About this site
Hi. I've just finished writing an interview with the police officer in charge of the downtown area. It's called Interview with the Man. It basically verifies the obvious. I've written some other pieces about being homeless and mentally ill in Calgary, which, I imagine, is pretty well the same as any other city. I've tried Vlogging and I can tell you that writers make lousy videos. I'm gong to have to keep doing it and hope it gets better. I also have to figure out how to lay out these pages and make them easier to get around. I'm new at this so please be patient.
Just to let you know I've also added links about homelessness. This thing's been studied to death and still no end in sight. An intersting problem indeed.
Now, I'm working on trying to figure out just how many people are mentally ill and homeless in Calgary. It's not that straightforward. We can all get some idea of the depth of this problem simply by gong out onto the street and looking around. It's obvious we have a problem, but let's just see how big the problem is.
3 comments:
This is from Craig. I coppied it from facebook. Thanks Craig.
Hi Bruce. I like the Blog. You have done some excellent writing there. I'd love to hear some of the individual stories behind homelessness. Especially from the working poor and ill. I am definitely not suggesting you start hanging out with crack heads to tell their story. Hearing their stories may help people understand how they ended up there and what it would take to give them a hand up.
This is from Nadia
Bruce,
sorry it took me a while to get back to you about your new blog. I've just finished reading through all your posts.
I have to say my first reaction was excitement that someone decided to blog about this topic. When I was in Calgary my bus went past this huge building with people crammed onto the cement outside and then i saw the 'homeless shelter' sign. Up until then I hadn't realized how many people must have moved to Calgary for work. The only other thing I've come into contact with about this is a few isolated articles (from some Edmonton newspaper) condemning the housing shortage in Calgary. This blog is totally cool for a few reasons.
It's really easy to read (it flows like a narrative, like you're speaking) and each piece is a comprehensive synthesis of a lot of research. not only that, but you're attacking a huge issue (that to me seems overwhelming) with really specific questions, and as an interested reader i'm less intimidated by the scope of the topic.
not only that, but your focus on homeless people who are mentally ill is completely new to me. it never occured to me that there was another category of people besides working poor and drug addicts.
this is something that piqued my curiosity but that felt too big to tackle all by myself. and i like that your blog doesn't just want to outline the problem, it also wants to find possible actions or solutions.
what made you get interested in it? i'd like to know.
cool blog, and i thought your first video broadcast was fine!
Nadia.
This is a test of the recent comments thingy at the bottom of the page. I've just put it in.
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