Walking tour shows how the homeless survive

Federal candidates getting a tour of homelessness in Peterborough

He knows what it is to be homeless in Peterborough.

Dan, who doesn’t want his last name published, is 44. He spent all of last winter wandering downtown.

He said living on the streets of Peterborough is so harsh in winter that the homeless sometimes go to desperate measures to survive.

“Some people commit a crime so they can go to jail in the winter time,” he said.

On Tuesday, Dan took a group of seven people – including Liberal candidate Maryam Monsef – on a walking tour of downtown, pointing out where the homeless go to survive.

Dan has taken at least 10 church youth groups on this walk. This month he invited all of the federal candidates to do it too.

NDP candidate Dave Nickle will do the tour with Dan next week, but Conservative Mike Skinner hasn’t yet responded to the invitation.

In May, Dan found a place to stay in a decent, clean rooming house.

On Tuesday, he walked and pointed out the Brock Mission for men and the Warming Room (at Murray Street Baptist Church).

Last winter he slept at both those places. He felt depressed in The Brock.

“You walk in there, you feel the despair,” he said.

But it was better than sleeping in any of the rooming houses that were available at the time, Dan says, which he refers to as “crack-houses”.

“They’re full of bugs, drugs and thugs.”

By that he means many rooming houses in Peterborough are teeming with bedbugs, illicit drugs and people who will rob you in the night.

Meanwhile Dan says there’s one other alternative, for homeless people: sleeping in squats.

He knows of two buildings downtown where homeless people are now living in the vacant upper levels, but he won’t point them out for fear the squatters will be kicked out.

He says there was a popular squat last winter on the corner of Hunter and George Streets, above The Patch clothing store.

About a dozen people lived there illegally through last winter, Dan says, but they left when the owner started renovating.

Dan has heard people say that squatting is bad for downtown business, but he doesn’t care.

“I don’t see a problem with squatting if it keeps you alive,” he said.

He also says there are several businesses downtown that are charitable to homeless people.

Soupcon offers free soup to the hungry, he says. And the Speakeasy invites patrons to donate toward meals for the homeless who drop into the cafe.

Dan also took the walking tour to “The Gov,” the vacant Jackson Square federal office building on King Street. Homeless people used to gather outside that building, next to Jackson Creek, to drink.

“It was like the cottage for homeless people,” Dan said, motioning to the green space and the creek flowing past.

Not so much anymore, now that the Peterborough CountyCity Health Unit is planning to move there in November. Dan says homeless people are chased away more frequently now, and he understands why.

“If people have a drinking problem – well, it doesn’t look good for the health unit to have a bar outside,” Dan said.

Sometimes when he’s speaking, Dan refers to “the drunken, homeless community” without irony or judgment. He says they’re generally civil to one another.

For example, when it’s your turn to panhandle in front of the LCBO on Sherbrooke St. - a prime spot – you don’t overstay. You make enough to get you through the day, and then let someone else have a turn.

Just because someone’s addicted doesn’t make them a scary homeless person, Dan insists.

“Everyone needs to be – and has to be – treated with dignity,” he said. “You may not like the choices these people have made, but you’ve got to treat them like human beings.”

Monsef said it was helpful to have someone who’s been homeless in Peterborough tell his stories.

She said she was compelled by Dan’s assertion that homeless people must be treated like humans: “It’s about dignity, dignity, dignity.”