By: Petra Chase, Arts & Culture Editor
Content warning: mentions of displacement by police and the death of a loved one.
It’s difficult to even begin to understand the complex set of social issues that overlap for Vancouver’s unhoused populations. Residents in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood routinely experience additional instability under police enforcement’s ongoing attempts to displace them. As desensitization to such injustices become normalized in our cities, everyone should read Losing Hope, Finding Home. The collection of stories and poems documenting the experiences of those who are unhoused or inadequately housed reminds us unhoused folks deserve compassion.
The anthology is a flip book, meaning there are two sets of stories and poems; you choose which end to start with, flip, and finish the rest. It’s Megaphone Magazine’s 13th annual issue for Voices of the Street, an initiative to push the literary talents of Vancouver’s marginalized to the forefront. Sold by low-income vendors, who sell for a profit of $5 each, it consistently sells out.
Paula Carlson, managing editor at Megaphone Magazine describes the barriers to hearing these perspectives as a “constellation of inequalities.” Through this non-profit organization’s various programs like writing workshops and the DTES Writers Festival, their vision is a “society that values all voices.” They also have their ongoing photography magazine called Hope in the Shadows, which comes out in the fall.
Carlson told The Peak, “A very powerful thing happens when people who have been beaten down, disrespected, disregarded, disempowered, stigmatized, lied to, neglected, abused and gaslighted — sometimes all of their lives — are given respect, encouragement, agency, and a platform from which to be heard.
“They shine.”
From philosophical outlooks and ecological ponderings to details of dark despair, Losing Hope, Finding Home illustrates “the contrast between the agony and hopelessness of having nowhere to live, and the triumph and relief that is experienced once a home is secured.” For instance, in “Homeless Lament,” Eva Watterson writes: I am a human being who made a bad choice and now I am stuck in the mess and don’t see a way out / This has become the hardest life that I could have imagined.” As you read, you learn that Watterson is plagued by depression and grief from losing a wife to cancer, with no family support.
In contrast, we also read about how care and community, reaching out for help, setting goals, and of course, writing, brings optimism. Stories depict how care and compassion can make all the difference in someone’s life. Carlson said she was moved by the tenacity of the community in that “the ‘finding home’ submissions far outnumbered the ‘losing hope’ ones.”
In addition to written word, there are also photographs that display stark socioeconomic juxtapositions — scenes you’d encounter right outside SFU’s Harbour Centre.
“All around us is evidence that society is broken, but we’ve become too desensitized to really see,” said Carlson. “Diners clink wine glasses as they sit in upscale restaurant window seats overlooking a tent city. Urban campers bed down in ramshackle vans a stone’s throw from mansions worth millions.”
I noted down some of the plethora of overlapping problems piled in the narratives: trauma, stigma, lack of mental health care, intergenerational trauma, drug abuse, sexual abuse, residential schools, COVID-19, climate change, and being born into poverty. “Because there are so many intersecting issues that conspire when a person experiences homelessness, it stands to reason that these issues must be addressed if we want folks to be housed,” said Carlson. “As is so eloquently shown by our writers and photographers, finding home means more than having four walls, a ceiling and a floor.”
Connect with a Megaphone Magazine vendor in your area by finding one on their website. Losing Hope, Finding Home is a minimum of $10. You can also purchase a digital copy online and credit a vendor of your choice. Follow Megaphone Magazine on Instagram, at @megaphonemag.
