I did not set out to end up homeless and in need of social assistance. In fact, for more decades than I care to admit to, I was considered an upstanding citizen. Then Mr. Mental Illness decided to visit me and wreck havoc upon my life. Through friends I managed to start back up the steep mountain path that leads to better mental health. Unfortunately for me, my personal funds ran out before I had managed to get back on track. Thus I came to inhabit the level of Hell that is Social Assistance in British Columbia. Although applying the word assistance to a bureaucracy whose purpose (despite what the “Minister Responsible” or others may claim) is demonstrated to be impeding your return to self-sufficiency, is bureaucratic doublespeak. And the kindest label you can apply to the character of anybody responsible for the current system, who is not calling for major humanitarian changes, is depraved indifference.
I was extremely fortunate that, just before beginning my dealings with this soul /spirit devouring system, I had found a program and people who actually cared about those they dealt with and even more importantly wanted to help. They had no interest in setting up as many hurdles, roadblocks and barriers as possible as those S(ocial) A(ssistance) Demons (Demon n. A persistently tormenting person, force, or passion) seem to delight in doing. So while the SADemons of darkness were attempting to crush my spirit, I had support to endure those dark days. This allowed me to persevere until finally I emerged from the ordeal of getting social assistance. Siiiighhhh, I now know that in fact my Ordeal had just begun, for I had merely qualified for treatment in the same manner of a cat with a captive mouse.
You need to realize that before you qualify for assistance they require you to have exhausted all your resources. So at the beginning of the process you are basically penniless. At that point you are eligible to register to begin jumping through the hoops and over the obstacles in an attempt to satisfy the SADemons. So you have three weeks to gather all the documents they require you to bring to the interview, while you are performing a job search. If you are lucky (I was not), when you arrive for your appointment with all the documents they told you to bring, they do not decide that they require additional documents from you. If they do decide they need additional documents: tough luck. They then book you a new appointment at some future date, making no allowance for the fact that at this point you have already waited three (or more) weeks. If fate is on your side and all is judged in order, your six week waiting period begins. So the best you can hope for is that it “only takes” nine weeks to start getting assistance.
Consider: you are required to be penniless at the start of a nine week process. If you enquire as to how you are expected to survive these nine weeks, well, “it is not their problem”. And before you state “they cannot be that callous”, I offer this for your consideration. As I acknowledged above, it was mental illness that led me to my current state of affairs. Part of the process of recovering my life involves medication. I require this medication to function, to continue to improve and to rejoin the ranks of the employed. To bad! Nothing the SADemons can do. If your life really goes down the toilet well – “it is not their problem”. In fact it can be advantageous for them if your ability to function falls to the point you cannot jump through their hoops, they have then avoided adding another body to the welfare roles. I wonder if this effect of the policy is happenstance or the result of malice aforethought (n. 1. Enmity of heart; malevolence; ill will; a spirit delighting in harm or misfortune to another; a disposition to injure another; a malignant design of evil.2. (Law) Any wicked or mischievous intention of the mind; a depraved inclination to mischief; an intention to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act without just cause or cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others; willfulness). I was fortunate that the people at Mental Health actual understood the concept of assistance. Through their good will and efforts I was able to obtain the needed medication.
If you end up resorting to some type of criminal activity and end up in jail, it allows the SADemons to close the file and ‘save’ the taxpayers the $510 a month cost. Of course when you consider just how many more $$$ it requires to jail someone. Let me suggest that, as a (hopefully future) taxpayer, we citizens cannot afford a government that ‘saves’ money in this fiscally stupid and deficit building fashion. Part of the process and documentation is designed to ensure you have no money. Those who have had to deal with the system often advise those who are first time unfortunates to hang onto some cash they do not report. That is: hard currency, paper money and coins. The kind you can use to provide shelter or food for the nine plus weeks you are expected to survive penniless, before you draw any ‘aid’. You have a system designed to catch or find cash people may be holding onto. You need people to be tempted to hold onto a hidden cash cache, allowing you to catch them and justify this portion of the system. No problem, just design the system so people need to ‘cheat’ to eat and have shelter. A brilliant piece of bureaucracy! If it is hard on the clients well, “it is not their problem”.
So, you have jumped through all the hoops, surmounted all their obstacles, persevered and got ‘assistance’. You are now able to get on with getting your life back, right? HA! It is only an illusion, a mirage you have been chasing into the desert. You have merely begun your journey into the witless stupidity of a system that could only be designed by a demented bureaucratic mind, for some unknowable bureaucratic purpose. The one thing you can know is that the purpose is clearly NOT about assisting people to get their lives together. As I stated above I had found a program before I started to jump through hoops for the SADemons. It was highly recommended to me so I checked it out. I judged that it was perfect for my needs, almost as if designed for me personally. One section would permit me to address mental issues and the other would address employment needs and job searching. Just what was needed to start getting my life back on track. I was told, NO I should not be in the program, I should be out doing a job search. The fact that I needed the program, in order that my job search would stand a chance to be successful fell under “it is not their problem”. However, this obstacle was surmountable for me (and others I am aware of) by using my mental heath issues to qualify as ‘disabled’. So in order to take a necessary step to begin the journey to employment, the system forced me to effectively lie.
So your $510 for the month arrives. You are certainly on easy street with all that cash, ready to sit back and enjoy the high life. It is time now to find yourself some palatial accommodations using the rent portion of your ‘assistance’. Just one small problem – you are given $325 and habitable rooms in Abbotsford start at $400 a month and there is an extremely limited supply of those. If you ask the SADemons about this difference, “it is not their problem”. You are told to use a portion of the money allocated for your other expenses to make up the difference. What is truly frustrating about this point is that the government is fully aware that the level set for shelter is ridiculously low. But, “it is not their problem”. You are told that you have to make up any difference between what they give you for shelter and what shelter actually costs by cutting out other expenses – like food. The rental allowance is so out of line with reality that even if you seek out a roommate, both of you will need to put a portion your other expense money towards shelter – two bedrooms if you are lucky, one the way rental costs are going in Abbotsford. This means you should not plan on to much stability in your accommodations and be prepared for the need to move with varying frequency. Of course the fact that the problems of housing require your time and that often these circumstances interfere with your finding employment and getting back on your feet, well “it is not their problem”. Oh and be sure to file your intent to rent form – signed by your landlord. And if it turns out that your place is no longer available, since your landlord does not rent to welfare bums, well “it is not their problem”. No matter what problems it causes, how much time it wastes or how far you have to go out of your way – it is a bureaucracy and all the paper had better be filed. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, you have to be spending the shelter allowance in a manner they approve. It does not matter if the way you would choose to utilize the money would be closer to the $325 allowed and more useful to you in finding employment and getting your life back on track. It is really not yours to spend on shelter as you wish to; your allowance must be spent in an approved manner. And if that causes problems “it is not their problem”.
Time to deal with paying your other expenses. Food, transportation, clothes, phone – do the math and you will find you are soon cutting what are considered necessities. Of course some are not considered necessities by the government and even if you have to cut such items as food, “it is not their problem”. I mean a phone is not considered a necessity and if not having a phone gets in the way of becoming employed: “it is not their problem”. The reality of Abbotsford is that you find yourself depending on the Salvation Army for hot lunches six days a week and food handouts to get you through the evening and next morning (the people who run the local Food Bank are great, but they are limited to what they are given. I can survive on what I get from the Sally Ann so my sense of personal honour has me leaving the Food Bank resources to those more in need, especially the families and children. In a community as well off as Abbotsford is, it is shameful that so many children are dependent on the Food Bank. You soon learn about any other places or groups providing food for the hungry. Where you can find donated clothing, bedding and other unnecessary (according to government doublespeak) necessities. So what if all this effort, just to survive interferes with your attempts to get a job? “it is not their problem”. Why would you consider laundry a necessity? Laundry? Hey who needs clean clothes, I mean how could dirty, smelly clothing possibly have any effect on your job search. And transportation? You can walk. But before you vigorously and enthusiastically agree with the “let them walk” statement consider some effects of walking. The time consumed by the need to travel by foot means that what you can accomplish is severely affected and limited. The first tasks you schedule are those to ensure survival. That means that your day will revolve around securing food, so that a large block of your day is committed to this task. So, if you have to be at the Sally Ann at 12:30 in order to eat, your morning is limited to tasks and travel distances that do not prevent you from being at the Sally Ann at 12:30. And the Sally Ann is the point from which your afternoon begins. Of course there is the bag of supper/breakfast food to consider. Lugging around a bag is not the easiest thing when you are walking, not to mention the impression that said bag of food makes on prospective employers. If you stop to drop the food somewhere, that is additional travel time deducted from your job search. If you choose (or more accurately manage) to use public transportation remember that it is not considered a necessity so that no $$ are allocated to you for transportation. You have to give up something else (laundry, soap, toothpaste, medical supplies, etc). No matter how you look at it transportation will have a negative effect on your job search and thus your ability to find employment. Transportation was and is an issue of extreme importance for me. Almost all of the interviews (95%) I have had were not in Abbotsford. Given my employment experience /history the Greater Vancouver area is where I have to be willing and able to travel to in order to find a job. With a system that does not consider an allowance for basic public transportation necessary, I have/had the proverbial snowballs chance in H_ll of help with or for transportation. What about the fact that this lack of assistance is a severe obstacle to me finding employment? Hey, “it is not their problem”.
So as I stated earlier, in order to take advantage of a great program and the help it would provide I was forced to claim Disability. Now I found that there were some expenses I needed to incur in order for my job search to result in employment. But, having lost its focus on helping people find employment, the system in its current form does not provide any help. But I was told – “oh, this (other) program has funds for that”. In fact they lied: while the stated purpose of this other program was to provide this type of aid, it was so under-funded it could not. It was so under-funded it faced a dilemma: spend all the funds for any given month to help one or two people, or try to help as many people as possible though allocating the funds over many persons, even though this meant that nobody truly received the support they needed. Since they felt that spreading it over many was the fairest choice (I cannot really argue the fairness, but I could argue with the effectiveness of this choice) I was out of luck. It is my position that it does not matter what the stated purpose of a program (or system) is, if you under-fund it (or set it up in such a fashion) that it cannot achieve the stated purpose, then saying “oh, such and such a program (or system) does that is a lie. Still, since the SADemons did not run this other program, it actually provided some usefulness to my job search.
Oh, and for those who may want to argue about the above Aside about the system assuming you are seeking to abuse it. When I said I wanted to go to this program (in the mistaken belief that it could provide the claimed assistance) the reaction of the SADemons was “but you will have to give up disability, are you really sure you want to do that?” Clearly it was assumed that I wanted to abuse the system, not to find employment. At this point I had already begun my job search, even though my disability status meant I was not required to look for work and could have sat around doing nothing. With no interest in sitting around, wanted to be working and had started the search. The assumption of abuse is such that, as part of being assigned to this new program, I had to sign an agreement to do/attend all the parts of the program. Now theses requirements are not onerous, but if your assumption is abuse, you assume I would not do them unless forced. Idiotic!
So I found myself in a program that could not deliver the help promised. But I had given my promise to attend and more to the point is that it would have been stupid not to take advantage of any program the could increase my chances of success. (I did manage to get the resources I needed. This help was not provided by the system. It was through the good will and efforts of people who really were seeking to help the unemployed to reach independence through employment) My weeks consisted of 40 – 50 hours spent in pursuit of employment. The major limiting factor became the hours that the centers providing resources (e.g. phones, newspapers, and faxes) were open. Outside of those hours I could use of the library. Of course there was varying amounts of time lost to dealing with all the forms, hoops and other obstacles the system raised.
So why could I not find employment? Truthfully I do not have a nice pat answer. I would love to have ‘the solution’ since I could use it and get off this UN-merry-go-round.
A major surprise to me was all of the time and effort I needed to put into developing a résumé that was effective. I spent, literally, months making changes and adjustments. The cycle was one of producing a résumé, then testing its effectiveness by sending out the résumé and then waiting to see what results were produced. And each cycle was about six weeks in duration. It took months of effort to arrive at a résumé in a format that resulted in interviews. And I still have no real understanding of the why or why not of a résumé working. It was just that after close to six months of experimentation and effort I suddenly went from silence to telephone calls. Of course then I faced the problem that 95% of the interviews were in Vancouver. Beg, borrow or steal is just the tip of the iceberg of the time, effort and machinations that I undertook to get to interviews; In spite of the SADemons. The feedback I did manage to get seemed positive about my experience, abilities and qualifications. It has been suggested that I be less fully truthful, willing to ‘tailor my words’ to what the employers are looking for and to get friends to play the part of references and thus provide great references. Still I cannot deny the feelings of frustration and worry. I try to take comfort from articles, such as one I read in the National Post, about the fact the employment numbers are deceptive and for those with solid education, skills and) years of experience, a year or mre is well within the average time it does take to find work. Cold comfort, I found.
So it was that I continued to labour on in search of work. And then it happened. I let frustration; worry and fear prey on my mind. The real fear that developed was that if I did not soon have success in getting work and out of the insanity of the current system, I would never get out. I had seen others who had just given up and been sucked into the abyss. One of the points it is hard to understand, unless you are caught up in the system, is just how much it saps the spirit and life out of you. So I became focused on getting out before my spirit and ability to get a job were crushed. Those who know me would tell you I can be incredibly focused. Focus turns into obsession and all I see is the job search. In this obsession to escape the system I failed to file a piece of paper. The result of this was that my next cheque was cancelled. This meant that the deposit I expected and planned my ‘escape’ upon did not happen and my plans collapsed. I accept responsibility for not getting the form in. Disastrous timing in that the consequences were devastating. Instead of escaping the system I had fallen deeper into its’ clutches. My state of mind took a turn towards the black pit of despair. Fortunately over the past year I had acquired knowledge and tools allowing me to deal with this mental funk. But in the few weeks before I contacted the SADemons to address the situation (OK I admit I took extra time to make sure I was in an excellent frame of mind before venturing to deal with the system) it turned out that my file had been closed. Without any warning, input from me, informing me that it had happened, much less telling me why. I only found out when I contacted them. Perhaps they would claim they could not contact me. One of the things I noticed in my dealings with the SADemons is that they seemed unable to contact me if it such a contact would be to my benefit, but had no trouble contacting me to deliver bad news such as: your file has been closed.
What does it mean that my file has been closed? I am back to where I began this madness. I am required to again provide all the documentation I have already provided. Even though they have all the originally provided documentation and all the information on my activities and income from that point until now. The only apparent purpose is to permit them to force me through all the hoops and over the obstacles – Again.
What is it I need to accomplish over the next while? I will need to depend on the people at mental health understanding of the difference between assistance and hindrance. This since once again it was: “medication? it is not our problem”. I definitely need to spend time in the company of helpful, supportive people of goodwill, absorbing all the positive energy I can before venturing into the infernal regions in which dwell the SADemons. I must (again) descend into the inferno in order to RE-register so that I can endure the agonies and tribulations of suffering through the pointless task of RE-filing information already in the possession of the SADemons. So that at some point weeks into the future I may hope to find shelter that falls within the reach of the limited funds I may have available (Luck be a Lady). And I will certainly not waste time asking how I could reasonably be expected to acquire, care for and submit the required documentation when it will be as exposed to the elements as I am. Nor ask about the wind, the cold and the wet that dominate our winter weather. It would only elicit the SADemon mantra:
I am not sure. I certainly hope that you can understand that given the facts that: I am homeless and penniless and that at this point in the year it is very wet and cold for those of us who are homeless; my focus is more on managing to survive, managing to live through the next nine weeks, than it is on finding employment. I would rather not become part of the BC Liberals ‘Final Solution” to homelessness by dying.
But should someone who reads this account have a position open (anywhere in the lower mainland) let me know. What kind of work you ask? First be aware that I know a wide range of people, looking for work in a wide variety of industries and positions and would love to be able to pass along job opportunities (this Ordeal has led to me being a better person, giving me an appreciation for volunteering and made me a more generous individual). Myself? Time and old injuries (done in the ignorance of youth) have placed certain limits on me physically. Understand that I am in excellent health. But I can no longer do a job that requires standing or physical labour all day. Best if the job required/provided the opportunity for a great deal of sitting in the performance of the job. Luckily I have a great deal of experience in an office environment. Just be aware that my typing speed is a paltry 25 wpm. But otherwise I have no problem with any task from accounting to Xeroxing. I am: Adaptable and flexible; Creative and computer friendly; Educated; Great manners; Intelligent; Knowledge base is wide and varied; Mature; Observant and open to new ideas; Quick learning; Skilled at communications, problem solving and with people; Undeniable literate; Weird but good sense of humour; Yearning for employment.
E-mail: homelessinabbotsford@hotmail.com
I was extremely fortunate that, just before beginning my dealings with this soul /spirit devouring system, I had found a program and people who actually cared about those they dealt with and even more importantly wanted to help. They had no interest in setting up as many hurdles, roadblocks and barriers as possible as those S(ocial) A(ssistance) Demons (Demon n. A persistently tormenting person, force, or passion) seem to delight in doing. So while the SADemons of darkness were attempting to crush my spirit, I had support to endure those dark days. This allowed me to persevere until finally I emerged from the ordeal of getting social assistance. Siiiighhhh, I now know that in fact my Ordeal had just begun, for I had merely qualified for treatment in the same manner of a cat with a captive mouse.
You need to realize that before you qualify for assistance they require you to have exhausted all your resources. So at the beginning of the process you are basically penniless. At that point you are eligible to register to begin jumping through the hoops and over the obstacles in an attempt to satisfy the SADemons. So you have three weeks to gather all the documents they require you to bring to the interview, while you are performing a job search. If you are lucky (I was not), when you arrive for your appointment with all the documents they told you to bring, they do not decide that they require additional documents from you. If they do decide they need additional documents: tough luck. They then book you a new appointment at some future date, making no allowance for the fact that at this point you have already waited three (or more) weeks. If fate is on your side and all is judged in order, your six week waiting period begins. So the best you can hope for is that it “only takes” nine weeks to start getting assistance.
Consider: you are required to be penniless at the start of a nine week process. If you enquire as to how you are expected to survive these nine weeks, well, “it is not their problem”. And before you state “they cannot be that callous”, I offer this for your consideration. As I acknowledged above, it was mental illness that led me to my current state of affairs. Part of the process of recovering my life involves medication. I require this medication to function, to continue to improve and to rejoin the ranks of the employed. To bad! Nothing the SADemons can do. If your life really goes down the toilet well – “it is not their problem”. In fact it can be advantageous for them if your ability to function falls to the point you cannot jump through their hoops, they have then avoided adding another body to the welfare roles. I wonder if this effect of the policy is happenstance or the result of malice aforethought (n. 1. Enmity of heart; malevolence; ill will; a spirit delighting in harm or misfortune to another; a disposition to injure another; a malignant design of evil.2. (Law) Any wicked or mischievous intention of the mind; a depraved inclination to mischief; an intention to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act without just cause or cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others; willfulness). I was fortunate that the people at Mental Health actual understood the concept of assistance. Through their good will and efforts I was able to obtain the needed medication.
If you end up resorting to some type of criminal activity and end up in jail, it allows the SADemons to close the file and ‘save’ the taxpayers the $510 a month cost. Of course when you consider just how many more $$$ it requires to jail someone. Let me suggest that, as a (hopefully future) taxpayer, we citizens cannot afford a government that ‘saves’ money in this fiscally stupid and deficit building fashion. Part of the process and documentation is designed to ensure you have no money. Those who have had to deal with the system often advise those who are first time unfortunates to hang onto some cash they do not report. That is: hard currency, paper money and coins. The kind you can use to provide shelter or food for the nine plus weeks you are expected to survive penniless, before you draw any ‘aid’. You have a system designed to catch or find cash people may be holding onto. You need people to be tempted to hold onto a hidden cash cache, allowing you to catch them and justify this portion of the system. No problem, just design the system so people need to ‘cheat’ to eat and have shelter. A brilliant piece of bureaucracy! If it is hard on the clients well, “it is not their problem”.
So, you have jumped through all the hoops, surmounted all their obstacles, persevered and got ‘assistance’. You are now able to get on with getting your life back, right? HA! It is only an illusion, a mirage you have been chasing into the desert. You have merely begun your journey into the witless stupidity of a system that could only be designed by a demented bureaucratic mind, for some unknowable bureaucratic purpose. The one thing you can know is that the purpose is clearly NOT about assisting people to get their lives together. As I stated above I had found a program before I started to jump through hoops for the SADemons. It was highly recommended to me so I checked it out. I judged that it was perfect for my needs, almost as if designed for me personally. One section would permit me to address mental issues and the other would address employment needs and job searching. Just what was needed to start getting my life back on track. I was told, NO I should not be in the program, I should be out doing a job search. The fact that I needed the program, in order that my job search would stand a chance to be successful fell under “it is not their problem”. However, this obstacle was surmountable for me (and others I am aware of) by using my mental heath issues to qualify as ‘disabled’. So in order to take a necessary step to begin the journey to employment, the system forced me to effectively lie.
Aside: (n 1: a line spoken by an actor to the audience but not intended for
others on the stage 2: a message that departs from the main subject)
One of the things that becomes’ clear as you interact with the system is that it assumes that you are trying to take advantage of it and are lying. I would never try to suggest that that there are not people out there who have no interest in finding a job. I have in fact heard people state, in answer to the question: Why are you here? (…in this particular employment program) “I am here because welfare says I have to be to get a cheque”. If asked: What kind of a job are you looking for? “I do not want a job, just to remain eligible for welfare” So I clearly am aware that, yes there are those who want something for nothing, to take advantage of or abuse the system. The problem is that the system has become about the abusers. In focusing on the abusers it has totally lost any interest in, or ability to achieve its original purpose: Assisting People in Need of Help. It has gone so far in the pursuit of abusers that it has become a barrier to those actually seeking employment. The current system deters and/or hinders you from seeking or finding employment.
As cited above, I was forced from the very beginning to be – well there are many ways I could put this to make me look better, to hid behind words …but let me be blunt – a liar. There. Dealing with the current system – If you really are seeking work – often forces a choice between lying vs. finding employment. You lie to the system so you can use the $$$ it gives you in the best way to balance your basic survival needs with what you need to spend in finding employment. This statement is based on my personal experiences and observances of the system in action. So even if you are working hard to find employment you are often, by the way the system currently works, guilty of lying and or abusing the system. So the system has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It predicts abuse, is set up so that: in order to achieve employment you often need to take that can be labeled (at least by the SADemons) abuse so there is abuse to be found. As I have already stated: ‘A brilliant piece of bureaucracy!’
So your $510 for the month arrives. You are certainly on easy street with all that cash, ready to sit back and enjoy the high life. It is time now to find yourself some palatial accommodations using the rent portion of your ‘assistance’. Just one small problem – you are given $325 and habitable rooms in Abbotsford start at $400 a month and there is an extremely limited supply of those. If you ask the SADemons about this difference, “it is not their problem”. You are told to use a portion of the money allocated for your other expenses to make up the difference. What is truly frustrating about this point is that the government is fully aware that the level set for shelter is ridiculously low. But, “it is not their problem”. You are told that you have to make up any difference between what they give you for shelter and what shelter actually costs by cutting out other expenses – like food. The rental allowance is so out of line with reality that even if you seek out a roommate, both of you will need to put a portion your other expense money towards shelter – two bedrooms if you are lucky, one the way rental costs are going in Abbotsford. This means you should not plan on to much stability in your accommodations and be prepared for the need to move with varying frequency. Of course the fact that the problems of housing require your time and that often these circumstances interfere with your finding employment and getting back on your feet, well “it is not their problem”. Oh and be sure to file your intent to rent form – signed by your landlord. And if it turns out that your place is no longer available, since your landlord does not rent to welfare bums, well “it is not their problem”. No matter what problems it causes, how much time it wastes or how far you have to go out of your way – it is a bureaucracy and all the paper had better be filed. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, you have to be spending the shelter allowance in a manner they approve. It does not matter if the way you would choose to utilize the money would be closer to the $325 allowed and more useful to you in finding employment and getting your life back on track. It is really not yours to spend on shelter as you wish to; your allowance must be spent in an approved manner. And if that causes problems “it is not their problem”.
Time to deal with paying your other expenses. Food, transportation, clothes, phone – do the math and you will find you are soon cutting what are considered necessities. Of course some are not considered necessities by the government and even if you have to cut such items as food, “it is not their problem”. I mean a phone is not considered a necessity and if not having a phone gets in the way of becoming employed: “it is not their problem”. The reality of Abbotsford is that you find yourself depending on the Salvation Army for hot lunches six days a week and food handouts to get you through the evening and next morning (the people who run the local Food Bank are great, but they are limited to what they are given. I can survive on what I get from the Sally Ann so my sense of personal honour has me leaving the Food Bank resources to those more in need, especially the families and children. In a community as well off as Abbotsford is, it is shameful that so many children are dependent on the Food Bank. You soon learn about any other places or groups providing food for the hungry. Where you can find donated clothing, bedding and other unnecessary (according to government doublespeak) necessities. So what if all this effort, just to survive interferes with your attempts to get a job? “it is not their problem”. Why would you consider laundry a necessity? Laundry? Hey who needs clean clothes, I mean how could dirty, smelly clothing possibly have any effect on your job search. And transportation? You can walk. But before you vigorously and enthusiastically agree with the “let them walk” statement consider some effects of walking. The time consumed by the need to travel by foot means that what you can accomplish is severely affected and limited. The first tasks you schedule are those to ensure survival. That means that your day will revolve around securing food, so that a large block of your day is committed to this task. So, if you have to be at the Sally Ann at 12:30 in order to eat, your morning is limited to tasks and travel distances that do not prevent you from being at the Sally Ann at 12:30. And the Sally Ann is the point from which your afternoon begins. Of course there is the bag of supper/breakfast food to consider. Lugging around a bag is not the easiest thing when you are walking, not to mention the impression that said bag of food makes on prospective employers. If you stop to drop the food somewhere, that is additional travel time deducted from your job search. If you choose (or more accurately manage) to use public transportation remember that it is not considered a necessity so that no $$ are allocated to you for transportation. You have to give up something else (laundry, soap, toothpaste, medical supplies, etc). No matter how you look at it transportation will have a negative effect on your job search and thus your ability to find employment. Transportation was and is an issue of extreme importance for me. Almost all of the interviews (95%) I have had were not in Abbotsford. Given my employment experience /history the Greater Vancouver area is where I have to be willing and able to travel to in order to find a job. With a system that does not consider an allowance for basic public transportation necessary, I have/had the proverbial snowballs chance in H_ll of help with or for transportation. What about the fact that this lack of assistance is a severe obstacle to me finding employment? Hey, “it is not their problem”.
So as I stated earlier, in order to take advantage of a great program and the help it would provide I was forced to claim Disability. Now I found that there were some expenses I needed to incur in order for my job search to result in employment. But, having lost its focus on helping people find employment, the system in its current form does not provide any help. But I was told – “oh, this (other) program has funds for that”. In fact they lied: while the stated purpose of this other program was to provide this type of aid, it was so under-funded it could not. It was so under-funded it faced a dilemma: spend all the funds for any given month to help one or two people, or try to help as many people as possible though allocating the funds over many persons, even though this meant that nobody truly received the support they needed. Since they felt that spreading it over many was the fairest choice (I cannot really argue the fairness, but I could argue with the effectiveness of this choice) I was out of luck. It is my position that it does not matter what the stated purpose of a program (or system) is, if you under-fund it (or set it up in such a fashion) that it cannot achieve the stated purpose, then saying “oh, such and such a program (or system) does that is a lie. Still, since the SADemons did not run this other program, it actually provided some usefulness to my job search.
Oh, and for those who may want to argue about the above Aside about the system assuming you are seeking to abuse it. When I said I wanted to go to this program (in the mistaken belief that it could provide the claimed assistance) the reaction of the SADemons was “but you will have to give up disability, are you really sure you want to do that?” Clearly it was assumed that I wanted to abuse the system, not to find employment. At this point I had already begun my job search, even though my disability status meant I was not required to look for work and could have sat around doing nothing. With no interest in sitting around, wanted to be working and had started the search. The assumption of abuse is such that, as part of being assigned to this new program, I had to sign an agreement to do/attend all the parts of the program. Now theses requirements are not onerous, but if your assumption is abuse, you assume I would not do them unless forced. Idiotic!
So I found myself in a program that could not deliver the help promised. But I had given my promise to attend and more to the point is that it would have been stupid not to take advantage of any program the could increase my chances of success. (I did manage to get the resources I needed. This help was not provided by the system. It was through the good will and efforts of people who really were seeking to help the unemployed to reach independence through employment) My weeks consisted of 40 – 50 hours spent in pursuit of employment. The major limiting factor became the hours that the centers providing resources (e.g. phones, newspapers, and faxes) were open. Outside of those hours I could use of the library. Of course there was varying amounts of time lost to dealing with all the forms, hoops and other obstacles the system raised.
So why could I not find employment? Truthfully I do not have a nice pat answer. I would love to have ‘the solution’ since I could use it and get off this UN-merry-go-round.
A major surprise to me was all of the time and effort I needed to put into developing a résumé that was effective. I spent, literally, months making changes and adjustments. The cycle was one of producing a résumé, then testing its effectiveness by sending out the résumé and then waiting to see what results were produced. And each cycle was about six weeks in duration. It took months of effort to arrive at a résumé in a format that resulted in interviews. And I still have no real understanding of the why or why not of a résumé working. It was just that after close to six months of experimentation and effort I suddenly went from silence to telephone calls. Of course then I faced the problem that 95% of the interviews were in Vancouver. Beg, borrow or steal is just the tip of the iceberg of the time, effort and machinations that I undertook to get to interviews; In spite of the SADemons. The feedback I did manage to get seemed positive about my experience, abilities and qualifications. It has been suggested that I be less fully truthful, willing to ‘tailor my words’ to what the employers are looking for and to get friends to play the part of references and thus provide great references. Still I cannot deny the feelings of frustration and worry. I try to take comfort from articles, such as one I read in the National Post, about the fact the employment numbers are deceptive and for those with solid education, skills and) years of experience, a year or mre is well within the average time it does take to find work. Cold comfort, I found.
So it was that I continued to labour on in search of work. And then it happened. I let frustration; worry and fear prey on my mind. The real fear that developed was that if I did not soon have success in getting work and out of the insanity of the current system, I would never get out. I had seen others who had just given up and been sucked into the abyss. One of the points it is hard to understand, unless you are caught up in the system, is just how much it saps the spirit and life out of you. So I became focused on getting out before my spirit and ability to get a job were crushed. Those who know me would tell you I can be incredibly focused. Focus turns into obsession and all I see is the job search. In this obsession to escape the system I failed to file a piece of paper. The result of this was that my next cheque was cancelled. This meant that the deposit I expected and planned my ‘escape’ upon did not happen and my plans collapsed. I accept responsibility for not getting the form in. Disastrous timing in that the consequences were devastating. Instead of escaping the system I had fallen deeper into its’ clutches. My state of mind took a turn towards the black pit of despair. Fortunately over the past year I had acquired knowledge and tools allowing me to deal with this mental funk. But in the few weeks before I contacted the SADemons to address the situation (OK I admit I took extra time to make sure I was in an excellent frame of mind before venturing to deal with the system) it turned out that my file had been closed. Without any warning, input from me, informing me that it had happened, much less telling me why. I only found out when I contacted them. Perhaps they would claim they could not contact me. One of the things I noticed in my dealings with the SADemons is that they seemed unable to contact me if it such a contact would be to my benefit, but had no trouble contacting me to deliver bad news such as: your file has been closed.
What does it mean that my file has been closed? I am back to where I began this madness. I am required to again provide all the documentation I have already provided. Even though they have all the originally provided documentation and all the information on my activities and income from that point until now. The only apparent purpose is to permit them to force me through all the hoops and over the obstacles – Again.
What is it I need to accomplish over the next while? I will need to depend on the people at mental health understanding of the difference between assistance and hindrance. This since once again it was: “medication? it is not our problem”. I definitely need to spend time in the company of helpful, supportive people of goodwill, absorbing all the positive energy I can before venturing into the infernal regions in which dwell the SADemons. I must (again) descend into the inferno in order to RE-register so that I can endure the agonies and tribulations of suffering through the pointless task of RE-filing information already in the possession of the SADemons. So that at some point weeks into the future I may hope to find shelter that falls within the reach of the limited funds I may have available (Luck be a Lady). And I will certainly not waste time asking how I could reasonably be expected to acquire, care for and submit the required documentation when it will be as exposed to the elements as I am. Nor ask about the wind, the cold and the wet that dominate our winter weather. It would only elicit the SADemon mantra:
“it is not our problem”.
....................................................................................
What does the future hold employment wise for me?
I am not sure. I certainly hope that you can understand that given the facts that: I am homeless and penniless and that at this point in the year it is very wet and cold for those of us who are homeless; my focus is more on managing to survive, managing to live through the next nine weeks, than it is on finding employment. I would rather not become part of the BC Liberals ‘Final Solution” to homelessness by dying.
But should someone who reads this account have a position open (anywhere in the lower mainland) let me know. What kind of work you ask? First be aware that I know a wide range of people, looking for work in a wide variety of industries and positions and would love to be able to pass along job opportunities (this Ordeal has led to me being a better person, giving me an appreciation for volunteering and made me a more generous individual). Myself? Time and old injuries (done in the ignorance of youth) have placed certain limits on me physically. Understand that I am in excellent health. But I can no longer do a job that requires standing or physical labour all day. Best if the job required/provided the opportunity for a great deal of sitting in the performance of the job. Luckily I have a great deal of experience in an office environment. Just be aware that my typing speed is a paltry 25 wpm. But otherwise I have no problem with any task from accounting to Xeroxing. I am: Adaptable and flexible; Creative and computer friendly; Educated; Great manners; Intelligent; Knowledge base is wide and varied; Mature; Observant and open to new ideas; Quick learning; Skilled at communications, problem solving and with people; Undeniable literate; Weird but good sense of humour; Yearning for employment.
E-mail: homelessinabbotsford@hotmail.com
posted by James W Breckenridge | 3:57 PM
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