fbpx
A portrait of a homeless man in Regina, Saskatchewan

Me: With all the rider gear I assume you are from around here?

Justin: I was born here but then I moved to Calgary

M: When did you move to Calgary?

J: I was months, months old. I was there until I was 13.

M: Do your parents live together?

J: No, mother’s real spun out and dad, I don’t know, Dad isn’t really there. He got diabetes and kind of broke his back six times, and I dunno, I can’t explain her life, cause I don’t know, but she puts a smile on everyday.

M:What brought you here?

J: 11 years old and my mother was put in jail, my dad told me at that point that he couldn’t handle me anymore and told me to get out. So I just walked my way through Calgary to my aunties house and my aunties like, well, I guess you go to the foster home for the night because we can’t keep you here so I went to the foster home for the night and they called my parents, well I guess my mother, and she had gotten, I guess, a parole or whatever and they put me on the bus here and I’ve been here ever since. (Is she still out?) I don’t know where she is now, she did something 5 years ago there when my Grandpa passed away and like I asked her not to do it but she went to his house and took some money from him and a mentally ill person that lives in the house. But uh, she just involves me in it, and I got picked up for it, even though I didn’t do it. It looked to my family like I had done something even when I hadn’t. So when I got out I got from social services I was very vocal I guess about wanting to hurt my mother and I got put in jail for it. When I got out I found myself alone on the street and not able to trust anybody. Not because of drugs, because simply I had been put in a @#$% situation.

M: So what gets you through day to day?

J: Just making.. one person smile, that’s it. I just want to make sure we all know that we are important. We all walk around on the same streets.

 

To help people like this please visit www.carmichaeloutreach.ca or www.maybelldevelopments.com and consider donating or volunteering today.