Editorial – The Story of an Advocate, with Lived Experience

Pete Fisher
1 month ago
• Categories: Editorial

310 Division St. : The One Bag Policy…

I myself have not been a client of the new 310 “shelter” warming hub, but I can 100% advocate for and speak on the issue of only allowing a single bag. After being homeless, I began to rely heavily on my vehicle for storage, as carrying more than a backpack and purse or fanny pack was too much. I had more than you could imagine, and it all lived in my vehicle, when it wasn’t inside a tent. A tent isn’t even enough space sometimes for all the things. These were all I had left, all my clothes – clean and dirty laundry, my art supplies, survival gear, winter clothing and boots, electronics, some small pieces of furniture and everything! Now I can’t even fit a quarter of these things into a single bag…

What size of bag are we talking about?

This policy may be used in a way that might bend the rule a little.

Person ‘a’ brings in a bag that holds one outfit, and a few cans of food they got at the food bank.

Person ‘b’ on the other hand, has a large duffel bag, holding roughly 70 or more liters inside of it… which is holding 2-4 clean outfits, one bag of dirty laundry which is one or two outfits, a grocery bag stuff inside from their cupboard and dry food from their trip to the food bank that day, along with a hammock, a small carry on first aid kit, a few water bottles, a container of small and valuable collectibles that they’d never leave somewhere without, a fall jacket, and a change of dry winter boots….everything.

Do you see the difference?

Let me say it again then…

A One bag policy.

Why is this fair…?

Who gets to decide on the size of someone’s singular bag?

How do they get to dictate who gets to bring in the large duffel with a week’s worth of their life inside, vs the poor unfortunate community member who’s stuck bringing in a small grocery bag of nearly nothing… simply because they don’t have a larger bag… or because all their items are in one space, so it makes it hard to decide what gets to come and what has to stay, or what might get thrown away because they’re unable to bring them along with them on the journey through life while experiencing homelessness.

Why do these policies exist?

Is it that unreasonable to allow each person to bring in 1 backpack, 1 duffel, 2-3 grocery bags, a suitcase, and maybe even more…

Because guess what?

Those 3 grocery bags are all they got from the food bank that morning. They were robbed of their clothes, stripped of any change they had to buy their kid a birthday donut, and they were left with three grocery bags from the food bank, feeling like they’re just taking another hand-out and since they didn’t “work” for the money that paid for the food they’re holding, they feel undeserving of the food… and then they stumble up to the warning hun, hoping for a nap for as long as possible,… only to be told they’re belongings are not in a single bag, and that they have to decide what comes in with them, and what they have to leave outside, or give away, because leaving it outside it will just get taken, so may as well pass the food to someone else in need, even though you haven’t eaten in days yourself. But you’re so tired, that giving up two bags of food is worth the nap you might get in a semi comfortable chair in a community warming hub, without even a blanket.

Who decides on the bag policy?

Who enforces this rule, and how is it enforced??

Are people’s belongings getting thrown away, tossed in a dumpster like they’re no good items, just rotting away in a bag?

Who knows, right?

There should be storage for larger belongings and with the capacity to store larger items, or valuables on a longer term scale. People at the very least deserve to bring in what they can carry in their two hands and on their back! It’s really not asking for much, AT ALL, just for the ability to bring in a backpack, a suitcase, a purse or fanny pack, and 2 to 3 bags of groceries.

Anything that one cannot take in by hand, should have the option to store their items for a period of time, and at the most, be able to remain in storage until the individual has the ability to transport and store the items at another time, and at an alternate location.

These things take time, and it can be incredibly hard to find someone willing to hold a few boxes
for you in a basement at the very least.

Imagine having your whole life, in a vehicle, in one or more tents, in 10-20 bags… every, single, thing that you own, and love, and care so deeply for that you lug every last bit of it around with you, even when your facing the most devastating, heartbreaking effects, along with the pain and suffering of homelessness, and how difficult it would be to find someone you trust completely, someone who has the space large enough to fit some (or all if your lucky!) of your belongings, and then building up the courage, the bravery, the strength and motivation to ask this person about the possibility of using their space to keep some things until you get your life back on some kind of track?

That in itself is a struggle, and something that doesn’t pass through the mind so easily or quickly when your thinking about when the last time you ate was, when you’ll get to eat next, when your feet won’t hurt so much and you can take a break off them for a while, when your going to sleep next, and even wondering, if your going to live to see another day…

And if they say no… – They can’t help you to store your things.

You are back at square one, and the more people who say no to the need of yours, the more beaten down it starts to get. It gets to you more and more each time, like a knife to the chest, and you continue to feel more and more hopeless with every denial. So you start to distance yourself more and more, and you stop asking for help with storing your things.

You’ve given up.

The system has failed you. You no longer feel like you belong,… anywhere.

And all you wanted… was a warm, safe, secure space, so that you could rest, eat a snack or two, talk to a supportive shelter staff member, and seek guidance and advice on how to get your life back on a better track and get housed.

Now, that’s yet again, one more person spending another night on the streets, living without four walls around them and without a roof over their head, all because they could only bring…

ONE, BAG.

And this would not just be another night….

There would be Countless nights.

Cold, Stormy, Wet, Terrifying, Traumatic, Lonely, Sad, nights

A life, living like a broken record playing the same sad story, over and over and over again.

The last thing on the mind of someone going through this situation, or any situation where their sheltering is already limited, and they have nowhere to call a “home”, is thinking where they’re gonna put everything!!!

These systems should have already been in place.

Homelessness has been an ever growing crisis for years and years. We’ve been seeing people on the streets for decades, yet we still haven’t found a truly low barrier shelter, and have come nowhere near close to meeting the direct needs of the people accessing these services!

We are meeting them at a half-way point… if that!

We’re simply giving a piece to a puzzle with a thousand pieces, and that puzzle is never going to get finished, because there’s only ever a single piece given. No where, no one, is offering it all, in one spot.

The needs of the community members that the services are supposed to DIRECTLY support, aren’t being met. The systems are failing. They HAVE failed. It’s not that hard people, it’s just not this complicated.

Why are we causing more hurt and harm? Why are we building more and more barriers for the service users to push down and climb over, when these barriers need to be removed, deflected, completely overlooked and disposed of for good!

These barriers in place make the current shelter at 310 Division Street, almost a completely high barrier one, nowhere near the standards and practices that low barrier shelters follow across the world.

No where near the low barrier shelter that individuals were promised, the shelter that individuals have waited for, spending over a year on the streets, living in an encampment, only to find that the issues, barriers, and restrictions they will be facing the shiny new shelter… might actually be worse than barriers that came with the previous Transition House shelter at 10 Chapel…

Signed… with passion, hatred and disappointment,

London Burchat