My last three months of being homeless went particularly bad. Certain idiots really began to try to prey on me in various ways leaving me even more traumatized. My father was determined to get rid of me and finally told me it was time to leave in March just before Easter. By that time I had stayed with a succession of friends in Vancouver and other individuals and I was really becoming unhinged.
I ended up in a house full of burnt out punks and had to leave when I had a falling out with a couple of residents there.
I really thought for a while that my life was ending. I could see no future for myself, no way out. I was a suicide risk. I had no idea of any resources available. I felt completely unemployable but equally reluctant to apply for social assistance. It was a terrifying maze and I really could not see any doors opening to me in the future except for dying and even that didn't seem like an option.
I briefly attended an evangelical church full of Christians who'd known me when I was a teenager and a twenty-something. They had all sold out on their ideals and become wealthy and successful. Instead of welcoming me and offering me shelter in any of their fine spacious homes I was regarded as an outsider and a threat. The pastor became particularly hostile. After putting me up for two nights in the YMCA downtown the self-righteous douchebag (so sue me Jeremy Bell!) basically kicked me out of his fine rich church. According to him I belonged in a poorer neighbourhood.
Various people harboured me for two days, three days, two weeks and then I applied for welfare and found a room in a shared apartment. Even though people were at least kind enough to not let me sleep on the street I am still to this day hugely disappointed that every single one of my so-called friends treated me like an unclean thing and seemed in quite a hurry to turn me out of their homes at the earliest possible opportunity. I was like an unwanted refugee in the city where I was born and raised.
What is wrong with us anyway.
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