Pearly May

Power Hour – Shelter Hopping with My Son

My son Ulrich and I were homeless a few years ago. A worker at the Collingwood Neighbourhood House found us a space at the Powell Street Shelter. I imagined that the shelter would be a big warehouse with rows of cots, but I was relieved to discover that we would have our own room. I met other women with children and tried to get to know them so my son and I would not feel so alone. On any given day in Vancouver, there are approximately 40 families with children that are homeless, and women are the invisible homeless, over-represented in shelters and transitional housing. The shelter was quite noisy. There was little privacy because the bedroom doors would not lock, and I had personal items stolen from our room. I also knew I was only allowed to stay for one month at the shelter, so I began actively applying for subsidized low-income housing. (…)