Editor's note: The following story contains strong language which may not be suitable for some readers.
While most people were still tucked warmly into the beds Saturday morning, many of Barrie’s homeless community were making their way from whichever shelter or encampment they’d spent the night to a downtown church to grab a hot cup of coffee and a bit of breakfast to help take the edge off.
To make matters worse, temperatures were dipping below minus-20 Celsius for the first time this winter.
The breakfast, doled out by volunteers from local charitable organization Ryan’s Hope each morning outside Collier Street United Church, is sometimes the only food James Flewelling says he will have all day. He told BarrieToday this will be his first winter living on the street.
“I fell into some hard times unfortunately,” said Flewelling, adding he ended up homeless last spring after the room he’d been staying in was ransacked and his personal information, including his banking information, was stolen. “My disability cheque was stolen out of my bank account.
"I have a reading and writing disability and so when I was younger I’d (written down) my PIN number. When I was looking through my room when it was all ransacked, I found the files there and it had all my bank information," he added.
Flewelling said although he has been able to manage his situation so far, but there are four seasons in Canada.
“Summer on the streets is a completely different experience,” he said, adding he’s done his best to survive. “Winter kind of crept up on me. I have always been a procrastinator (and) it’s tough. Everyone says we don’t work, but you’re working just trying to survive. You’re working to get food. Even if you have money and can go to the grocery store, you can’t store anything or cook anything.”
Seeking shelter not always an option
Flewelling, 35, admits he prefers to stay outside, but will consider taking advantage of a local shelter bed if the temperature drops too low, like it did this past weekend.
"I have been trying to get into Sally (the Salvation Army) and I have been trying to get into Busby,” he said, adding until a week ago he had been staying in a bed at the Busby Centre, which he called a “blessing” despite being banned for a few weeks following an incident.
“I stepped in and helped (a man) out like I would hope someone would step in to help me if I couldn’t defend myself,” Flewelling added.
But the shelter has a strict zero-tolerance policy in place, which can result in an individual involved in a violent incident being removed immediately.
Busby Centre executive director Sara Peddle explained to BarrieToday that while staff attempt to avoid restrictions as much as possible, when the safety of others is compromised they have no choice,. Typically, she said removal will result in a one-week restriction, unless it was a situation of elevated violence.
“We do not just restrict the person, we work with them to find other accommodations where possible and continue to support them through outreach,” she said.
“We have seen an increase violence this year within the shelter and we do our best to continue to support the individuals involved and maintain the safety of our other participants, staff and volunteers," Peddle added.
Not everyone who seeks a bed at one of the local shelters is as lucky, however. Cody Knight told BarrieToday he tries to access a shelter bed every evening, but says there are often times where there simply hasn’t been one available.
“There’s a shortage of beds right now. I have been to Busby Centre three times this week and there’s been no space for me,” he said. “They just say ‘no, sorry there’s no beds,' and then I am walking the street all night. It is very, very frustrating. Trying to work and hold a steady job but not have anywhere to stay is the hardest thing.”
Peddle told BarrieToday that so far this winter, the Busby Centre hasn’t turned anybody away that has shown up, unless they are on the restriction for physical violence.
“Sometimes people will take diversion, which we are contracted to do as providers, as turning them away,” she said, explaining if a person has the option of staying with a friend or family member but just is not wanting to, they may consider that as having been turned away.
Knight says the constant uncertainty of whether or not he will have a safe place to sleep is frustrating.
“I am more than willing to work … and knowing I would have a bed for a month or so, I’d be able to work and earn that money in order to get my own place," he said. "I go each night and don’t have a bed, so I end up walking around all night. Then when I go to work (and) I am falling asleep at work because I am so tired.”
Not having a bed can also be dangerous. Knight said he was robbed while sitting in McDonald's on Friday night.
“I hadn’t slept the night before because Busby didn’t have any space for me to stay, so I walked around all night the night before and fell asleep in there … and buddy stole my last little bit of money out of my pocket," Knight said. "He actually tried to steal my backpack, too, but I felt (it) being taken out from behind me. I had other bags beside me that had some food, gloves and mitts in them and he took those.”
You do what you've got to do
Hazel Gerhartd, 57, said she spent more than 20 years living in Angus before losing her home six years ago. After living on the streets in Toronto, Gerhartd came to Barrie last week. She told BarrieToday she considers Simcoe County to be her home.
“I have family here, but they are struggling and they’re doing what they can to help,” she said.
No matter where you are, Gerhartd said living on the streets comes with a harsh reality and you do what you have to do to survive.
“You turn to drugs to stay warm. You turn to drugs because you have nothing to eat and it curbs the hunger,” she said. “A lot of people choose to stay on the street, but most of us don’t. It’s so hard to get a home because no one wants to rent to the homeless person … especially if they know they do drugs.”
Gerhardt said she has been lucky to access a shelter bed since arriving in Barrie last week For the most part, she says she feels safe.
“Everybody has their issues and anybody can snap at any time. If somebody thinks you took something of theirs, they’re going to start a fight with you, and if you fight back, you are both kicked out," she added.
Like others who call the streets “home,” Gerhardt is forced to fit her entire life into a bag, and knows all too well that if she doesn’t keep it safe, all her worldly possessions could be gone in the blink of an eye.
“It’s a pain in the ass and I asked the lord to help me downsize so they stole my backpack,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s not what I meant, but the lord’s got a sense of humour. I had an army backpack full of clothes and I turned my back for 10 minutes and it was gone. All I had was the clothes I was wearing.”
As devastating as that could have been, she said sometimes the hurdles life throws a person’s way can be used as an impetus to work harder toward your goals.
“You curse, you cry, you stomp around and try to find it, and then you just finally accept the fact that they needed it more than you did," Gerhardt said. "When I was in Toronto, I got kicked out of a shelter and was hiding out in the woods and got kidnapped. I woke up in a trap house and they stole my dentures, and I am still trying to get them back. It forces you to work harder to find out how to access services that can help you find food, clothing or shelter, and get the help needed to get off the street.”
Despite her hardships, Gerhardt manages to maintain a positive outlook on life. She says she has her sights set on finding permanent housing and then plans to work helping others like herself.
“I am the oldest of 10 children. My mother gave me her heart and it’s always been doors open to men, women, children … beaten, battered, whatever. I like to help people and I like to see them smile. It makes me feel good.”
Johnny Nash says he has spent the last few years on the street after being released from jail. He’s says he's been sleeping in a portable shed he’d purchased and set up at an encampment on Wellington Street with six others. Unfortunately, that shed, and everything he’d had inside of it, is now gone. Nash says city officials and local police came in and removed it.
“The city said they were going to come in there with the cops and remove us,” he told BarrieToday. “I wasn’t there when it happened, so the city came in and took all my shit that I’d had there. I just found out (Friday) that they’d come in and took it. … I have been kind of depressed about it.”
With his makeshift “home” now gone, Nash was able to escape the frigid temperatures on Friday night having snagged a bed at the Busby Centre’s facility at 88 Mulcaster St.
Nash told BarrieToday he often hears from others about their struggles to try to secure a bed at one of the city’s shelters, despite there being more than 150 shelter beds in Simcoe County — and often dozens reportedly available beds each night.
“There are more people than that on the street right now,” he pointed out.
And although Nash says he has not yet been turned away, he anticipates that it will occur “sooner or later,” based on what he’s been hearing on the street.
Feeling the chill
Homeless or not, trying to stay warm during a Barrie winter isn’t always the easiest thing to do, and the lack of a permanent warming centre this winter has left many forced to find other places to keep warm.
“It has to be a certain temperature for that to be open,” said Knight, referring to the mandate that Environment Canada must be predicting overnight temperatures to fall below minus-15 C for at least two hours before the warming centre — which is run by the John Howard Society and located at Collier Street United Church in downtown Barrie — can open.
“There are a lot of places that look at you and because you’re homeless they won’t even let you into the place,” he said, adding not everyone has access to technology to check and see if it is open or not. “I can’t afford a cellphone. The small bit of that I do get I use to be able to eat or to manage for the month, and it’s still not enough.
"Just being able to eat is a struggle. I am grateful for the food bank and for that I can come here (to the Breakfast To Go program) and get breakfast in the morning … and I use the Salvation Army at lunchtime," Knight added.
In previous years, the city’s homeless have been able to use the downtown bus terminal, added Flewelling, but even that's off limits now.
“We are getting kicked out of libraries, the bus station, all over. Now, we are getting to the point where if you’re not taking the bus, you can’t go in there. It’s fine on a summer day, but when it’s raining or cold…? It’s not the easiest thing to be going through," he said.
Finding access to somewhere to use a bathroom or to have a shower, especially in the winter, is another big challenge, Flewelling said.
“Busby is the only place that offers free showers. Otherwise, (I’d) have to get a pass to a gym in order to get a hot shower. It was always Busby, but now I am kicked out and there’s nowhere else … and washrooms are very scarce after businesses close.”
While Peddle says she's grateful there even is a warming centre in the city, she believes it needs to be open all the time.
“We need to have adequate space during the day where there are multiple agencies being able to service that program,” she said. “I don’t want to disregard what is out there, because there is something, and the county is providing funding for some of these programs, the programs are trying to do the best they can, and the volunteer groups are doing the best they can, but it’s still just not enough.”
Removing the rose-coloured glasses
Christine Nayler, who, along with her husband Tom, founded Ryan’s Hope in honour of their son following his death from a toxic drug overdose in 2020, noted that there's often a disconnect between what government officials say is occurring and what she's hearing first-hand at street level.
“It’s being said that there are all these shelter beds available because people are choosing to stay outside, but I think we need to talk about the reason people are outside. It’s not a choice. They’re not given the option to come inside,” she said.
Nayler used a couple as an example. They are unable to access the shelter system because they’re not considered to be a ‘family.'
“It’s a man and a woman and they have a pet dog. They are a family, but they don’t meet the definition of family for entering shelter," she said.
There are currently no pet-friendly shelters in Barrie, according to Nayler, which leaves some people with an impossible decision.
“Anyone that has a pet, the only choice they have is to either stay outside or surrender their pet who is a member of their family — and sometimes the only family someone has," she added.
Gerry Marshall, who recently ran for Barrie mayor and is also a former Simcoe County warden, has been volunteering with Ryan’s Hope since November. He told BarrieToday the past three months have truly shown him the realities of homelessness in the city.
“The frustrations I am hearing are that when we talk about the number of beds, it’s grouped into a percentage — so 150 beds and 20 per cent of them are vacant — but we really need to speak about beds by each vertical: There are youth centres, male centres and female centres. We need to understand what is happening in each of those sectors," he said.
Marshall says the real question is how many people are getting turned away nightly.
“A vacant bed is one thing, and I can understand why it’s vacant, but how many people are being turned away night after night? I talk to people here every Saturday and Sunday morning who say there was no room for them,” he said. “I don’t like the stats game, because they just cover up what is really occurring out here on the streets on a daily basis.”
People need to challenge those in charge to look at the beds and how they are allocated, added Nayler.
“If there are beds not being used, then maybe those beds are not needed and we need to look at the criteria. We see a lot of couples that are outside because they are support people to each other and don’t want to have to separate. We see people with pets so maybe we need to look at having a pet-friendly shelter.
"We need low-barrier shelters so that people who are living with trauma and mental health issues are able to access those beds as well," she said.
Unfortunately, there is really no one that can, or will, take on that challenge right now, added Marshall.
“We need an advocacy group to speak for the homeless. Right now, you have the charities and the County of Simcoe and they’re all co-mingling and working together, but our charities are in an unfortunate position because it would be difficult to criticize those who fund you,” he said. “We need that independent voice to say, ‘Here’s what’s going on in the street, here’s what’s going on at the county … and to speak clearly and unencumbered by any restrictions or fear that if they speak loudly there could be repercussions.'”
Open your eyes
Despite what some people may think, not everyone chooses a life on the streets, pointed out Gerhardt, who, like Flewelling, Nash and Knight, is hopeful that by speaking out about her struggles, she can help shine a little bit of light on the city’s homelessness issue.
“We don’t all choose to be here,” she said.
For Nash, his reasoning is simple: he just hopes people will begin to acknowledge that there are serious issues in the city that need to be addressed.
“People need to open their fucking eyes and really have a look at the situation. It’s not easy. Rentals are asking way too much and it’s gotten way out of reach for people’s income," he said. "I am on disability because I have a really bad back and I broke my hip a few years back, so I am very limited in my physical ability to work so it’s hard.
“It’s hard for me to use these shelters sometimes. I am an alcoholic and a drug addict and I am trying to stay away from a good portion of it … and a lot of these people are just way to fucked up on drugs. It’s a bad situation to be in.”
It’s not just those living on the street that are feeling frustrated these days, admitted Peddle, adding the lack of housing options and additional support tends to bring a sense of hopelessness, not only for the folks they serve, but also for staff.
“Everybody is trying to do the best they can with what we have in our community, but we do need to be doing better," she said. "There are a lot of people struggling in our community. They’re struggling, but they’re also resilient.
"We have many people who are experiencing severe mental health and addiction, and many who are not. They’re just struggling through this housing crisis,” Peddle added. “It’s really important the community realizes the people that are experiencing homelessness and living outside and in shelters mean something to us, and they should be meaning more to the general community.
"Essentially, they’ve become collateral damage to very broken systems in our country and that’s not fair.”
