Let’s talk about the 33 percent.

What do I mean by that? Well, according to recent stats, 33 percent of people do not own a home and likely never will, as they’ve been priced out of the overinflated marketplace. Those 33 percent now represent the most vulnerable in society. If you own your own home, you’re already way ahead—but you could lose it tomorrow if you weren’t able to pay your mortgage because your job has disappeared during this pandemic, and you could very well join those 33 percent.

When you can’t put a face or a life to those numbers, that’s all they ever are: faceless numbers that mean nothing as long as it’s not you. Why would I be talking about the kinds of social issues no one in power wants to address, the kinds that don’t come up in discussions among friends, the kinds that leave everyone believing those on the streets are drunks or addicts? Because we have to talk about them.

What do I mean by that? When significant change is underway, you see it happening. You may hear talk from those in power who say they’re going to do something, but it means nothing until you see it actually happening. Remember: Show, don’t tell. Yet what I’m seeing out there is promising a very bleak outcome. Each night, I drive to pick up my daughter at the ferry, considering she’s now back to work—and yay for her, because she loves the job she works outside school. But every night, I see the same scene: a car here, a van there, a truck parked in a rural area off the road, at the end of the street, enough out of the way that it hopefully won’t attract attention, wherever people can find spots to sleep in their cars for the night. Even though we’re in the middle of a pandemic, many don’t realize the sheer number of people who have lost a very basic necessity, the roofs over their heads.

One of the ones that really got to me was a small van, a family parked at the ferry terminal, forced to sleep in their vehicle in the parking lot for the night. I don’t think everyone realizes that homelessness is a crime. Would they have been there long? No, not if someone called the police. You would be surprised by the number of people who will do this because they don’t want to see the problem. Do the police intentionally go out and harass people who live in their cars or camp someplace because they have nowhere else to go? No, but they’re ordered to. They tell them to move on.

But where are they supposed to go? You cannot park overnight anyplace. End of story. If you’re living in your car, you still have to put gas in it, and if you think about it, that’s not all. You also need to eat, to go to the bathroom, to wash and be warm and stay dry. And how is that even possible when you don’t have access to running water or a bathroom? How many of you complain just because you don’t have an en suite off your bedroom and have to walk across the hall to the bathroom in the house or condo where you live? Did you know that in many places, public urination will get you arrested? So will loitering, all a result of being homeless. You cannot stay someplace long.

In Victoria, where the homeless are now camping in a park, only the public health officer is saving them by putting in place an order that because of the pandemic, they don’t have to pack up and leave during the day. But that won’t last. This pandemic will not be here for forever, but the fallout on the most vulnerable will likely be here a long time. This isn’t a life anyone chooses. At the same time, what’s the answer? If you’re thinking the government is going to fix it, it’s not something they’ve prioritized to date. And why is there such a lack of housing to begin with when in Vancouver alone, there are over 42,000 empty homes? When I heard those numbers, I was taken aback. My response was how is that possible? Think about where you live, the city and country where you are. How many empty homes are there, and how many homeless people?

You may remember Reine Colbert from The Third Call, a single mother who lost her husband to cancer and then lost her house. With no roof over her head and a system that worked against her, she was on the streets with her little girl. Her specific situation stemmed from unpaid medical bills. Her husband hadn’t been working because he was so sick, and they couldn’t afford insurance, and when he died, there was no life insurance, either. Very few can afford that. Reine didn’t have enough money to cover the bills, considering she was making minimum wage, and anyone working out there knows minimum wage isn’t going to put a roof over your head.

Her story is not that far of a reach, and it could happen to anyone. She lost sleep and had to sell her car, and there were childcare costs, too, because she had to work. She sold off her belongings one by one, and then the bank took her house, so she was forced to rent, but she was living paycheck to paycheck. How many of you also live paycheck to paycheck? Reine’s paycheck was eventually garnished for back payments on the medical bills. Although they’re allowed to garnish only so much, mistakes happen all the time, and for Reine, they garnished her entire check once. It was a mistake, but try getting back money from someone who has all the power when you have nothing. Lawyers cost money, and those kinds of resources really are available only to those who have the means.

So what happened to Reine and her six-year-old daughter when she couldn’t pay her rent? Was she sleeping or eating? Of course not. She was deeply stressed from the constant worry she had been living under for years. The nice couple she rented from were fine the first time she missed rent, but the second time, not so much, and she and her daughter were forced into a tent, sleeping on the streets, where they met a man who had been truly messed up by society but was the only one willing to step in and help. Their story ended in tragedy, but it’s a very real scenario that can happen and is happening in the kinds of places you’d never think it could.

In the Gulf Islands, a single mother tried renting a place and paid the required damage deposit in advance, and the landlord took her money and rented the place to someone else. Of course it’s not right, but legally, that kind of behavior falls into a gray area in many places, and law enforcement is not on the renter’s side. The renter can’t call the police to report a theft, because it doesn’t fall under that. What would it take to get your money back? It would cost you money and time, and then, if you get a judgement in your favor, you’d still have to enforce it, which would cost more money and time. That’s the kind of fight many don’t have the luxury of directing energy toward, because they still need to find a place to live, to scrape together more money they don’t have for another damage deposit, to pay rent, to feed themselves and their kids. Try getting your money back from someone when you don’t have anything.

What’s the answer here? I don’t know, but if you want to fix anything, it does start with a conversation.

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