| Whether Premier Ralph Klein was high on the spirit of Christmas or high on Christmas spirits when he paid a late-night visit to an Edmonton homeless shelter shouldn’t be the only issue raised in connection with the incident – society’s attitude toward homeless people should also be under the microscope.
Klein claims he had the best of intentions when he dropped by the shelter after having a few drinks with friends, but the visit turned ugly when he got into a shouting match with some of the men staying there. According to Bruce Reith of Hope Mission, which runs the Herb Jamieson Centre, Klein showed up at the shelter at about 1 a.m. on Wednesday, December 12, got into an argument with some men in the lobby, and told them to "get a job." Gordon Turtle, spokesman for the Premier’s Office, says Klein denies using those exact words, but that he did ask the men if they were looking for a job or if they were going to get a job.
Either way, the message is loud and clear: homeless people should just get a job. Klein certainly isn’t the first person to express that sentiment, and he won’t be the last.
The fact that he has apologized for causing a "commotion" and admitted that he has a drinking problem doesn’t excuse his behaviour – and if Albertans are willing to let him off the hook that easily, maybe it’s because many of them agree with him.
Derek Wilken, "creative dictator" of the Cheers Project (www.cheers-project.com) and a mayoralty candidate in the recent municipal election, says Klein finally said what a lot of people are thinking.
"We have this real perception somehow that people who are homeless are enjoying it, and for the life of me I can’t figure that one out," he says.
A former homeless person himself, Wilken believes Klein had no business showing up at the shelter in the middle of the night, and the public would be outraged if he had treated other people that way.
"Would he be going to the Chamber of Commerce and doing that? Would he be going to the Westin Hotel and doing that? There is a perception in our society that (homeless people) are fair game because they’re homeless."
He questions whether the public thinks it’s OK for Klein to give a tongue-lashing to the homeless just because he’s had a few drinks, and says if a homeless person had done the same to Klein, they’d be jailed.
"If I’d gone to the legislature as a homeless person, drunk and giving them shit, where would I be?"
The stereotypes about the homeless are familiar – they’re lazy, they’re taking a free ride on the backs of taxpayers, they don’t want to work, etc.
Jean Swanson, an anti-poverty activist for 25 years and a former board member and president of the National Anti-Poverty Organization, would refer to those stereotypes as poor-bashing. Swanson was in Calgary recently to discuss her book, Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion, which describes poor-bashing as discrimination against people who are thought to be in a lower social class – for example, blaming someone for the fact they are homeless or unemployed instead of examining the government and corporate policies that result in poverty and unemployment.
"We need to change our economic system because it creates poverty and then justifies it with poor-bashing," she says.
"It’s not the behaviour of the poor that’s bringing poverty, it’s low wages, housing costs, welfare rates, discrimination...."
Similarly, it’s easy to look at someone who is homeless and tell them to get a job, but that doesn’t solve the problem and it ignores the fact that many homeless people are already working.
Del Bannerman, director of development at the Mustard Seed Street Ministry, says that about half of the 80-plus people who sleep on mats on the floor of the shelter get up and go to work every day.
"They’re doing the best they can," she adds. "They are the working poor with a vengeance."
She explains that many of them work for minimum wage and are employed part-time with no benefits, so even if they were able to find accommodation for $500 per month and afford the damage deposit, they’d be back on the street as soon as one thing went wrong.
And when they don’t have a place to live, it’s difficult to get a job.
"If you don’t have a place to stay, how do you get someone to phone you about the job? How do you get to have a shower?"
Bannerman adds that finding a job isn’t the only thing they have to worry about – the Mustard Seed’s statistics show that every person at the shelter has some type of problem to overcome, such as a history of abuse, an addition to drugs and/or alcohol, a mental illness, etc.
"There’s a huge, huge problem, and most people aren’t just sitting on their butts waiting for a handout," Bannerman says.
However, she’s willing to forgive Klein for suggesting otherwise because she believes he is a person with a good heart who did something stupid. Based on public reaction to his tearful confession, many Albertans feel the same way.
Meanwhile, as Klein remains in the spotlight, lapping up the public’s sympathy and support, the homeless people who stay at shelters like the one he visited are retreating back into the shadows – and whether they will also receive our sympathy and support remains to be seen.
The Mustard Seed offers tours for people interested in learning more about homelessness (269-1319). |
