement suite that you moved
into?
R:
Ah me and my ex and my daughter were supposed to live together and that lasted for
like three days and he the cops had to come and he was escorted out. So I kept it for
about a year and then I moved into this place.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So that my sister and them wouldn’t know where I was and then they got in contact
with me and they had me, it, it got insane there for a little bit because I was helping my
friend and his two boys.
F:
Yeh.
R:
‘Cause he just got custody and had nowhere to go.
F:
Okay.
R:
So he was staying with me and then she dropped off her three kids because Children’s
Services was involved.
F:
Your sister did?
R:
With me so I had six kids in the house and then two with me and then my friend and
I’m trying to raise all of them and you know and then you know Children’s Services
came in and took them and it it was hell and I’m still trying to like I want to find a four
bedroom because I wanted, I want my nieces and nephews to come and live with me
but I’m not fit right now because I only have a two bedroom.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I can’t find that.
F:
Yeh. Okay. Yeh that ah wow I can’t believe six children. That must have been.
R:
All under five, or no six.
F:
Oh boy. That must have been pretty crazy.
R:
It was fun. Very strict when you have six.*7
F:
Fair enough. Do you feel that anything is preventing you from improving your housing
situation? Do you feel like there’s any barriers between you and improving your
housing situation?
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R:
I think if there were more options out here, that were actually more feasible financially
it would make a big difference. A huge difference.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That’s pretty much all I can say.
F:
So that single income sort of thing. Gotcha. So what um what would be your, your
end goal for this housing? Would you like to see yourself owning a place? Or?
R:
I’d love to own a place.
F:
Renting where you are long term? Or renting a bigger or a smaller place?
R:
I’d love to own my own house. I really would. You know but that that’s not in the
cards. It’s.
F:
Yeh.
R:
At forty years old if you don’t, pardon my language if you don’t have your crap
together with credit you don’t have anything. You know and that, that’s the hardest
part. Like I’ve been to my bank, I’ve been with my bank for probably fifteen years but
they still won’t give me a credit card. You know what I mean? Their looking at it
going okay well you gotta put in before we’ll give you this and it’s like I understand
that but that’s not what I’m looking for.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know what I mean?*8
F:
Yeh. So what would be under what circumstances would you leave the area? What
would cause what would cause you to leave? Are you able to afford everything on
your current income? I know you mentioned you were having trouble with the bills
and whatnot.
No we’re not allowed to, we’re not able to afford it but really I mean it’s I think the
big thing is pets too right? Like there’s not a lot of lower income you know pet
friendly, family friendly um places so.
Yeh and you have pets then?
Um hmm.
Dogs, cats?
Well I have a cat, my daughter has two guinea pigs but my oldest daughter has moved
in and she has a dog and a bunny so we have like a whole.*9
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
In the mobile home right now.
R:
Absolutely no yeh.
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F:
Have you guys had any difficulty any other difficulties with um like adequacy? Like
has it required many repairs to meet health and safety or?
R:
No. It’s actually it’s small, like tiny but it’s um it was fine for me and my husband
and the two younger kids but then when my daughter needed to move home ‘cause she
was living with her boyfriend and they kinda broke up for awhile and she couldn’t
afford the rent and stuff so she had to go somewhere and of course the doors always
open right?
F:
Yeh what are you gonna do, yeh.
R:
So um I mean eventually she’ll probably move out and get her own place again but
that could be awhile.
F:
Yeh. So it sounds like your issues have mostly been with the space and the
affordability. Um do you see yourself having to look for a a more affordable place in
Spruce or Stony?
R:
It would be nice but the only one that I found is non-pets.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And you know we could downgrade some but like the cat and the dog are really old so
I mean their you know if you brought them for example to like you know a pound or
that kind of thing their gonna get put down. And not very many people want to adopt
a you know an eleven year old cat.
F:
No.
R:
And a nine year old dog right?
F:
So between the pets and the stairs it keeps you a bit limited.
R:
Yeh.
F:
It sounds like.
R:
Yeh.*9
F:
I’m glad to hear that. Do you feel that there are any services that are missing out here
that may be you were able to access when you were in Edmonton or that you just feel
the Stony Plain, Spruce Grove are could use?
R:
Other than I think lower income housing I think. And more family, pet friendly ones
too so um I’m you know a lot of people don’t recognize it but sometimes our you
know our pets are like our children too. It’s very devastating on the whole family to
have to give up those, especially after you know like our cat we’ve had for eleven
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years as long as my daughter’s eleven she’s had that cat all of her life so. To have to
give him up is a big deal right so.
F:
It’s I’m an animal lover too so I totally understand that and especially um sometimes
for single people and they have this pet that they’ve had for years or even a new pet it
doesn’t really matter but that’s their only support or their only companionship. It
would be very difficult to.
R:
That’s like my daughter right?
F:
Yeh.
R:
She has a lot of emotional issues and that bunny and that dog have been her support.
That’s her family. You know when she was living on her own so and there’s no way
she’s giving either one up so, I think that child would rather live in a box in the street
than give up her pets. I don’t know but.*9
F:
Okay. So what um what would you like to be able to do to improve your housing
situation?
R:
You know it just would, would be really nice if they had some sort of help with um
‘cause like I’m in that catch fifty two where I make too much money to get help from
you know Alberta Works, but I mean I’m struggling to pay that rent so if they had
some sort of means even to help supplement that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Or a cheaper housing somewhere.
F:
Yeh. So do you feel that anything is preventing you from improving your situation?
Is it just the income or do you feel there’s anything else?
R:
I’m I think like I said the pets but also the stairs too.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That’s a big one for me, too many stairs. Mind you the last place I had through ah um
Capital Region it was almost like, it was a weird like you came in the door and you
had your kitchen and then you go up a couple stairs and you have the living room and
then you go up a couple stairs and you have the two bedrooms and the bathroom. And
then you go up a couple more stairs and you have the master bedroom and then you go
down the stairs to the basement. So there was a lot of stairs.
F:
No kidding. Sounds like you’re living in a tree house.
R:
Yeh almost. *9
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F
Okay that’s pretty good then. So have you had any other issues with your housing
besides I guess the affordability piece with the (inaud) and the health issues?
R
What do you mean by that, so like?
F
Have you had any like with did you have any difficulties when you were trying to find
a place to stay out here that was close enough to the hospital for you? Or a place that
was affordable?
R
Yeh, it was kind of hard because everybody wants like a mortgage payment and it’s
like really and I can’t live in an apartment with the girls just because of all of Alana’s
medical issues. And she needs a service dog and if I get a service dog you have to be in
a pet friendly home.
F
Right.
R
And pet friendly homes aren’t in low income.
F
Yeh. When is she gonna need a service dog?
R
They’ve been looking into it but I guess it’s so new that they ‘cause it’s only meant for
Type I diabetics.
F
I’ve heard of this.
R
Yeh and they’ve said Alana’s so rare.
F
They smell the.
R
Yeh but when their low or when their high and Alana’s so rare disorder they don’t
know what it all entails so they said they couldn’t give us a service dog yet but they
want to look into her disorder for me.*11
F
Interesting, sorry we were talking about I guess finding the acreage because you said
you can’t be in an apartment. You have some pretty specific, it has to be close enough
to a hospital.
R
Yeh.
F
So was it hard to find this acreage that was going to be affordable and close?
R
Yeh it was. Very hard and then to explain ‘cause the dad lives on the property so to
explain to them if all of a sudden an ambulance shows up there because he has locked
gates, and if an ambulance shows up there and starts coming in to the house and stuff
and trying to explain to them don’t freak out. It’s like it’s due to Alana.*11
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F
So what um do you think there’s anything else that we should know for addressing
housing issues in the community? Like you’re in a pretty unique situation but overall
just the issues with the availability of affordable housing. Do you feel that there’s
anything else that?
R
Well I think like putting up more sites with better like prices for housing like for people
who can’t afford a mortgage type thing would be back because literally you’re going
through. You’re going through. And um just like so people could have a place to go to
like see okay well that one’s only. So like it’s literally it would be great if there was
like places there for like fourteen hundred bucks or lower on one website so people
would look at and be able to see.*11
R:
Well I think I still have like I went for a small period without a dog, one thing is I have
a pet so they’re not pet friendly but I think it’s some of things I can’t remember
reading it what it was is that I couldn’t made it but I do know like even having a pet
like there’s like because I had to address my pet through my ‘cause I did go on my EI
ran out before my treatment was done so I was on income support for about three or
four months and my doctor felt that I shouldn’t get rid of my dog for you know for
purposes that it keeps me you know it’s companion to me. I’m fifty six, I’ve never had
kids right?
Um hmm.
So I think that I know some people that lived in ah housing in Edmonton and they
could get a letter from their doctor stating that they needed their pet.
I’ve heard of that.
You know and I don’t think it’s probably set up for that. That’s just what I felt right?
Yeh.
I didn’t actually pursue it.
Okay.
That, that was always kind of the hinderances I had to apply for places that were pet
friendly. And the other thing with ah ‘cause I’ve talked to my nurse about this is.
Yeh.*12
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Mostly since 1987 I’ve had some stints of relationships that haven’t lasted too long so
I’ve always been a single woman and so I always lived in like basement suites or
apartments and then for the five years I was with my sister renting ah we rented some
houses so I got a chance of living in sort of nicer accommodations. I’ve had the odd
roommate through the years a couple times, male roommates a few male roommates
but um mostly I’ve been on my own renting. So I think that the hardest thing I find is
like you know out here it’s like looking at should I buy myself a better trailer and go
into an RV park and I can keep my dog or should I look for a basement suite or that
kind of accommodation like I don’t even think that the Government or you know
homeless kind of plan should be maybe pet friendly but like realistically not
everybody’s gonna want to live without a pet either. So that’s one of the things that I
333
thought when I come here today is like I kind of caused my own problems having a pet
but then like I didn’t have, me and my sister got these dogs we seen them free on the
south side that’s kinda how we started our dog. And then I ended up with a pit bull
that was a rescue after that and then the dog I have now I adopted from Edmonton
Humane.
F:
Yeh.
R:
A couple years back but I couldn’t see trying to live without a pet now just on my own
but a lot of times that’s been like part of my homelessness has been over my wanting
to have a dog too, right. ‘Cause a lot of people don’t want to rent to people with
dogs.*12
F:
So after you left Spring Lake you were living in a camper in Spring Lake, and then
you had said you sort of looked at apartments or applied to some different apartments
in Stony or Spruce?
R:
Well I lived in the trailer, I loved above doggy day care that is now not a doggy day
care but it’s in industrial part of Spruce Grove and I lived there for I believe I can’t
remember if it was eight months but somewhere around that. And I paid eleven
hundred dollars with utilities included and ah then a woman sold her building, like she
her ex-husband had part of this other I don’t know behind me was her ex-husband or
something. But ah she didn’t really think that she should I don’t know she just gave
me, told me I should leave. Like she didn’t introduce me to the new owner it wasn’t a
kind of situation where I could stay renting there and I think that at that time I was
probably pretty much like my dad didn’t create a bad situation for us but one of the
things that I can say is you know when you take something where you think well it’s
my family and you know I should just take the help. Like I ended up with a whole
group of problems right? Where you kind of go well maybe I should have sought
some different kinds of help at that particular time.
F:
Instead of just family and friends helping?
R:
Right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Maybe I should have been putting my name in for as many pet friendly buildings as I
could or like you know even at that time because I had a senior dog I guess I could
have been looking at like if I got into a building my dog was gonna pass away
anyways and it did right.
F:
Yeh.
R:
But because I was out in the country by then I just got another dog which is something
I did kind of think about at the time thinking, okay maybe I shouldn’t go for having a
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dog right away and then I just decided well I’m gonna try it but the thing with myself
Is at that point in time ‘cause I’d had all these run in’s with residential tenancy in the
city. I kind of was exhausted and that’s one thing I have freed myself from and now
I’m more looking at I gotta have my own place now.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Like I gotta get my own space, my dad’s a senior and he’s also you know given an
executor of his will one of my sister’s gonna be executor of his will so he’s looking at
getting out of business.
F:
Okay.
R:
So the situation I’m in is gonna be not there soon.
F:
You won’t have the shop to live in.
R:
Right.
F:
Okay. And then what?
F:
R:
eighteen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Okay.
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R:
F:
R:
Right.
F:
R:
you help with that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
something like.
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
R:
Right.
F:
Okay.*12
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8.4
Improved resources/supports
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
Once I turn sixty five I have to get a chair so that she can sit to take a shower.
Yes.
And she needs support on the tub.
Yes.
‘Cause all there is is just where the soap bar is like, she, well she slipped and fell
be…once before and she’s afraid of taking another fall.
Um hmm.
And I don’t blame her.
Um hmm.
And she asked and they refused her. So I’m just waiting ‘til I turn sixty five and I’ll
go bloody well ask for one.
Um hmm.
I’ll get it one way or another I will get it.
Um hmm.
I’m a determined person, very determined.
Yeh.
Sometimes I can be outspoken too, if need be.
Yeh.
But if you don’t.
Well it sounds like that’s something that’s quite important and so I hope.
Yeh.
You’re able to get that. You don’t want um.
Well I’ve slipped enough.
An eighty eight year old woman to slip and fall.
I’ve slipped and.
In the shower.
Fell in the shower. Landed on my tailbone.
Yeh. Oh that one takes a while to heal.
It really didn’t heal.
Yeh.
Because it damaged the tailbone.
Yeh.
So if you sit in the wrong position by George she’ll let you know.
Yeh.*4
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
I think for youth some of the various services that they don’t have the skills to seek
them out or to even have a clue what’s out there. They don’t advocate for themselves
very well.
337
R:
And no supports is the big one. If they don’t have family or other types of supports or
they don’t know the resources and then there’s issues. A single person can’t afford,
like especially a single youth can’t afford rent.*1
R:
Single income families, it’s a big one too.
R:
The single moms, especially the young ones.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Because that’s the only way they stayed in a home is they kind of go from guy to guy
and they kinda end up with more kids on the way. And it just kind of, that’s how they,
yeh that’s how they they battle homelessness is they just find the next guy.
R:
Yeh.
R:
To support them.
F:
Give them a place to stay.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Sure.
R:
Right now the young moms I deal with a lot of them are staying with their parents
which is awesome.
R:
Yeh if they have.
R:
But if we had.
R:
Family around. *2
R
Yeh you’d almost need like a Boyle Centre drop in. Really to access them. I know the
Food Bank refers a number of people to the FCSS as well because that is one point
where, where people will go and and they’ll get referred to us quite a bit from there so.
R:
‘Cause even in Edmonton you know, no one agency tries to provide services to the ah
homeless or the people living in poverty.
R:
Right.
338
R:
You know they go to Hope Mission for breakfast and then to Boyle Street for lunch
and then to another agency for their dinner. So they know where to go to get their
three meals a day.
R:
And all those agencies working together.
R:
Yes.
R:
So they know, you know this one’s providing lunch, this one’s providing breakfast,
this one’s providing supper and.
R:
Yes.
R:
And having that collaboration of of services and that conversation so everybody knows
what the other person is doing, right?
R:
And the burden isn’t just on one.
R:
Right.
R:
Service provider.
R
‘Cause it is the homelessness but also the people who are living in poverty who access
those services as well. They have homes, you know their paying their rent but they
just can’t meet that.
R:
Definitely.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And then the churches as well, you know provide Sunday dinners or what not and
they, word of mouth you know. Hampers, at Christmas time, food hampers and. *3
the point.
R:
R:
Yeh.
R:
R:
339
it’s um, I deserve this, like.
R:
Privilege?
R:
Privilege a sense of privilege and entitlement.
R:
Yeh.
R:
You know not with a majority of them but with some you know people that that’s what
the attitude is right? So can’t you just write me a five hundred dollar cheque? You
know, like that that kind of thing right so.
R:
I think a barrier’s also from the as service providers sometimes we miss the point in
what they want or need. You know we think they need that five hundred dollar
cheque, meanwhile they wanted something more basic than that. They needed ah for
example, they needed just to talk to someone and just for someone to listen.
Sometimes we make assumptions of what they need or what we think they need or
what they, what they want? I know I’ve fall, fallen into that as oh my goodness is that
what you wanted? Is that what you really needed, you know? ‘Cause you get off on
this service that we provide. Yeh, so.
R:
I think it’s too it’s awareness of services available ‘cause before like if I had never
worked in this field of work, like I may not have not known what FCSS was. Right
like there’s lots of like family members and friends, they don’t they have no idea about
all these things so if this person has come on hard times and now their finding
themselves in need of these services. They don’t really know where to reach out.
Even like I had one client who said you know, like had I known that you know you’re
support was available I would have left this situation sooner, right. You know and so
it’s just that awareness of everybody who, we are all aware because we work in this
field of you know all these services but a lot of people don’t.
R:
I think that’s a good point.
R:
Yeh and even on that sometimes we’re aware of the service but the service changes for
example what I found out yesterday was something and did not know the service had
had changed. Right and so I had just gave the wrong information to the client and
made the phone call and was like, oh okay. You know so being for for a for ourselves
sometimes when that when that changes but I think we do a good job in our
community. I think it’s with other service providers too that provides service in our
community for our residents if we don’t know, you know exactly what’s what’s
happening and so on and so forth, right. Or.
R:
Or they might know of like they know of like family and community services but not
realize what services are actually offered with you guys or something right.
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R:
Exactly.*3
F:
So do you feel that your income, what you’re getting from income support right now
is enough to cover your basic needs?
R:
No. You need, when you have a child you need to have the stuff to help them. So
because of technology right now she needs a tablet for school or she wants to watch tv
so that’s extra a money that I have to put out that takes away from food or clothes or
whatever. And then I have to buy all second hand stuff which I hate because I want
her to have all brand new. I want her to fit in and I can’t do that.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
‘Cause that two thousand dollars a month after twelve eighty four for rent and then a
hundred and sixty for Shaw and then my cell phone bill of sixty dollars in case
something happens. Her dad comes around or whatever I can phone the Police.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And then I have to pay the power which is about a hundred and fifty a month. It
doesn’t leave much for food.
F:
Yeh it goes pretty quickly. It sounds like. Wow.
R:
It’s very hard.*7
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
How um just sort of related how is your experience with Capital Region Housing?
I hated it.
Really?
Um hmm.
How long did it take you to get in and?
Not very long.
Yeh.
Um I was a single mom when I got in um I was in a kind of in a bad situation living
with my daughters father and we weren’t together and I was stuck there. So they got
me out pretty quick, two, three months I was out.
Okay. So what did you what did you dislike about it?
Um I hated it because they make you feel like they’d do this inspection once a, once a
year which is such a huge invasion of your privacy.
What does it consist of?
Well I mean they tell you they just come in and and they um are looking for anything
that needs to be fixed and whatever that’s not true that’s not a they want you to do a
move out almost like you’re doing a a move out move clean. Like they want to do a
clean like a move out clean.
Yeh.
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
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R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
Like I got in trouble one year because my light fixtures were dirty. The outside of my
door was dirty and it was spring right so they actually gave me a month to clean it up
and they came back and inspected it again. So and there were people like that had
some really messy houses and they got notices but I thought you know and my stove,
the inside of my stove wasn’t completely clean. And I’m like, well I wasn’t moving
out so you know I wasn’t gonna do a my house is clean is that all that matters but I
didn’t know you were here to inspect how clean my house is. Um so ‘cause I
sometimes it depends my house it does get really messy because I you know physically
sometimes I can’t. So I don’t get a lot of help with that so.
Yeh.
That was one big one, they never fixed anything, nothing. Um I had to get people I
knew come and fix stuff for me because they unless it was the only time they actually
came and fixed something was when my hot water exploded my hot water tank
exploded. Like there was water everywhere.
Oh no.
And they actually came and fixed that but I mean we had a drip in the bathroom and it
got so bad it was running and I had to get family and friends to come in and fix it.
Really.
A few times yeh.
So how long were you with Capital Region Housing?
Eleven, ten years.
Ten years?*9
F:
So have other things had to change to accommodate your rent? For example um are
other bills being missed or having the minimum paid say on a credit card or a cell phone
bill?
R:
No I don’t have credit cards I refuse to have credit cards. Um I can pay all my other
bills it’s other thing that suffer you know food, clothing, entertainment.
F:
Yeh.
R:
You know that kind of stuff suffers ‘cause there’s just no money for it.
F:
Yeh at the end of the day once you take care of your responsibilities.
R:
Right. You know pay rent, pay bills, that’s about it. You know get subsidized for food
and hope that it’s edible.
F:
Use the food bank and thrift stores once your bills are paid.
R:
And yeh I don’t even go to the thrift stores ‘cause I can’t afford that so it’s basically
food bank and whatever food we need. We have throughout the week right and month.
Yeh I have two growing boys you know my fifteen year old is six foot two and.
F:
Oh my goodness.
R:
So he’s a big boy.
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F:
Yeh, yeh, big appetite I bet.
R:
Yeh.
F:
No kidding.
R:
So yeh there’s nothing extra.
F:
Yeh.
R:
That’s for sure.*10
F
So do you find that you’re incomes together are enough to cover all your guys basic
needs? For rent and the bills and the medical?
R
Pretty much all the basic needs are done but there’s lot of things you gotta do bare
minimum payments to because it’s.
F
Like what kind of things?
R
Like the power bill.
F
Okay so you were saying the minimum payments.
R
Um so like minimum payments on the power bill and my cell phone bill and um even
Chloe’s school I’ve been having to put off paying her school just because all of her
medical supplies that she’s needs got so much that it’s just.
F
Yeh so you’re not able to. So you’re just making the minimum payments you’re not
able to pay those off in full each month you’re saying.
R
No.
F
Okay so you’re able to stave them off but not finish them off.
R
Yeh.*11
F
Yeh so then you’re not making much in the end.
R
No and that’s not including her daycare. Her daycare would cost me about if I got if I
was able to get a subsidy it would be a hundred and seventy dollars plus whatever it
would cost me for Alana to go and they even said some daycares would turn me away
for her. Because they need to hire a special LPN on just to walk around with her.*11
R:
There’s no such thing as hep c support in terms like the technology’s got a lot better
like the treatments went from year to four months now. But they don’t have like
housing supports or whatever. Like they do give you nurses to talk to and like it’s
343
F:
R:
F:
gotten a lot better but the other idea is like I did get in a conversation with the lady at
FCSS that you know like on the outside it looked like I didn’t need any support in lots
of ways but on the inside I did right? I did have hair loss and I did have discolouring
of my skin or my skin was yellow and it’s more pinky colour.
From the liver treatment.
No the disease.
Oh okay.*12
You mentioned that you’re going to have to be moving out of the shop eventually here.
What what’s your plan, what would you need to be successful in finding another place
to stay? Do you feel that there’s any services out here that maybe aren’t available in
the Stony Plain area that would help you or is there any obstacles between you and
obtaining more appropriate housing or what what’s in the middle there? What are you
gonna do? What would you need?
R:
Well I think that one of the things and there are things that you don’t know if Stony
could have is one thing they don’t have like a washer, dryer service for low income.
F:
Okay.
R:
They have that at Jasper Place even though I’ve never used it but years ago I used it at
Bissell Centre.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they would only let women because it was a women’s, the women’s part of
Bissell like once a week they provide a dinner for the women. So earlier on like when
I was in school and training I was able to take wash there and I would wash and dry
my clothes. So I think sometimes I think rather than so much it be a new housing or a
new housing project is the interim services for people that are struggling with
homeless problems right. So not a drop in to live in but maybe a place where there’s
workers you could talk to, housing workers ‘cause like at Boyle Street they have
housing workers right. And like I was not a housing worker but I know some of the
housing workers there like I do know what they kinda did. They were an outreach
worker like me but I think that maybe more outreach workers around Stony Plain like
people that realize this is a problem here and because you can only put up so many low
cost places right, how do you incorporate helping people move into that. Like work
sources is a good place to use a computer and talk to people about work. But theirs is
kind a piece to that is housing wise too, it’s like you know there’s not really a place
that deals with housing adds like for part of my job as a sil worker before they gave up
the apartment that.*12
F:
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R:
eighteen.
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
R:
Right.
F:
R:
you help with that.
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F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
something like.
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
R:
Right.
F:
Okay.*12
8.5
Building Relationships/Partnerships
F:
How do you think we could overcome that?
R:
F:
You have to be able to talk about issues without having a stigma attached to them.
And there is a stigma attached to that so it’s a hard conversation to have in it makes
people uncomfortable.
Um hmm.
R:
Uh even though sometimes being uncomfortable is a good thing but. I don’t know.
F:
Do you feel that youth are, do you feel the same way Cheryl? They’re unaware of
what they could be.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Accessing or?
R:
I mean you have to have that relationship first.
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R:
First.
R:
So that always takes the time to build that relationship and where they feel
comfortable. Sometimes they just don’t know how to ask the questions.
R:
Yeh sometimes they don’t even know.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Sometimes they’re not even cognizant that they really have an.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Even an issue ‘cause that’s just been the way their life has been right?
R:
Yeh.
R:
Generation.
R:
Yeh.
R:
I think what you said there Cheryl, building a relationship I think that I think that is a
common thread with a lot of our clients regardless of just being.
R:
There’s not that trust. Yeh they would rather just deal with it themselves because
talking to someone is going to you know it’s gonna be wide open then.
R:
R:
Um hmm*1
F:
So how do you see overcoming the trust of the relationship?
R:
That’s just a time things.
F:
Problem.
R:
That’s a that’s, time.
R:
And connecting. Getting out there more and yeh.
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R:
Like for us you cannot force relationship with kids at Outreach. You can extend and
extend and extend and when their ready they will extend back.
R:
Okay so a perceived of Outreach is most kids that go to Outreach already have an
issue, that they dropped out of school or they can’t go to school so then they’re going
to Outreach as a last option. So they’ve already not gotten help when they were maybe
on the right track and then when they go to Outreach some kids feel like their failing
because they couldn’t make it as a normal kid going through school. So do you find
um. Is it because we’re not educating the kids at a younger age? About
communication and all that kind of stuff?
R:
I don’t.
R:
Because they already.
R:
When you, when you s….
R:
Some of the kids that go to Outreach have issues. So to try to help them, it’s hard
because they don’t like you can’t just say, hey you as a service provider can sense it
you can see it, you can. But you can’t just say, hey you know what, I sense you have
an iss…like I can do it with my seniors. I can say, hey you know I see that you know
you’re a little bit depressed today and you’re feeling this way, this is how, you’re
telling me your depressed. You can kind of have that open conversation but with a
youth, they don’t communicate. They don’t some youth don’t show their emotions.
They don’t, so it’s harder to pick.
R:
I think.
R:
R:
And help that person.
I think with the youth I could have that exact same conversation with them.
R:
Okay.
R:
That you could have with a senior if I have relationship with them.
R:
If you have relationship with them.*1
R:
It takes a long time for a youth to build a relationship.
R:
Yes.
R:
Because they didn’t have that to begin with. So they lacked it at a very young age.
R:
Yeh.
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R:
So is there some way the communication start? Who could educate them if it’s not
happening in the home?
R:
Which then becomes.
R:
Well.
R:
For me it becomes a some of the barrier because you can’t help your clients because
the commun…they don’t know how to communicate.Well I don’t.
R:
Sometimes the kids I I think especially today and correct me if I’m wrong but I think
more and more kids are turning to their peer groups.
Um hmm.
R:
R:
To fill some of those gaps and and sometimes the peer group I mean they’re not going
to fill the gaps um but are leading them often towards in a different direction. And
because they don’t have those skills that you mention that’s where they’re choosing to
turn. Does that make sense? *1
8.6 Employment opportunities
F:
F:
R:
F:
R:
So what um, what do you feel need to do, or what kind of supports would you need to
be able to find your own space if living here you kind of said isn’t ideal.
Yeh.
But what would, what would it take what changes would you have to make? Or what
supports would you need um to be able to do that? Like the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal, um well if ever I reach the point where I feel confident and in my
abilities that to afford a place I would need a part time job at least um because right
now really my rent, the few bills I have and I, I have about two to three hundred
dollars to play with for groceries.
Yeh.
And that’s it that’s with my rent being what it is so anything else pretty much.
Yeh.
Take all of my income. So a part time job would definitely be needed.*5
F:
Yeh. Yeh that must have been a frustrating situation not being able to.
R:
Well it’s still going on. Like I think, I think I wouldn’t mind trying to get into the city
but I was trying to get typing on line jobs and most of that’s garbage. You have to pay
for an ad but it’s sort of like a chain like one, one person buys, you buy and someone
makes money so then you’re trying to sell to make money yourself and I think I want
to check with someone that understands the law better than that.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Because if I make a bunch of ads I don’t want to get sued for it all.
R:
F:
R:
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F:
Um hmm.
R:
And I don’t think it’s quite right. I think it, it it’s border line fraud and crime itself.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I really didn’t want to get involved.
F:
A good rule of thumb is you should never have to pay to do your job.
R:
Yeh and and that’s the thing they have a registration fee and I think if I bothered to
make an ad like next month I was thinking to try a few ads just to see if anything
would come in to get a pay cheque.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
And um I thought to just put registration fee applies and that there was different
opportunities within this organization and I think I’m gonna I, it the one guy I text or I,
I emailed him and he said I can put registration fee applies. So that way they’re not
surprised when they get on to the site hey? So but I haven’t got a cheque from them at
all and I and I even wrote away to two of them and it was an ad that I found and it
never said registration fee applied. So I didn’t you know.
F:
Yeh I’d be cautious with those.
R:
It’s really bad actually and the thing is there should be ways to make money on the
internet like that but maybe more secure and and not a rip off like hey.
F:
Um hmm. Legitimate.
R:
More legitimate yeh I think there’s, there’s lots right about it but I think there’s lots
wrong about it too. So I’m pretty leery and I don’t really know.
F:
Yeh I’d be cautious, I’d go with your guy on that one.
R:
Yeh ‘cause I, I haven’t I was gonna put two ads in, one didn’t get approved and I think
one went off and I don’t think it went anywhere. Like I think it was a week and it’s
been the week and it didn’t turn into any money but pretty organized how it works if, if
it can. The problem was that I didn’t when I got in, when I made a lean to make the
site I had looked at the site and I didn’t like it that much ‘cause I thought there was,
there was um problems with how it was running. *6
F:
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
350
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
need anyone.
F:
Yeh.*6
F:
Yeh. So how often do you work ‘cause you said with AISH, you can make up to the
eight hundred dollars a month extra? Is that?
R:
I’m not making that.
F:
You’re not making that?
R:
I don’t have enough hours.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Some weeks I only get a Sunday night shift for five hours.
F:
Oh.
R:
And some weeks, some, if it’s a good weekend I get I get a Friday, Saturday, Sunday
shift.
F:
Okay.
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R:
And if it’s not a good weekend I only get a Sunday shift or a Saturday and Sunday but.
So that’s why I’m always tired like Monday, Monday’s like my day off right?
F:
Yeh. And you’re up at four?
R:
No I wasn’t yesterday ‘cause I had worked ‘til ten on Sunday night.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And I had worked ‘til midnight on Friday and Saturday. So just this morning I was
back on a normal schedule to get up at four.*6
9
What keeps you in Stoney Plain
9.1
Family/support system/safety
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
So do you have any family in the area?
Ah my mother’s here. I have a daughter in Calgary, her she’s married and she’s got
two children.
Oh grandkids.
One my granddaughter will be thirteen on April 13th and grandson will be five on July
9th.
Ahh.
Yeh.
Do you get to see much of them?
I stayed with them until we could get housing here.
Oh okay.
Back and forth, back and forth and finally we finally got in.
F:
R:
Yeh.
‘Cause they had to wait for the people to move out of the apartment.
F:
So you don’t have any dependents then.
R:
No.
F:
Just a grown daughter?
R:
Oh I just had the one child yes.
F:
Yeh, okay. Okay and so in the area you have your mother?
R:
Um hmm.
F:
And is that it for family out here?
R:
I have a brother in Leduc, I have a brother in Millet and I’ve got one in Airdrie.
F:
R:
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F:
Okay so you guys are all sort of around here.
R:
Yeh and we’re not that far apart.
F:
Yeh, okay.
R:
Nothing more than a phone call can’t fix.*4
R:
And we wanted a specifically in the Grove ‘cause both our doctors are in the Grove.
F:
Um hmm. So you didn’t look in Stony Plain you just stuck to Spruce Grove?*4
F:
But hypothetically, if you guys had to go, ah what would it take what would be the
last straw for you to leave Spruce Grove?
R:
Ah.
F:
‘Cause you stuck it out around here even living in the van and whatnot, so.
R:
Yeh. I like the area.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I really do.
F:
It is a nice area, it’s a very nice area.
R:
You’re close to the city and yet not living in the city. I did live in the city for about
end of February until the first part of July I guess it was. The first of July or second of
July.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I was never so happy to get the heck out. And that was with Boardwalk, ‘cause I had
a stabbing next door to me and across the way there was a shooting and I.
F:
In Edmonton? When you were living there?
R:
When I lived there and I.
F:
So you were excited to get back to Spruce Grove?
R:
I’m getting out of this scenario real quick like.
F:
Yeh. When was that that you were living in the city?
R:
Well, it would be about five years ago now.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
Four and half, five years ago.
F:
Just for a little stint and then you came back to Spruce?
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R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay.
R:
I wasn’t there very long let me tell you.
F:
Sounds like ah sounds like you’ve didn’t have a great time in Edmonton.
R:
Ah well I didn’t exactly appreciate what was happening or coming or being and I was
being by myself at that time.
F:
Um hm.
R:
I mean, you never knew from minute to minute what the hell was gonna happen.
F:
That’s a little scary.
R:
Yeh well I mean being by yourself you had nobody out to help protect you know. It,
it’s not a healthy situation let me tell you. And the drugs around there is just terrible.
F:
Yeh.
R:
It’s bad enough here in the Grove too let me tell ya.
F:
Well let’s be thankful you’re out of the city I guess.
R:
Yeh I wouldn’t remember, recog.
F:
That’s a good thing.
R:
I wouldn’t recommend going to the city. I really would not if I was given a choice.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
‘Cause they tried I don’t know how many times to get me to come in to the city.
F:
Who did?
R:
Ah Alberta Works.
F:
Oh okay, yeh.
R:
Another pain in the you know where.
F:
Yeh.
R:
In the worst area possible.
F:
Oh no.
R:
Well you know where Hope Mission is.
F:
Um hmm downtown there.
R:
One blocks, one block from it.
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F:
Oh.
R:
That’s the area they choose for you to stay, in the worst crime area.
F:
Is that because there’s low income buildings there or what would be the reason for, for
that do you know?
R:
I really don’t know what the hell their thinking, I really don’t. And that’s where all
the drugs and you name it is there, let me tell ya.
F:
Yeh it can it can be a little rough downtown.
R:
Oh yeh.*4
F:
So on that note, how long do your clients tend to stay in the area? I think you.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Sort of answered that, Cheryl. Um do you see anything different from kids who are
not part of the group home, Columbus Academy, Bosco Homes, system?
R:
Um well a lot of kids they, they have plans as soon as they are old enough and they’re
on their own. They are getting the heck out of Stony Plain ‘cause there’s nothing to do
here. Um and there’s not a lot of job opportunities either for young people so they’ve
got to get into Edmonton where there’s more opportunities. And then you know some
families that leave when the kids aren’t really wanting to leave yet ‘cause their
younger, they want to be here and they are connected. But the families have to go to
where the money is so and where they can afford to pay rent. *1
F:
So they’re quite resistant to leaving?
R:
Yeh.
F:
The community?
R:
Youth on the other hand.
R:
Our clientele, ‘cause I don’t know what happens necessarily to them when they finish
school. But when they’re school age most of them are staying here because even if
they’re not with their own family. This is where their friends’ families are.
R:
Um hmm.*1
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F:
So you find that your seniors want to stay here? And Shirley you find that a lot of
your group home kids are, are sent back to the city when their old enough? Do you
guys find that most of your youth want to stay in Stony Plain, whether or not their able
to? Or do you find that they look forward to leaving Stony Plain as soon as their old
enough or out of school?
R:
Oh I think most of them, our clientele anyway, talk about leaving Stony Plain as soon
as their out of school.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Whether that actually happens is another thing, um and and I don’t think that has
anything to do with because their couch surfing. They think it’s boring here.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
They do.
R:
Is the reason that they.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Want to go in the, the lure of the big city.
R:
Bright lights.
R:
And the kids that we’ve had that have been placed in, s…in homes out here that have
then come to our Outreach School who have been in the city and lived on the streets in
the city and and so they’re trying to take them out of that environment.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Bring them out here. The lure of the community that they have become a part of in the
city is so strong that most of them are drawn back to it.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Sadly.
R:
I agree.
R:
And that’s I think, for kids no matter what reason they go to the city whether it’s to go
to University or whatever else, it’s not just. You know, the homeless kids, because
other kids who go into the city.
R:
They all want to leave their communities.
356
R:
Watch them, they they wanna.
R:
Yeh.
R:
R:
They go, they go and stay in residence in the city or.
I think.
R:
Or rent houses in the city uh so they don’t have so they can escape out here too.
R:
I think that.
R:
Yeh.*1
F:
So on that note, how long do your clients tend to stay in the area? I think you.
R:
Um hmm.
F:
Sort of answered that, Cheryl. Um do you see anything different from kids who are
not part of the group home, Columbus Academy, Bosco Homes, system?
R:
Um well a lot of kids they, they have plans as soon as they are old enough and they’re
on their own. They are getting the heck out of Stony Plain ‘cause there’s nothing to do
here. Um and there’s not a lot of job opportunities either for young people so they’ve
got to get into Edmonton where there’s more opportunities. And then you know some
families that leave when the kids aren’t really wanting to leave yet ‘cause their
younger, they want to be here and they are connected. But the families have to go to
where the money is so and where they can afford to pay rent. *2
F:
So they’re quite resistant to leaving?
R:
Yeh.
F:
The community?
R:
Youth on the other hand.
R:
Our clientele, ‘cause I don’t know what happens necessarily to them when they finish
school. But when they’re school age most of them are staying here because even if
they’re not with their own family. This is where their friends’ families are.
R:
Um hmm.*1
357
F:
So you find that your seniors want to stay here? And Shirley you find that a lot of
your group home kids are, are sent back to the city when their old enough? Do you
guys find that most of your youth want to stay in Stony Plain, whether or not their able
to? Or do you find that they look forward to leaving Stony Plain as soon as their old
enough or out of school?
R:
Oh I think most of them, our clientele anyway, talk about leaving Stony Plain as soon
as their out of school.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Whether that actually happens is another thing, um and and I don’t think that has
anything to do with because their couch surfing. They think it’s boring here.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
They do.
R:
Is the reason that they.
R:
Yeh.
R:
Want to go in the, the lure of the big city.
R:
Bright lights.
R:
And the kids that we’ve had that have been placed in, s…in homes out here that have
then come to our Outreach School who have been in the city and lived on the streets in
the city and and so they’re trying to take them out of that environment.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Bring them out here. The lure of the community that they have become a part of in the
city is so strong that most of them are drawn back to it.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
Sadly.
R:
I agree.
R:
And that’s I think, for kids no matter what reason they go to the city whether it’s to go
to University or whatever else, it’s not just. You know, the homeless kids, because
other kids who go into the city.
358
R:
They all want to leave their communities.
R:
Watch them, they they wanna.
R:
Yeh.
R:
R:
They go, they go and stay in residence in the city or.
I think.
R:
Or rent houses in the city uh so they don’t have so they can escape out here too.
R:
I think that.
R:
Yeh.*1
R:
No. They are so afraid of Edmonton. I swear my clients.
R:
Too much work there.
R:
Would be able to on one finger the number of times they go into Edmonton a year.
They are, there’s no way that they’ll drive into Edmonton. There’s no way that they’ll
work in Edmonton. There’s no way that they would raise their kids in Edmonton.
Like this is where they are and this is where they stay.
F:
Why do you think they stay here?
R:
It, it’s small and they feel safe.
F:
Okay.*2
F:
Does anybody else have anything to add to that?
R:
Our seniors stay here because their families are here. So they don’t want to go to the
city.
F:
Okay.
R:
And they like the small town atmosphere.
F:
Hmm. So you find it’s mostly personal choice? Them staying?
R:
Well they want to be closer, they want to be close to their family ‘cause if they need,
they need help so and their family is usually here so that’s why they want to be here.
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R:
I see a little bit more movement with my clients, if they can get a job in Edmonton
there’s a good chance they’ll take that job and move in to Edmonton or up north or like
that. Like obviously this community is their first choice.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
But once that doesn’t pan out then they do look at other options, so I’d say that their,
mine do move sometimes.
F:
Okay
R:
It’s hard for us to track once they stop coming. I have no idea if they’ve just, their
situations improved or if they’ve left.
F:
Right. If they’re still in the community or not.
R:
Yeh, yeh I’ve no idea*2
R:
Probably go back to Edmonton but even there it’s getting harder and harder find
affordable housing. They have some, they have some but yeh it’s just gets
complicated and I actually moved from Edmonton from a fairly a really decently
priced place ‘cause my family’s like, please come out here. We’ll be able to help you
more and.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And yeh just we’ll be able to do more and be there for you more and so*5
F:
But um so what brought you to Spruce Grove in the first place from Whitecourt? Why
did you leave Whitecourt?
R:
The whole family left town.
F:
Oh really?
R:
It was, it was to do land my my father was in land development. He wanted to do a
project over here.
F:
Um hmm, okay so you guys all left and then you and your parents and the kids lived in
one house in Spruce?
R:
Yeh I have another sister in town here she’s got four kids.
F:
Okay but her and her kids weren’t in the same house as you and your kids?
R:
No.
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F:
Okay. So you were living there and you moved out you said a couple months ago or a
year ago?
R:
No it’s been it’s been since November last year I haven’t really been in the same house
as my parents.
F:
Okay.
R:
So.
F:
Five, what is that five months? Something like that?
R:
No since November last year.*6
R:
I feel for the public if like if I was born and raised here and didn’t want to move like in
my case once my kids are older they’ll be gone so I can move too. So you know it’s
not me to make the change. It’s people that are in the offices to make the change if
they want to look after the public and be a public servant, that’s that’s who I pick to
get the job done, right? Like no complaining I do is gonna get anywhere.
F:
So are you planning to leave this area because of these housing issues? When your
kids are eighteen?
R:
Well they.
F:
Is that what you’re saying?
R:
They, they might end up going somewhere it’s a little warmer for golfing and I would
love warmer weather too. So I might just figure out where in Alberta, like I think on
AISH I think Alberta is actually the most generous province.
F:
Okay.
R:
For any type of handicap funding. That’s what I’ve heard and I don’t know what’s
true. So I, I may just go southern Alberta where it might be wilder weather or
something and see what I can do. Even a small town where, see if the kids. I don’t
know where their gonna wanna go to school if they plan on just going to Edmonton or
what they plan on doing but.*6
F:
Yeh. Well it sounds like I mean it can’t be easy but it sounds like you’re really doing
the best you can for your daughter so good for you. Um you said you moved here to
be with your family. Where did you move here from?
R:
Edmonton.
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F:
Oh you were living in the city?
R:
Yes.
F:
Oh okay and now you’re in Spruce or Stony? Spruce?
R:
Spruce Grove.
F:
Okay.
R:
I love it, it’s peaceful it’s quiet, the schools are good.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I don’t want to leave.
F:
How old’s your daughter?
R:
She’ll be five in July.
F:
Oh so she’s in pre-school, or?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Very cool um so that’s what keeps you here. If you had to leave um move out of the
apartment that you’re in now and say you got the carpet thing figured out. Where do
you think you would go?
R:
There’s no really, no where I can go because I have to go somewhere I can walk to get
groceries. So it would have to be Edmonton and I don’t want to live in Edmonton
because of the crime and the drugs and everything and.
F:
Yeh those big cities can be pretty daunting.
R:
I want to make sure that she’s raised proper.*7
F:
Uh what keeps you here?
R:
I like the fact that it’s a small town. It’s not that busy it’s nice to you know get around
and I like it for my kids.
F:
Yeh?
R:
Yeh. *8
R:
Like I think that’s the bottom line of why I’m here is because I’m not scared to let my
son go outside, you know what I mean? If we lived in the city it’d be like, no way.
F:
Yeh. That small town feeling.
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R:
Yeh exactly.
F:
No it’s nice. So did, how many places would you say you looked at before you guys
settled on the basement suite?
R:
Probably about four. *8
F:
F:
R:
That’s the important part yeh for sure. So you guys moved out here from Edmonton a
year ago?
Um hmm.
What um what caused you to leave Edmonton?
Um because of my health issues I was looking for something that didn’t have a lot of
stairs because my last place had a lot of stairs.
Yeh.
So stairs are an issue because of my neuropathy like some days I have trouble getting
out of bed so um I wanted a trailer ‘cause you don’t have to worry about stairs.
Yeh.
And there’s not a lot to clean too it’s not a big place.
Yeh.
So I found one available in Parkland Village so.
Nice.
And my brother lives I don’t know it was just kind of a fluke but my brother and my
sister in law live right across from me.
Really? Ah that’s nice to have family there.
Yeh, yeh.
Oh cool.
Yeh.
So what keeps you in the Spruce Grove area? Is it about um.
I love it here.
Yeh?
The community just it’s not it’s still a city but not a huge you know big city. Plus the
support and just everybody cares so.
Yeh.
It’s a lot different than Edmonton.*9
F:
Okay. So when did you move to Stony Plain?
R:
Two and a half years ago.
F:
Nice.
R:
Well almost three years ago.
F:
Now how was, seeing how you’re from Ontario?
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
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R:
Yeh I lived in Ontario for five years.
F:
Okay. Were you originally from Alberta?
R:
Alberta, yeh.
F:
Okay. Sounds good, so what ah brought you back to Stony Plain?
R:
Um family was here and my son. I wanted to move back to Red Deer ‘cause I lived in
Red Deer for three years doing my program.
F:
Okay.
R:
Um but my oldest son was going into Grade 12 and he was researching high schools
and what not and because we had family here he was just researching Stony Plain.
F:
Yeh.
R:
Um and was looking at the high school and he was like hmm, sounds like a good high
school and I don’t know about three months before we moved my best friend, ‘cause I
grew up in Edson.
F:
Yeh.
R:
My best friend says, why don’t you move to Stony Plain? Like why would I ever move
to Stony Plain? ‘Cause we drove by here all the time going into the city.
F:
Yeh you would.
R:
I was like why would I move to Stony Plain? Well because you’re on the west end and
I don’t have to go all the way to Red Deer or to Sherwood Park ‘cause I was going to
move to Sherwood Park too.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I said, no I’m not moving to Stony Plain. So then when we were here visiting um
they were about sixteen kilometres west my parents and uh we were just googling stuff
and looking at residence and whatever in the area.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And I was like Stony Plain huh? And as we’re doing that my son and my step mother,
my mom texts me and she says, I think you should move to Stony Plain. Well I almost
fell over. We moved to Stony Plain.
F:
As fate would have it.
R:
I couldn’t believe it.
F:
Seems like the stars were aligning to bring you to Stony Plain for some reason.
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R:
Like why are we in Stony Plain? And I know the Pastor here at the Lighthouse
Church.
F:
Yeh.
R:
So I said we know of a good church and um as it turns out my son found his to be wife,
so.
F:
Really?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Very cool. So your kids are fifteen and.
R:
Nineteen.
F:
Nineteen. Nice. What keeps you in the Stony Plain area?
R:
Hmm, lack of anywhere else to go.*10
F
Okay good for you. Awesome. So where, how long have you been in the Stony Plain
area?
R
Uh I’ve lived here since I was in Grade 8. My mom and dad moved up here and then I
was moving I was when I moved out we were from two houses in Stony here, one got
condemned because it was full of mold so we had to move and then the other one we
moved out of that to be closer to Devon.
F
Okay. So where did you move here from in Grade 8?
R
Okotoks.
F
Okay. South.
R
Yeh.
F
What brought you to this area? The Parkland County?
R
I guess my mom and dad moved here because my Grandma works here, well lives here.
And there was a lot of family around ‘cause my dad’s mom was even living here but she
moved to New Brunswick but um I guess they came down for family and also it’s
better, it was better living at the time than down in Okotoks ‘cause Okotoks is sky
rocketing now in how much you have to pay and stuff down there.
F
Awesome so what um, what keeps you here? Would you say it’s mostly sort of the
hous…or the health issues that your daughter has or?
R
Um my fiancé he wants to work in Regina ‘cause his he’s he works with a Union and
they move him from place to place and his dad’s working in Regina right now ‘cause
their both part of the same area and his dad’s a foreman and his dad’s hiring him on and
365
wants him to be transferred. And there was talk about going to Regina but with all of
Alana’s, she has metabolic specialists, she has heart specialists, she has all these
different specialists that I would have to try and find down there plus her specialists
know her so.
F
Right. Okay. So you.
R
She has twelve different doctors to herself.
F
Wow so you’re pretty ah, so what um so you’re pretty tied to the area then with the
medical stuff.
R
And then my mom when I’m in the Stollery because Alana’s always put on quarantine
because she has compromised immune system.
F
Right.
R
So Chloe’s not allowed to come at all, like she could but she’d have to gown up and
everything and then there’s so many wires attached Alana when she’s in there.
F
That’s a hard thing for a five year old.
R
And um I don’t even know where I was.
F
Um quarantine.
R
Oh yeh so my mom and dad when I’m in the hospital with Alana for weeks they take
Chloe for me.
F
Okay.
R
And otherwise I’d be paying somebody a bunch of money just for them to watch Chloe
for me.
F
So between the family and the Stollery yeh this is kind of the ideal place for you to be
right now.
R
Yeh.*11
9.2
Opportunities
R:
I think we see a lot of people that are coming to Alberta for this golden opportunity
and they don’t find the job right away or whatever and then immediately fall into
housing crisis.*2
10
Industry support
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10.1 Support to find housing
R:
You know and it becomes, I think it affects my job because some of it I take personal
and so when I you know when if I can’t it becomes a work issue and then because I
deal with seniors but them when I’m on the Youth Justice Committee I’m a volunteer
so that part comes home with me. But I’m finding these people homes and then all of
a sudden if I find a senior a home, oh well my grandson has to come live with me.
Well they can’t go live with you in a senior accommodation. So now we gotta move
you to a different accommodation that you can afford ‘cause you need to look after
your grandson ‘cause the parents now are in jail or. So then I have that housing issue
and it comes to the point where there’s nothing work related I can help but I’m after
hours phoning people saying, hey do you have a place to rent? You know.*1
F:
Something I want to touch on. I think we have a question about special populations.
Yeh a little closer to the end but but yeh that’s gonna be an important one. Is what
groups people see most struggling with these issues. So we move on to number 2. And
that is how client housing issues affect your work. So do you find that they detract from
the main focus of your services or what your position is supposed to be doing. Do you
find that they compound the severity? Um do they bring you clients you otherwise
wouldn’t see if they had stable housing?
R:
I think for us what their unstable housing does is it ah affects their attendance. Because
quite often their bussing is set up from wherever they are housed at and then they move.
Now they don’t have access to get to the school. So it affects us that way. And then
yeh yeh I guess.
R:
That makes sense. 1*
R:
Like you’re trying to help them budget. So I’m finding a lot of our service providers
are starting to be budget people which they sh…I mean it’s not part of our jobs but
you’re trying and you’re not actually giving them a budget but you’re kind of giving
them ideas of what you need to look at right?*
R:
So as a service provider it it I get it. That part affects your work, trying to find them a
place but then if they’re unhappy with it, it comes back at you. So how long do my
clients stay in the area? My seniors whether there’s housing or not, they are working at
trying to find it and they are staying here.*
R:
R:
Lots of people who are unable to work.*1
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F:
Yeh we’ll ah we’ll definitely get to the special populations or the most the populations
that you guys see the most a little bit later on. But to we’ll listen to our second
question. How do client housing issued affect your work? Ah do they detract from
your main, the main focus of your services? Do you find people coming in who
otherwise if they didn’t have housing issues may not be needing to see you ah or they
changing the scope of what you’re supposed to be doing?
R:
Um well for me most of the time people are coming to see me for employment so it
affects them in, in kind of two ways. One is if they don’t have that housing worked
out. It makes it really tough to find stable employment as well because they don’t
know where they’re gonna be, whether they’re gonna be able to get to work or that
kind of thing. And the other thing is if they um have to go to work right away in order
to maintain their housing they have to take the first job they can get and get into it.
They can’t spend the time to find something that’s gonna pay them better or get them
to the career that they want. Because they have to be at work full time in order to
make that rent.
R:
It is the hugest part of my job. Um yeh I guess if there wasn’t housing issues I
wouldn’t be here. But the problem is that people come in thinking I’m gonna solve
their problem with their housing issue. That I’m gonna help them find housing which
is incorrect. They’ve been sent there to the office for help to find housing. We do not
provide that service. I couldn’t even imagine finding that service. I would have no
time to do my actual job. Housing issues are the top of my list of what I deal with.
F:
Hmm. So that sounds like it definitely detracts from what you’re supposed to be doing
when they expect you to help with housing.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Or do something that’s not.
R:
Yeh.
F:
In your job description.
R:
And we don’t take that on, like that can’t that is not our responsibility.
F:
Right.
R:
I give them information and that’s it um but if their needing housing they need to find
that.
R:
And we’re supposed to be an emergency service you know for a couple of uses to go
through transition but a vast majority of our clients are long term ‘cause their fixed low
income and their rent simply take up a vast majority of their income. So we see them
year after year after year.
368
F:
Right. Makes sense.1*
10.2 Role of industry to address the problem
R:
Yeh so it’s one of the gaps you can’t. When you’re trying someone, trying to help
someone who’s homeless it there’s more than one thing you’re trying to you’re not just
trying to find them a home you’re probably trying to find them transportation, a job,
maybe a doctor. Maybe you know you’re trying to help with a whole bunch of
different areas too. ‘Cause a lot of things may have to change. Our gaps is that we
really don’t have a short term facility.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
To help us as service providers find a long term facility.
R:
Yep.
R:
And sometimes we just need a week. Sometimes we need up to six months.*1
R:
Well I I think it was identified quite clearly in the Drayton Valley study that uh any
industry if you bring someone on and you train them and you just get them into the a
job. If there’s not housing for them they have no reason to really stick with you so
then they’ll ah what motivates them is ah if another company comes along and says
we’ll hire you and we’ll give you a truck to drive. Well that’s reason enough to go
because there’s nothing that keeps them there that allows them to move family or start
building on family or anything so they don’t (inaud) a connection to community so
that’s just one of them. And then the inability to bring people in if you aren’t going to
be able to house them at all or they can’t find housing or you realize that their coming
out having sold things out east and when you come out here that money doesn’t last
you very long. So then people end up having to go back almost. But they can’t.
R:
And I think businesses too, we own businesses and when you’re hiring someone and
you can’t afford to pay them the thirty-five plus an hour you can only start them at
twenty.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
As a business I need to make sure that if I’m hiring people uh like people who are
applying and their coming from out of town that there’s no affordable housing, I know
they can’t work for me for twenty bucks an hour or fourteen or fifteen bucks. *1
R:
An hour. Because they’re not going to be able to make a living out here because
there’s no affordable housing.
369
R:
Um hmm.
R:
So if we h…if they were aware that we’re lacking it that’s one of the things and they
help the community.
R:
Address it.
R:
And I don’t know how they would help but if they knew that maybe that’s their issue
why they can’t keep employees for very long periods of time or they just can’t hire
employees and I mean A&W’s a good example. How many they had to hire a whole
bunch of foreign workers because nobody could afford to go to work to A&W because
if you worked there it was like a hobby job because if you were counting on that pay to
make a living and to even rent a place you couldn’t even afford to rent a place.
R:
Um hmm.*2
R:
R:
‘Cause it’s minimum wage.
It’s called living, living wage. But even at that there’s some businesses, especially
right now that can’t afford to say yes I’ll live with a, I will hire everyone at a living
wage. ‘Cause with the way the economy’s going and the lack of work more people are
getting laid off than getting hired. And if you hired someone you’re definitely not
gonna, most of the businesses out here aren’t gonna hire them at thirty-five an hour
unless they’re a set business and they have their business almost paid off. They don’t
have that money to start someone off.
R:
And.
R:
At a living wage.
R:
And there’ll be at time lag as wages or people get laid off.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And then re-hired and when the rents might drop because your rent is a year long
contract or something so.
R:
Yeh.
R:
It probably doesn’t coincide very well.
R:
And some of them who have rent like that year lease and they signed a year lease
because the business. I mean in October, November most of these businesses were
booming still, September, August, August, September everyone was fine. And it
wasn’t until De…end of December and now January that a lot of the businesses
because of the oil going down um all of a sudden it’s like oh oh we better start
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watching ‘cause in the next six months I don’t know if we’re gonna have our business.
Right? So then you’re looking, not just the person who owns that business but all
those employees.*2
R:
Now you know if you just hired ten employees and they moved into our community
‘cause they got this great job ah in June, July, August and their all happy and they
signed a year lease because they thought let’s do a year instead of short term. And
now all of a sudden January comes and the guy goes you know what sorry I hired you
but I gotta let you go because you’re the last ones employed. Now they have that least
they have to stick to and they have no way of paying it. So employees it I think, I
don’t know how many employees have that on their shoulders to think about. Not only
just hiring an employee ‘cause we own businesses, I don’t think of where do you live, I
don’t ask where do you live what’s your rent? What’s your? It’s none of my business.
So I hire someone and then all of sudden, oh I can’t afford to pay you anymore you’re
laid off. It’s not my problem. I’m worried about my business and so if maybe
employees I think I think it’s important that the employees and the businesses know
maybe most of them don’t see what’s going on now.
F:
Yeh that’s something I hope we can address in our business surveys to (inaud)
willingness but.
R:
And I think for some businesses the cost of turnover you can quantify the cost of
turnover, so how you can take what turnover costs you and translate that into some
kind of solution? Even if it’s just for your, your business.*2
R:
I think you see a little bit of that I’m starting to see a lot of advertisements on
television that are sort of going at the mental health sort of issues.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
About the, I don’t know if you guys seen it the repetitive ones.
R:
Um hmm.
R:
There’ll be two people talking, I’ll make some derogatory comment and you’ll say
something and they’ll do it again and again. And then they’ll show you what you
should say. So I think I think we’re starting to see more ah willingness or forcing us to
look at it in a different way. Ah I think it’s a hard conversation to have with a group of
people who we all are who work in service ah we are doer’s for people. That’s what
we do that’s why we’re all sitting here. You’d have a completely different
conversation with people of industry and business and really those are the people who
need to come to the table to, they have all the money so. If you’re gonna have any
change happening, those people have to be on board. Right?
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R:
And the service groups and I mean lots of those like the Rotary their part of business
and industry.*2
R:
A lot of people get the idea that as soon as they hit the border they’ll get a job in oil.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And then they find out that’s not the case and that they don’t actually have any skills
related to that, so.
R:
And our streets aren’t paved with gold, really.
R:
Well they’re not prepared to do a job search once they get here, they think it’s going to
be super easy. I don’t know where that’s exactly is coming from but.
R:
The workers in other provinces?
R:
Well that perception that is they’ll easily get a job here? Like it’s pretty, you could
look from there and get a job first but that doesn’t seem to be what happens a lot of.
R:
Well one time Ontario was sending them out here.
R:
Yeh.
R:
That’s a true story. Our last big boom.
R:
Ontario and ah B.C.
R:
Yeh we I was in inner city and we’d get all these guys arriving for work from Ontario.
The workers had paid for them to come out here, no boots, no resume, no nothing. Oh
yeh.
F:
So you guys both see a lot that are attracted or everyone here sees a lot that are
attracted to the industry that they arrive unprepared and maybe things don’t go how
they planned. Is that?
R:
Yeh.*2
11 Demographics
11.1 General Demographics (age, origin, employment, family)
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R:
I used to work at Canadian Tire part time.
F:
Yeh.
R:
I couldn’t see ah the stock numbers anymore. So they had to let me go.
F:
In Spruce Grove here?*4
F:
So do you have any family in the area?
R:
Ah my mother’s here. I have a daughter in Calgary, her she’s married and she’s got
two children.
F:
Oh grandkids.
R:
One my granddaughter will be thirteen on April 13th and grandson will be five on July
9th.*4
F:
So back to your housing issues here, what um, where are you originally from? Where
were you born?
R:
West end of Pigeon Lake.
F:
Oh okay. So what brought you to Spruce Grove in the first place?
R:
Ah I was living with a fellow and we had a disagreement. I was living near Entwistle
at that time.
F:
Oh okay.
R:
And.
F:
Out west.
R:
Yeh the people that I rented with from, ‘cause I got the place in July and I had to be
out by the end of October ‘cause they were they wold the place that they were at in the
town further over.
F:
Yeh.
R:
And they wanted the trailer back so I stayed with this gentleman on the farm from ‘til
my daughter was out of school and we got into a squabble and he said, you gotta go.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
So fine and dandy that’s where I ended up in Springwood.
373
F:
And Springwood is?
R:
Now uh it is called ah.
F:
Is it in Stony here or are you talking about a community outside of Stony Plain?
R:
No it oh, there in the city. It was called Springwood back then, Boardwalk now has it.
F:
Okay, so just a building in Spruce Grove.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Okay there we go. Gotcha.
R:
‘Cause I had apartment 210 there.
F:
Um hmm.
R:
Yeh.
F:
You remember the number?
R:
Oh yeh.
F:
Yeh, okay so that was in the 80’s then and you’ve sort of been in and out of Spruce
Grove since then.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Yeh, okay so what would it take, you guys I’m very happy that you found an
apartment here and it sounds like that’s gonna be really good for you guys.
R:
It is.*4
F:
Okay, all right so Pam, tell me a little bit about yourself.
R:
Um such an odd question ah.
F:
Um okay so how old you are, if you have family in the area, what ah your education
or employment history.
R:
Okay. I’m thirty one. I do have family in the area um my brother in law and sister are
separated but they lived here. Brother in law still lives here uh my brother just
recently moved in and so it’s.
F:
So It’s you, your brother and brother in law here?
R:
Yeh.
F:
Oh crazy.
R:
My alternating nephew.
374
F:
Yeh.
R:
My parents actually just live in the Homesteads down the street.
F:
Okay.
R:
By the golf course I think, um yeh we had more family here but they’ve kind of
moved away trying to find more affordable housing actually.
F:
Yeh good, good.
R:
Which is actually part of the reason why my brother moved in. He sold his place
lickity split and then had nowhere to go and couldn’t find anything on the market and,
and so.
F:
And he so he sold his place in?
R:
Edmonton.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh.
R:
And then he moved here and his name is Uncle Sean.
F:
Cool.
R:
That’s right. I went to NAIT and graduated from NAIT uh I.
F:
What did you take at NAIT?
R:
I took Business Management.
F:
Good for you.
R:
Thanks. Well business administration majoring in management.
F:
Yeh.
F:
And so I did the two year degree there. Gavin. So I did that. Um worked kind of in
that industry and area several colleges and such up until about five to eight years ago, I
can’t fully remember.
F:
Yeh.*5
F:
Yeh. Good. So you don’t have any dependents yourself?
R:
No.
F:
Just, the nephew.
R:
Yeh just this little guy yeh.*5
375
F:
It is March 17th, 2015. And we are at the Spruce Grove FCSS office. This is
recording 1 of 1. All right let’s get started. So Lori, first tell me a little bit about
yourself, how old you are, if you have any family or dependents in the area.
R:
I have two children, I’m forty-eight. I came from Whitecourt and I have been here ah
what is that? Since the boys were about the oldest was eight and he’s twenty-one now
so I’ve been here quite a few years.
F:
Yeh
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
can’t, I’m not always in functioning shape to work.*6
F:
R:
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
F:
R:
376
F:
Okay.
R:
F:
Yeh.
R:
need anyone.
F:
Yeh.*6
R:
I’m twenty nine, I have a father out here that we don’t really see eye to eye so I
moved here to be a family and that kind of went haywire. And I’m stuck because I
can’t afford to move but my rent is just about thirteen hundred dollars. *7
R:
I’m a forty year old female. I have two children, one that’s living with me right now,
one that’s with my mother. I’m a Health Care Aide by trade and I don’t know what else
to tell you.
F:
Do you have any other family in the area?
R:
Um my mom and stepdad live in the area.
F:
Okay, how long have you lived in the Stony Plain area?
R:
In Stony Plain, a long time.
F:
Okay.
R:
Yeh.
F:
Nice. Have you ever lived anywhere else?
R:
I wasn’t actually born in, in Alberta. I was born in Newfoundland.
F:
Okay.
R:
So.
F:
But you’ve been in Stony for years?
R:
Oh yes.
F:
Like more than ten?
R:
Yes.
F:
Less than ten? Okay. Excellent. What brought you here originally?
377
R:
Parents.
F:
Oh you were little?
R:
Yep.
F:
Okay, okay so it wasn’t for work or anything?
R:
No.*8
F:
R:
How old you are, family in the area, dependents, work.
I am thirty eight. I work for Alberta Health Services. But I’m on disability right now
due to um sleep apnea and ah neuropathy, very severe neuropathy so, yeh. Um I have
three kids, a twenty year old daughter, eleven year old daughter and a four year old
son. I’m married um my husband due to medical issues is not working right now so
unfortunately I’m, I’m it.
Yeh so how long has your husband been out of work?*9
F:
R:
Okay I am almost forty one, I’ll be forty one next week. Um I am a single parent of
two. I am on disability and I live in a two bedroom apartment here in Stony Plain.
F:
Awesome. Where do you have any other family in the area?
R:
I have ah my dad and my step mom and um sister about half an hour west.
F:
Okay.
R:
And then everybody else is just scattered everywhere.
F:
Is that out near Wabamun then or?
R:
Just past.*10
R
Okay I’m twenty three, my name’s Kayla. I have two little ones, one’s known as a
critically ill child and the other one’s healthy as can be and she’s five.
F
Excellent. Do you have any family in the area?
R
Yes I do my mom lives on 50 Umbach Road there. Yeh and then my Grandma just
lives on the outskirts of Spruce over by me.
F
Okay, nice. So you’re rural Spruce Grove?
R
Yeh well I’m on the outskirts so I’m closer to Devon but that’s ‘cause of her issues.
F
Right.
378
R
She we have to be close to the Devon area ‘cause they transfer her from Devon
Hospital. The Stollery sends an ambulance over and just transfers her right to the
Stollery.
F
Really, so you’re rural Parkland County then.
R
Yeh.
F
South of Spruce or?
R
Um I’m on Grout Road if you know where the Graminia School is?
F
Yes.
R
I’m on that road.
F
I went to Graminia School.
R
I’m on that raod.
F
Okay. Yeh I grew up there.
R
Oh really?
F
Yeh. Excellent. So um what about education, employment, income.
R
Um I went to Grade 11 part way through Grade 11 I got pregnant with her/
F
Yeh.
R
So I kind of quit school and then I went to on line schooling and I got my early
childhood education.
F
Oh cool.
R
So I have my Level One.*11
R:
Well I’m fifty six, gonna be fifty seven next month and you know my name’s Denise
and I actually grew up in this area but I moved into the city for thirty years. And.
Into Edmonton for thirty years?
Into Edmonton yeh and then well I went there for my last year of high school. I did
three and a half years of high school so I did two and a half years in the Stony high and
a year in Vic Comp and then I went on to work is what I did. And the reason I come
back here is I just was living right downtown for five months and I figured that ah if I
didn’t make a change I would never make a change and I might regret not making a
change. So I rented a log cabin versus house out at Seba Beach and I live there for
eight months and at that time I was working two part time jobs in Edmonton. And
then I moved from there to a small holiday trailer in Spring Lake and that kind of
became my story of trying to find harder, harder to find places to live but ah.
Okay.*12
F:
R:
F:
379

A Needs Assessment of Poverty and Homelessness in

Transcription

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