View From the Homeless Streets

Kevin Ellis was one of the unknown and faceless people that are only referred to as “homeless”. But when he died July 18th, he became a figurehead for the way those in his situation are treated. In this case, it seems he was treated poorly and shown the dark side of humanity in his final days. In the end, it seems he had only two allies – a fellow homeless man and a complete stranger.

So began an article published here on SCN (something cool news) July 31, 2006. Kevin Ellis was a homeless man suffering from a respiratory illness but was sent home from the Abbotsford Hospital and died a short time after. Indeed, only two people seemed to really pay attention to his passing – a woman who happened to see him while he was at the hospital and one of his fellow homeless friends, James Breckenridge.

We asked several of Abbottsford’s homeless last week if they feel that the local hospital was treating them better and most said no. One man told us that he had been in a car accident but when he went to the hospital, he was kicked out because he had drugs in his system. Another woman made a similar complaint, claiming a needed operation was never given because of her history of drug abuse.

While these complaints were not independently verified, they do paint a picture of Abbotsford’s streets that looks very similar to one painted a year ago. To get a more in-depth perspective on the issue, we asked James Breckenridge to comment on how things have changed in the year since Kevin Ellis’ death, if indeed they have changed at all.

Remembering Kevin Ellis – By James Breckenridge

In the year since Kevin has passed, things have definitely have not gotten better. They may have gotten somewhat worse due to the increased numbers of homeless, especially new faces, on the streets of Abbotsford.

More people = more visits = more incidents = more strain = less tolerance. I continue to hear about bad treatment from hospital staff and they continue to try to ship people to the shelter who are in an altered state of consciousness.

Kevin was in so much pain those last weeks, days of his life that he wanted to die. I know he spoke of this to me and other of his friends so I have no doubt that he welcomed death as an end to an intolerable level of physical, emotional and spiritual pain.

When I think of Kevin I hope he has found peace.

I am not sure if I am infuriated, incredibly saddened or some combination of both because the system, we as a society, as the human race failed Kevin in so many ways. From the abused child to the homeless addict devalued and treated as less than an animal by society, the medical system and the social welfare system.

Kevin was not a saint; he was a wounded human being who turned to drugs to escape the pain. Unfortunately there is no real escape from that kind of pain until you deal with the wounds and what it was that inflicted the pain. It is why I believe we need to change how we think of and deliver the support needed for the far to many others like Kevin to find peace in life rather than finding peace only in the oblivion of death.

Kevin’s death did not bring great change, was for society at large just the death of another disposable life, an unremarkable death of another drug addict. On the other hand there was the woman who had seen Kevin’s treatment at the hospital and wrote a letter to the local papers on what she had seen. There is no doubt that his treatment and death had an effect on her and we have no way of telling what or who her words in the paper affected.

Like a pebble dropped into a still body of water, sending ripples out, there is an affect but we cannot judge just what or who a given ripple may impinge on