Your eyes open slowly after a fitful sleep, your face is swollen, numb. The nylon tent is no match for bone-chilling, minus-thirty temperatures where each warm breath rises and crystallizes. SA国际影视传媒淏y morning, youSA国际影视传媒檝e got frostbite on your face,SA国际影视传媒� says Michael Fatt as he remembers his life in tent cities on the outskirts of downtown.
Neither of YellowknifeSA国际影视传媒檚 overnight shelters allowed couples, so Fatt and his wife sometimes slept together in tents. Or anywhere with a roof. SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檝e slept in every part of buildings,SA国际影视传媒� he says. SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檝e slept in little cubby holes that had dirt in them and little storage units.SA国际影视传媒�
That was 12 years ago.
SA国际影视传媒淚t came to a point where it was just too much, I thought I was going to die and I didnSA国际影视传媒檛 want to die like that,SA国际影视传媒� says Fatt, who is now 55, has a home with his wife and runs Common Ground, a program that employs street-involved people. HeSA国际影视传媒檚 also a vocal advocate for opening a new temporary day shelter at the corner of Franklin Avenue and 48th Street before the temperatures plunge.
SA国际影视传媒淭hese temporary shelters are life-saving. ISA国际影视传媒檝e picked people up out of snowbanks sleeping and I got them into a shelterSA国际影视传媒攖heySA国际影视传媒檙e literally trembling and theySA国际影视传媒檙e so weak andSA国际影视传媒h manSA国际影视传媒heySA国际影视传媒檙e just refrigerated. ItSA国际影视传媒檚 an unbearable kind of thing to even witness,SA国际影视传媒� he says. SA国际影视传媒淏ut at the end of the day once you start drinking you donSA国际影视传媒檛 care, because thatSA国际影视传媒檚 less pain than enduring the feeling that youSA国际影视传媒檙e feeling, the hurt and the pain.SA国际影视传媒�
An addictions treatment program in Calgary helped Fatt recover from booze and drugs, but as a survivor of the Sixties ScoopSA国际影视传媒攖he mass removal of Indigenous infants from their families into the Child Welfare system between 1961 and the 1980sSA国际影视传媒攖here is no way to recover the losses that drove him to substance abuse.
Taken from his family as a baby in Fort Resolution, he lived in an orphanage, was sent south for adoption, then shuffled between foster homes where, as the only Indigenous child in predominantly white neighbourhoods, he faced mountains of racism.
SA国际影视传媒淚 grew up with loss all my life. I lost my entire family, so I suffered a lot of stuff that ISA国际影视传媒檓 still coming out of today,SA国际影视传媒� Fatt says. SA国际影视传媒淎 lot of people are coming back from the Sixties Scoop, and theySA国际影视传媒檙e on the streets now because they donSA国际影视传媒檛 know how to make it at home, because theySA国际影视传媒檝e already suffered the loss of those families.SA国际影视传媒�
Fatt says a temporary day shelter at 4709 Franklin Avenue, the building recently used by Aurora Village, must open its door for the most vulnerable because so much of society continues to shut them out.
Health and Social Services Minister Julie Green has appealed for public support of the new temporary day shelter location. Green says before the COVID-19 outbreak forced the Sobering Centre and Day Shelter on 50th Street to close, pandemic restrictions had reduced its capacity to just 20. Without additional shelter space, she says this winter 300-plus people experiencing homelessness in Yellowknife will be forced into businesses, stairwells and hallways between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., when overnight shelters are closed.
SA国际影视传媒淚 want to stress that the temporary day shelter is just that, temporary, and itSA国际影视传媒檚 not a sobering centre or a place where people stay overnight,SA国际影视传媒� Green says. SA国际影视传媒淏ut itSA国际影视传媒檚 the only location available now that can meet the very immediate and critical needs of this downtown population.SA国际影视传媒� Her department plans to locate a permanent Wellness and Recovery Centre downtown by 2024.
Katelyn Gibbons was a team leader at the previous day shelter in the Mine Rescue Building, where there were lineups each morning when the doors opened at 7:30.
SA国际影视传媒淒epending on how many people are outside, we have to rotate people so others can come in and use the bathroom or shower,SA国际影视传媒� she says.
SA国际影视传媒淲hen you have a shelter, you can actually help people and have a place for them to go so youSA国际影视传媒檙e not seeing people out on the streets or sleeping in the banks or at the post office,SA国际影视传媒� she says. The day shelter provides a warm place to grab a cup of coffee, a meal, safely take a nap, or do laundry. But those who work there say most importantly, itSA国际影视传媒檚 a place to feel cared for.
SA国际影视传媒淎 lot of these folks have never had anybody actually care for them, and itSA国际影视传媒檚 amazing what that does,SA国际影视传媒� says Merrill Cooper, a registered nurse who provides basic healthcare services on the streets and in shelters: blood work, wound care, monitoring chronic conditions, even walking people to doctorSA国际影视传媒檚 appointments or helping them access counselling or rehab.
SA国际影视传媒淭he goal was to meet people where theySA国际影视传媒檙e at and bring healthcare to them,SA国际影视传媒� says Cooper. Unless peoplesSA国际影视传媒� basic needs are met, she says no one can strive to heal themselves from the intergenerational traumas of being separated from their families and cultures through the Sixties Scoop or residential schools. SA国际影视传媒淚 canSA国际影视传媒檛 imagine having your child taken from you and never seeing it againSA国际影视传媒 canSA国际影视传媒檛 evenSA国际影视传媒 would not be a functioning human being.SA国际影视传媒�
Fatt implores Yellowknifers to change the SA国际影视传媒渦s versus them mentalitySA国际影视传媒� that treats people without homes like they are subhuman. SA国际影视传媒淲e gotta let the city know that that is us, these are our people. If we want them to get off the streets, we want to encourage and inspire and honour them.SA国际影视传媒�
