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It’s sad when I run into people who are poor or homeless in this city who’ve never once ventured beyond Nova Scotia’s borders. Some have spent considerably long-lives here, walking the same circuit daily, revolving around the petty pleasantries that their poverty allows them to.
It’s an isolationist-culture here that has its own distinguished character. It’s been astonishing to see how ignorant and in-the-dark these types are regarding prosperity in other Canadian places. They don’t get even a tantalizing glimpse of how absurd and dysfunctional this place really is. Many live and die that way…
This is for all you low-income and homeless who feel defeated and reluctant to move on and find greener pastures: Give it a chance! Once you get west of Quebec you are entering a considerably more flexible social-services net and a broader job-market and, therefore, a much more improved life.
Why sit and stagnate like Keith-so-and-s0 did and his dad did and so on? Why adopt the typical downtrodden uniform of a beard, a plaid coat and paint-on blue jeans? —Never coming back
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2015.
I completely agree; non-migratory homeless people make me sad. I’ll call PETA.
Give them their credit. Most have probably done some time in Springhill or Dorchester and had the chance to mingle with the best and brightest from the four corners of this great land of ours. A panhandler from Edmonton or Winnipeg is still a panhandler.
Spoken like a true young ‘un with a partial university degree and a thesaurus. I suggest Montreal; it’s a hub from where you can launch yourself in many directions. BC is lovely but terribly expensive.
You WILL be back so enjoy your time away!
What a shitty bitch.
These poor and homeless have the same access to traincars that other poor and homeless around the country have, if they want to leave they can. I’m not too sure how being poor and homeless here would be any better than being poor and homeless in a city west of us like Winnipeg… probably worse since it gets way colder there… Furious was right… this IS a shitty bitch!
Bah-bye, good luck with your liberal arts degree. Don’t forget to thank the bank of mom and dad for the plane ticket and start up money. This bitch was written by someone who has no idea of the value of a dollar and never worked for anything in their lives.
THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
“Once you get west of Quebec you are entering a considerably more flexible social-services net and a broader job-market and, therefore, a much more improved life.” Never coming back
While it may be the case that there exists a more flexible social-services net and a broader job market (hyphen not required here as it not a compound adjective) west of Quebec, issue must be taken with your claim that they lead to a “much more improved life.”
Think of the bright lights of St. Catherine Street on Saturday night! Think of the elegant well-dressed crowds! Think what a hit his plaid coat and paint-on blue jeans would be! He’d be the toast of the town!
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
Think of Montreal Canadiens making the playoffs and maybe President’s Trophy this year at the Bell Centre as well….Go Habs Go.
OB, I think your view of panhandlers and street people is more than just a little naive. It will take more than a bus ride west to change their lives. As far as I can tell, most of them are unemployable due to a number of factors: lack of education, mental illness, addiction, etc.
Just from walking past them every day and hearing their conversations (sometimes with imaginary people) I could probably point out many of the regulars and tell you something about each of them. For example: one guy is psychotic (talks to an imaginary person a lot) and seems to be self medicating with cigarettes and other substances, one gal is a self described junkie and gets angry when called a crack-head (apparently their is a social distinction), one guy is a regular at a scratch ticket outlet where I suspect they know him by name, another guy is at the NSLC every few hours buying a beer with his change, i could go on but there is no point.
You’re welcome to offer any one of them a lift when you go but I doubt you would enjoy their company being as young and inexperienced as you are. These are people who have fallen through the cracks of society and each one presents a very complex challenge. There are no easy answers.
On the hopeful side, I remember one street guy who was obviously mentally ill and sleeping outdoors all year round for years. Somehow, someone managed to get him into treatment and, nowadays, I often see him waiting for a bus and looking like a regular person so there is hope!
You sound like a perfect candidate for Alberta. Bring your own mirror.
This is one of the dumbest Bitches I’ve read in a very long time.
I don’t think extremely poor or homeless people give a fiddler’s fuck how cultured you think Halifax is, or how cultured or worldly you think they should try to become in their pursuit to become less poor or less homeless.
You’re a fucking moron.
Stop going to boomers and the dome every night. Hit up reflections, seahorse or the marquee, then tell us Halifax isn’t cultured.
P.s. you’ve clearly never been to Toronto, or you lack any skills of observation. There are way more homeless people there than here.
You can say that about people anywhere. There are people in NYC, homeless or not that have never ventured out of their own Burroughs and that can be said about any large city.
Perhaps a lifestyle lacking a lot of challenge and having familiarity makes a person feel safe. Not necessarily happy but safe. Just saying.
Soooo . . . a person who has a mental illness or other misfortune that brings them into a panhandling lifestyle is simply lacking “culture” — or is just simply unaware that other places exist.
I am just not convinced that some of the pathetic souls who make a few bucks panhandling in Halifax would do just fine if they were magically transported to some other city. It’s not as if there is a big demand for the panhandling “trade” in any industry that I know of.
“Deportation via Greyhound” was not a viable solution back in the 90s, and is not something that would be any more successful today.
Indeed, Angel, the last person who used the solution of “Deportation by Greyhound” was Ralph Klein. Both he and the province he ran have taken quite a turn since then.
As for OB, get off your high horse. Many of the people you see on the streets have probably been everywhere and back. Halifax has always been a city of transients – it’s both a military town and a college town. The ones who’ve been here a lifetime have had no real need to go see the world – because the world, for one reason or another, keeps coming to us.
In fact, there are more homeless on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria, BC. Mostly because the temperature doesn’t go below freezing very often, so living outside isn’t a death sentence like it would be in a climate with -20 degree temperatures. I had friends who “couch-surfed” up and down Vancouver Island for a couple of years and carried a tent in case they were stuck.
You’re mixing up two problems OB. Homelessness generally has to do with mental illness and addiction.
The poor and homeless that you see couldn’t give a shit that Halifax seems to be stuck in the 1960s in almost all aspects – in urban planning, racial relations, and musical taste (where the fuck else can 70s and 80s bands sell tickets for 200$?). The rest of the province seems to be stuck in 1949 though, so it does have that going for it.