Larry

I'm writing about Larry. Larry is a homeless guy who I had the privilege to meet. I asked Larry many questions, about his life and about homelessness in Saskatoon and his perspective of the world, and what he thinks is happening. What I'm going to do is tell you his answers. I hope that with a view of how homeless people look at the world, we can help change it.

One of the things that I asked Larry was, "Why do you think there are so many homeless people in Saskatoon?"   His answer was, “I think the main cause is housing shortage, no rent control, also low income like houses for single families."

Most homeless people could have a house paid by the government if they wanted to, it is just that the most the government will give them for housing is $420 each month which is not enough for a good house. Most people would rather live outside. As well as it’s not by choice.  For many homeless people there are other issues like drug use, etc...  Most of the houses that they can afford are in poor areas with drug addiction and gangs. 

Larry was a bartender for his job in the past, mostly at the Barry, which probably led him to some bad choices considering that was a dingy type of place as well. He went to high school but I’m not sure if he completed it so that’s probably the only job he could get.

I asked him what he thinks the government would be willing to do for the homeless and what they already do. He said, "Well, what I already mentioned was that they give us about $420 a month for housing rental. That doesn't get us a very nice place."  He said, "It's so dirty I would want to clean the toilet before using it."   I went and drove by to take a look at it.  There were scraped up, locked big metal doors. And broken windows. Not the kind of place people would want to live. He is going to move in there for winter, but at the moment he has no pension and he can't get a hold of his social worker.

Something that isn’t good is that if there is no rent control the landlord can charge as much as they want. The government does try to treat people equally.  Indeed that reflects what Larry believes, " If I treat people well and do stuff for them they will do stuff for me. (ex: Larry cleans the park, someone gives him blankets or food for a while).

Maybe our government doesn’t do very much to help homeless.  Did you know that rent prices have doubled or tripled in the last few years?  That makes housing rental much harder for people with little money.

Now I am going to tell you a little bit about Larry and his history.  Larry was a bartender most of his life.  His main job was working at the Barry in Saskatoon, but he usually took whatever job he could get that was short-time, like working at the exhibition and stuff like that.  He also traveled for his work.  He went to B.C., California, Oregon, Calgary, Saskatoon and P.A. (where he is from).  He moved to wherever he could get work.  He does not have any training or advanced education.  His nationality is Ukrainian.  His philosophy in life is to treat all people equally and people respect him for that.  He has a lot of wisdom and knowledge, and a very good sense of humour.

He has always lived in apartments throughout his life but now he says there are no openings and he has no other options than to live on the street.  The Friendship Inn is a big help to ALL homeless people and I am pretty sure it helped him in the past.  The longest Larry has ever stayed in a place is 3 years, which was in 2005.  The longest he has stayed in a park is in Buena Vista Park, which is where he is staying now.  He stayed there from May till now but shortly will be moving indoors to his apartment for winter. His favourite park is Memorial Park and his 2nd is Buena Vista.  Since he is living in Buena Vista, he says that he has to name it as his first favorite.  He lived on the north side, east side, south side and west side. You may not know that there are many homeless people living on the riverbank.  Larry has never lived there.  He may be choosing not to live there because of the high drug among the people who live there.

He has been married 2 times and has 2 sons, one of them (Jordy).  Jordy lives on Victoria Street in the city and walks by Larry a lot. His son has only waved a couple of times. The first time Larry didn't recognize his son until he said, "Hi dad, I’m your son, Jordy."  Larry said he was flustered but very happy to see him.

Larry hasn’t been to the doctor in years.  He seems to be in ok condition, other than his leg which is horrible and it hurts to walk.  He still gets up everyday and walks to subway and has coffee and watches TV.  He collects bottles and cans in a Walmart shopping cart and goes to Sarcan every single day. That’s how he makes a living. :   

Larry turned 61 in August.  He was more excited for his birthday than a 5 year old. Some people who know him from the park and their friends collected all their cans and turned them in to Sarcan and raised around $150 for his birthday present.  They also decorated his "bedroom" in glowsticks and streamers.  Here are a couple pictures:

Larry is well known in that area of the city.  On Thanksgiving he got 5 turkey dinners from other people in the community!  He had left overs for the whole week! People say he has the biggest house in Saskatoon, considering his house is the whole park.  The barbeque/fire pit in the park is called his "kitchen".  Where he sleeps is his "bedroom" and the bench is his "living room". :

  He also has a closet in the park where he keeps his stuff. :

 He moved from the ground to sleeping on the bench because the ground was too cold. 

As I said about his birthday present before now some people from the community of B.V. are working on a Christmas fund.  He is surprised that so many people actually care and he will be missed when he moves inside.  At least we know he is warm and safe.  He will remember all the people by their names if he ever sees them again as he has a very good memory. 

He said the weirdest thing he ever saw in the park was 3 ladies wearing all black and dancing around candles at night, which I thought was very strange.  I hope you learned something from this post, because I know I sure did.