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Blog Action Day: Poverty Is Only A Bit of Bad Luck Away

By crooky | October 15, 2008

It’s hard to imagine better timing for the theme of poverty as countless millions in developed countries stand on the brink of poverty. In this post, I want to highlight not how poverty affects faceless billions overseas because to most of us in the developed world, poverty in developing nations is a sad but abstract fact. During times of economic turmoil or personal emotional upheaval, poverty looms much closer to home. I want to relate how close poverty truly is for all of us with two personal anecdotes:

First I want to tell you about “Gary” – a man I met in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES - read up on this area if you’re not familiar with it). I have lived in Greater Vancouver most of my life and at various times in my life, like now, have worked in the DTES. Back in 2000, I was working right at the waterfront in the DTES – the real heart of the most crime-ridden neighbourhood in the entire country.

I saw open intravenous drug use, people smoking crack, prostitutes working at all hours of the day, human trafficking, violence, death, life where there shouldn’t be life and everything else you can imagine in what was then an area even the Vancouver Police Department avoided. One sunny day, I was walking to work through this neighbourhood when I saw a grubby old man chasing a woman in a suit down the street. I was worried that he was going to hurt her so I ran to catch up to him. He reached her before I reached him and tapped her on the shoulder.

She was clearly thrilled to see him and gave him a warm embrace before asking him all about what he has been up to lately. “Gary” told her about how he had recently gotten a roommate and a steady source for his medications. It became clear from the parts of the conversation that I could hear that Gary had been a patient at a local mental institution and was one of thousands in Vancouver that were turned out onto the streets of the DTES when funding cuts close beds at the hospital. The women he was chasing was one of his former psychologists.

After a few minutes, the woman peeled off towards a local hospice for the homeless and he trundled along towards my work. I ended up passing him and wished him a good morning as I passed. He turned to me and said “I don’t normally ask but…” and I prepared myself for a panhandler rap – one of dozens I got every day in the DTES. He went on… “can I borrow 50 cents to get a cup of coffee.” We were right near a place that sold 50 cent cups of coffee and after hearing the guys’ story, how could I say no?

I went on my way to work that day feeling a little better about the world and didn’t really think of it much again until two weeks later when I ran into Gary again. I passed Gary at a crosswalk in Chinatown and I didn’t think he’d recognize me. I passed him without saying anything and I thought he hadn’t noticed me but as I walked past, he shouted “HEY!” I turned around and the sight that greeted me brought tears to my eyes.

In his yellowed, filthy, outstretched hand were two of the shiniest quarters I had ever seen in my life. It looked like they have been professionally cleaned. Gary looked up at me with a smile and said “here is your 50 cents back”.

I choked. I didn’t know what to say. I was living below the poverty line myself at the time but I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which I would need that 50 cents more than this guy. I managed to croak “thank you” as he walked away and that encounter haunted me for months. I had been mugged a few times in that neighbourhood. I’d had my possessions stolen. I’d heard every sob story from junkies looking for spare change that you could imagine. I’d pulled people stoned out of their gourds out of oncoming traffic but I wasn’t prepared for an encounter with a DTES local that was a real person.

Everyone I tell this story to takes away a different message but my suggested take home is this: poverty isn’t a life choice. It’s a circumstance that you can easily find yourself in when things go wrong. Many DTES residents are mentally ill. My friend Rob ended up on the streets of the DTES at 17 after his schizophrenia got out of control and I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead. I had another friend almost end up living on the streets of the DTES after having some really rotten luck.

I know how easy it is to slip into poverty more than most people because as my second anecdote, I want to share with you what happened to my family in the mid-80s. My Mother stayed at home with us kids until we were in highschool. My Dad has always been a tradesperson but during the early to mid-80s, the economy here in BC took a real beating – not unlike the one that many other places in North America are taking right now.

My Dad found himself laid off for the better part of a year without any other jobs available in his field. The only way we managed to stay afloat was my Dad taking on four paper routes to bring in enough money to pay rent and get some basic groceries. We never went on welfare but we would have easily qualified at that time. I don’t want to tell sob stories about how being poor sucks because I didn’t have a life of poverty – just a few years.

I think the key message here is that poverty can strike your family when you least expect it. Industries die. People get laid off and can’t get jobs again. Interest rates on your home can go into the double digits and you might lose your home. You might develop a mental illness or suffer from a health condition that leaves you unable to work.

Social Isolation – another important issue that I have discussed before [READ] – can make you incapable of working and push you into poverty. There are thousands of routes into poverty and no one easy way out. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that poverty is something that happens to other people because it can happen to you just as easily as it happened to my family and as easy as it happened to Gary. Show some compassion for the poor this year and think about how easily you can slip into poverty yourself.

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Topics: social issues |

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