My journalism career coincidentally tracks the rise in homelessness in BC, from the days before anyone even used the word, to modern times when virtually every community in the province is profoundly affected by it.
I wrote for the Victoria Times Colonist for more than 20 years, full-time for the first 15 years and then as a weekly columnist. Homelessness was an issue I came back to over and over again. I have been part of adding to the public record for all the years starting from when that word first described maybe 10 or 15 men with alcohol problems, to the current time, when hundreds of people with immensely complex health issues are stuck on our streets.
I was no longer a journalist when I sat on the mayor-appointed committee that dove into the issues for the still completely relevant 2008 report Breaking The Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness, but by then was working in social services and felt a real responsibility to help open people's eyes to the intensifying social crisis on our streets back in the years when things still felt fixable
Decades on, I'm no longer sure that it is.
All of which is to say that I welcomed the Times Colonist's invitation to write 12 in-depth pieces this year on topics relevant to homelessness. The pieces are running monthly. I'm committed to writing about each of topic from as close to the ground as possible, as it's very obvious that what is being stated at the policy and political level bears little resemblance to how things are playing out on the streets of our communities.
I'm posting the first four here, and will keep them coming. My hope is that by the end of the 12th piece, I've helped to provide a deeper (and much needed) understanding of the things that we're doing and not doing that are helping and harming our citizens and our communities in this terrible crisis of poverty and disability.
Jan. 18 - Street Stories scene-setter
March 1 - Toxic soup: The drugs
March 22 - Life support: BC's supportive housing system is overwhelmed
April 12 - The grief and loss of 10 years of toxic drug deaths
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