Homeless mentally ill

Kirsten is a remarkable woman. She’s trying to finish off her master’s degree in dance and working three jobs to make ends meet. And making a living as a contemporary dancer in this society is no mean feat.

Her project is to relate in some way to the homeless as a contemporary dancer and choreographer. In order to get better contact with this she worked as a volunteer in the kitchen for the fall and winter last year at the Riverfront Drop-in Center for the homeless.

She’s a young single woman, very pretty and you would think she would be totally intimidated by working with the homeless, but not Kirsten. The woman has incredible courage and is willing to work in this field without question.

One of the big issues she has to wrestle with is the purpose of what she is doing. She is aware of the rescuing syndrome wherein someone in a privileged position hooks into self gratification by helping or rescuing someone they feel is beneath them. It’s a tough call and an issue everyone must deal with when doing this kind of work if they are going to be successful at all. People being so-called “rescued” can smell it a mile away and see through pretentiousness like you were wearing it. Kirsten has gotten through that.

“It’s amazing,” she said after the vid was done, “There’s so much I didn’t talk about. I mean like, there are all these people lining up, and there’s not enough food for them.

“I guess what they’re doing is they have to save some food for the people working night shift and that’s why they have to cut people off.

“But that’s what they do all day long. They walk. Then they come back for lunch, and they have to line up for that. Then they go out walking again because there is no place for them. Then they line up for dinner. They get a handful of corn, a potato and a wiener, and that’s it. That has to sustain them.

“If there’s no place for them, they have to walk to another shelter and line up again. And if there is no place there, they walk to some other shelter and line up again.

“So that’s what they do all day; they walk. They line up, and they walk again. They never get a chance to sleep. I guess they sleep wherever they can, in alleys, in the park, in hallways or corridors. That’s their life.”

“Oh yes,” she continued, “there’s this program for new mothers who are addicted to cocaine. Apparently that’s really big and is working really well. And it’s really needed too. They do have lots and lots of programs but I don’t know what they have for the mentally ill.

“Have you talked to CUPS? I hear they have something but I don’t know what it is. Apparently the hours to get access to them are pretty restricted. I guess it’s pretty restricted everywhere.”

"Oh and another thing I didn't talk about when I'm working there. There's the smell. The awful smell, there's no place for these people to shower or to clean up."

And that’s pretty well what it’s like to be homeless in Calgary. You walk, you line up, you get to eat a little, and you sleep wherever and whenever you can. If you’re mentally ill, even that can be very difficult to manage.