Lonely death on waiting list
The sad story of Donna Donovan highlights housing need
Donna Donovan was found dead last month, alone on the floor of an inner-city rooming house, just days after moving in. She was just one of hundreds of people on the waiting list for safe, affordable housing in Edmonton.
“I know she called me at all hours and she would be scared and talking about the violence in the rooming houses she was in,” said her grieving sister, Rachel Donovan.
“The coroner said she was bleeding internally and she was naked from the waist down, covered with a blanket. I can’t get that picture out of my mind, or the fact that she was sleeping on the floor with just a blanket and pillows.”
Donna Donovan, 50, had been homeless for three months and struggled with addiction issues for years. She was one of 500 people on the waiting list for housing through Homeward Trust.
Homeward Trust and its partners don’t have enough social workers to handle the files or affordable units to place people in.
Edmonton launched a new awareness campaign last week, trying to convince people that having affordable housing in their neighbourhood won’t bring down the value of their homes.
In 2009, Alberta pledged to end homelessness in a decade. But six years in, 2,300 people still don’t have a permanent roof over their heads. In addition to the 500 people who qualify as chronically homeless and waiting for help with Homeward Trust, others have registered with Homeward Trust’s partner agencies.
The organization housed more than 4,500 people since April 2009 and is hoping for further investment in the upcoming provincial budget, especially toward building more permanent supportive housing units, said spokesman Alex Abboud. “That would clear some of the backlog.”
Homeward Trust doesn’t track how many die waiting.
An autopsy on Donna Donovan’s body found no evidence of violence, but the medical examiner is still doing toxicology tests. She was an addict with severe liver disease, and for three months she had been walking the streets to avoid sleeping in shelters.
Her death left her sister stunned and struggling with guilt. She still expects her sister to call every day.
“I asked the undertaker to make sure she was wrapped in the warmest blanket I could find so she wouldn’t be cold,” she said. “I tried to make it up to her by having a funeral service that was traditional. I got drummers from Maskwacis that would sing her home.
“I realize people will ask, as I have asked myself, why wasn’t she stay- ing with me? The truth is I didn’t want my son to be exposed to any of her ‘friends.’ She had a habit of helping people, even when she had nothing herself. Some of them would be unsavoury people, who often took advantage of her kind nature.”
Donna Donovan grew up in a series of foster homes. She worked as an exotic dancer and in Edmonton restaurants, but struggled with alcohol and drug addictions, said her sister. She became sick, then lost her apartment about 18 months ago.
Tracy Patience, executive director of Dickinsfield Amity House in the north end, got involved while Donna Donovan was living in her first rooming house, in a tiny room with a window too small to be used as a fire escape. It was soon deemed uninhabitable by Alberta Health Services, said Patience. In June 2015, the woman was on the street.
Patience would take Donna Donovan to visit potential apartments and helped her register for provincial AISH funding, Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped.
Her AISH backpay would have given her a damage deposit and first month’s rent, key to convincing a landlord to look past bad credit. But when the payment came, Patience didn’t hear from Donna Donovan for three days.
“The money was all gone. I’m sure it was a party for everyone that weekend,” said Patience.
Donna Donovan resisted contacting Homeward Trust at first, but she signed up in July, went back a month later for an interview and then waited on the list. By then she was extremely thin. She’d sleep a couple hours at a time on a friend’s couch during the day and walk or sit in a park at night.
Rachel Donovan wonders if her sister just gave up when she finally found space in the rooming house. It was one of four units in the basement of a bungalow. She moved in Sept. 1 and no one heard from her for several days. Patience started looking when she got back from vacation Sept. 8 and the caretaker discovered her body four days later.
“She talked about going into treatment, but how can you think about treatment when you don’t even have a home? ... If only we had somewhere to turn before it’s sleeping in the river valley time,” said Patience.
Donna Donovan stayed kind, despite her struggles, Patience said. “She had been dealt such a crappy hand in her life. She deserved far more than she ever got. I miss her.”