The transmission in my car is going and to be able to repair it I face having to become homeless.

Staying housed and not having the car is not an option because human beings have to eat in order to stay alive and without the car I don’t eat.

I am on disability and just under 100% of my cheque goes to cover shelter costs, leaving me with a budget for food of $0.00.

In order to eat I need to be able to access the free meals and food resources in the community. Logistics [where I live] and physical limitations are such that a car is the only means to access these food resources.

Prior incidents of not having a car due to breakdowns rendered me a prisoner in my home. Fortunately I was confined to home, to being unable to escape from my negative thinking and hunger for short periods of time.

However, my current state finds me in worse financial circumstances, lacking either the resources or ability to be able to repair the car.

The absurd, irrational reality is that becoming homeless will put $500 cash in my pocket every month I am homeless..

In Abbotsford and the lower mainland $375 does not cover the cost of housing and the difference between the $375 housing allowance and the actual costs comes out of my pocket. Becoming homeless means I would loss the $375 housing allowance, but get to keep the $500 that I currently use to cover the difference between the allowance and actual costs.

In prior years part time employment allowed me to afford food, a phone and to set aside [or borrow and repay] money for car repairs and maintenance.

Since losing that employment I have been looking for other employment but as a senior citizen with some mobility and physical limitations it is not easy to find employment.

With no other way to cover the costs panhandling, even if illegal and somewhat embarrassing, is looking tempting.

Because I am not sure that some months down the road I could again overcome the barriers and manage to move from being homeless to housed; or that I could manage to survive being homeless again, this time with diabetes – a sobering and depressing thought.

If you set out to design a system to keep people trapped in abject poverty and on constantly teetering on the edge of being homeless – it would be remarkable similar to our system of ‘assistance’.

 

To panhandle or not to panhandle – that is the question.

Whether ‘tis mere foolish pride to suffer

The hunger and homelessness of poverty

Or to take up thy beggars bowl against thy destitution

And by panhandling oppose and survive anon.