Transients

I’ve debated on how to approach this issue, or whether to deal with it at all on the blog. I’ve opted to face it head on, grab it by the horns, and put as little sugar coating on it as I can.

Though I feel sympathy and pity for them, homeless people make going downtown suck.

Now, I was relatively naïve and unexposed to downtown until last Spring semester when I had 2 courses at the Harbour Centre campus. Now, at first I was just in awe, looking up at the massive buildings, jaw agape, feeling like a damned tourist (hell a lady in a gastown store thought I was one). When I had change I would give some or all of it to those less fortunate people who asked. However, one persistent, underhanded, conniving cheat, lied straight to my face, twice, trying to convince me to give him money. I understand he is likely very hungry and desperate, but lieing to me, blatantly, straight to my damn face is a load of bull$@^*.

For quite a while this one man’s actions made me incredibly intolerant, not even willing to spare coin when I had it. But I softened recently and began to, especially when I felt they were deserving.

Giving alms to the less fortunate is considered a charitable and compassionate thing to do in almost every religion I can think of, but is validating lieing?

Regardless, it is not just as simple as that, it is a problem of volume. There are many, and I mean MANY people living downtown with no proper residence, hungry and out of work. Some cases it’s drugs, some it’s runaways, others are supposedly those who have been given one-way tickets here from other cities by their governments. The climate here is very temperate, rarely deadly cold or hot (compared to other cities), so it is understandable too that it is an ideal location. But now it is at the point of a MAJOR damn problem. There is no easy way to solve it (obviously, as then it would not be a problem would it?), but it is an issue that needs resolution.

How does any of this have to do with Translink? I can understand how that might be asked about now, and I can tell you. Some people have low hygiene, not all the time, but sometimes, some more than others. Homeless people can often smell of their environments, and when trapped in a tiny itsy bitsy community shuttle, it is nigh unbearable. Also, notice who goes ticketed by Transit police ~%50 of the time nowadays, people who appear to be of low financial circumstances.

I feel a swell of pity to see fellow human beings living like that, I know there are some who choose that life, but I can’t imagine it’s all of them. For me, I intend to show compassion when I may, cast my vote towards fixing the problem when I may, but maybe not wander around downtown so much.