I WAS AT an interagency forum on street kids a few weeks ago. Young people and professionals told how hard it is to get off the street.
It’s not just the addictions, the unhealthy families and friendships, as powerful as those are. It’s also the red tape. It’s tough for street people to break into a bureaucracy as complex as ours.
I remembered “Bob.” He was a homeless man who approached me when I was a pastor in Alberta. He’d been living on the street since he was 14.
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Now middle-aged, Bob couldn’t handle spending -40 nights in cardboard boxes any longer. He almost died from exposure that winter. “I want to get into the system,” he said.
So we got started. Bob needed a place to stay. But that required a month’s rent and a damage deposit paid up front. Since he didn’t have a credit record, he also had to pony up a deposit to each utility. To get that money, he needed a job and someone willing to donate board and room for at least a month until he got his first cheque.
For a job he needed a social insurance number. For a social insurance number he needed a birth certificate, which he didn’t have. To get a birth certificate required finding a valid guarantor who could verify Bob’s birth details.
Bob couldn’t possibly get these things on his own. He didn’t know the system and had little education. But I and a couple of others helped him get what he needed. We put him up, researched his birth, contacted lawyers. Eventually he got his papers, a job and an apartment.
Three months later, Bob disappeared. I got a phone message shortly afterward. He apologized profusely, saying how much he appreciated our assistance.
“I couldn’t have gotten in without your help,” he said. “But in the end it was just too much. Life in the system is way too complicated. I couldn’t keep it up.”
I could sympathize. Sometimes I feel like I’m permanently trapped on a merry-go-round: paying bills and taxes; buying stuff and then scheduling repairs, negotiating loans and chasing tradespeople to fix or replace it; navigating the twisted halls of the health care system; creating and protecting a public identity with SIN’s, passports, credit cards and driver’s licenses; and reviewing pensions and investments.
And every bureaucracy is riddled with folks who make mistakes. So reading, filing, inquiring, complaining, persuading are a constant preoccupation. It makes me dizzy.
Why do we make it so hard to be a Canadian citizen? It’s tough for me and I’ve got four post-graduate degrees. Imagine the courage and persistence it takes for these young people to get off the street. I applaud those who make it.
Truth is, we have a caste system in Canada, maintained by bureaucratic red tape. It ensures that only those born into the system will be able to live in it with respect.
How are we going to change that?
Cam Harder is associate professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon.
