‘I WANT TO HELP’
‘These people came from somewhere,’ Nadine Green who lets homeless people use her Kitchener store as a shelter
Woman who shelters the homeless says she will resist eviction
A woman who offers shelter to the homeless in her convenience store was supposed to have been evicted Friday.
But all day there was no sign of the sheriff, and Udanapher (Nadine) Green celebrated.
“We’re not packing anything,” said Green, who owns the store on Water Street between King and Duke street, and allows homeless people to come in and get warm, eat donated food, play pool, use the bathroom and telephone, and to sleep overnight in chairs or on the floor.
There’s nowhere else for them to go, and Green said she isn’t abandoning them.
“I’m not moving anything” out of the store, she said.
“If they (the authorities) put it in the garbage, we’ll take it out of the garbage.”
Green had ignored an earlier court order to vacate the premises after the landlord said nearby businesses complained her guests were loitering, creating garbage and throwing stones at delivery trucks.
A few weeks later she received a notice, warning that she would be evicted Friday morning by the sheriff.
Instead of packing her things on Thursday night, she played music by Bob Marley.
Next day, people who had heard about her work dropped by with doughnuts and meat pies to share.
“One gentleman gave everybody $10 each,” she said.
On Friday morning, one man stood watch outside with a large stick that looked as if it had been carved from a tree branch.
Inside, Green was surrounded by journalists, friends and antipoverty activists who were waiting for a confrontation with the sheriff.
It didn’t materialize. Sheriff Steve Collins was not in the office on Friday, a co-worker said.
Most people facing eviction would be stressed, but Green was happy.
Because of her predicament, everyone is talking about homelessness now.
“This is what they need to do,” she said.
In a downtown core that’s quickly gentrifying, her store is one of the few places left where the most marginalized people can feel at home.
When she started her store, some homeless people stole from her. She made a deal with them: they could take what they wanted and didn’t have to pay until they got their cheques. She ran a tab for each guest. They always paid their debts, even if they were in hospital.
Gradually the little store became a community centre where people were greeted by name and with a hug. “These people came from somewhere,” she said. “They came from families. They didn’t just drop out of the sky.”
If she is forced to close, Green says she will look for a larger place and do the same thing.
Some of her guests aren’t welcome at traditional shelters because they get involved in fights, or because they don’t trust a system where they have to give their name and other personal information.
Without a place like Green’s they’ll sleep outside, in a tent or a parked car.
Local government used to provide drop-in centres where anyone could get warm and sleep, no questions asked.
But there isn’t one this year, despite a rise in the homeless population that experts have observed.
A friend of Green’s stopped by to offer her support.
Margo McConnell said she is about to be forced out of her inexpensive rental home in Bridgeport.
She worries about finding another place she can afford, especially since she has two dogs she refuses to be separated from.
“I’ve been homeless before,” she said.
“It’s a struggle to get back on your feet.”