- In the picture, okay.
You don't have to feel left out.
I told you I'd never leave you out, you know that?
Frick.
- [Interviewer] Clayton.
We're out here homeless, tell me about it.
- Man, bein' homeless here in Yellowknife.
Summertime is okay.
You just got to carry a little bit of bug dope
or go steal somethin'.
Other than that, you cover up real good.
Wintertime is a little more trickier,
then you gotta keep moving around,
going from heat spot to heat spot.
Then it gets real tricky.
And then you gotta make your way all day long, keep warm.
I burnt my hands so many times it's not even funny.
Don't even wear gloves in the wintertime anymore.
Most of these people can do it.
I usually just dress in layers, that's the trick.
- [Interviewer] You're a welder by trade.
- Welder by trade, finished grade 12.
Hurt my back, got Spinal Stenosis.
It's kinda on the down low right now.
Makin' it through on a little bit of a disability benefit.
Not much, enough to get through.
Other than that,
I get to wake up every morning.
- [Interviewer] What's a day like?
- Day's pretty damn long, actually.
Sit there panhandling the banks downtown, bum money,
steal stuff.
Drink, get drunk.
Wake up in the morning and do it again,
and again, and again.
It's like every day's a Sunday, right?
Jacob, you can say anything you want to.
- [Jacob] Yes.
- This is going down to California.
Smarten up.
- Hello, Arnold.
(laughing)
- Don't be shy, then.
Let's tell those California people not to come up here.
(laughing)
- [Interviewer] Don't come up here.
- We want some California girls.
- [Interviewer] Oh, there you go.
- It's a good thing our dollar's worth more
than the American dollar right now.
(laughing)
Never mind, I went to the bank the other day
and had some quarters.
A couple of them were American, he's like,
"Oh give me that, that's not 25 cents, that's 22 cents."
He just laughed.
And I did keep it, too, that's the funny thing.
- [Interviewer] It's still 22 cents.
- Oh well, I don't know, it was just a joke.
- [Interviewer] So what's the solution?
How do you get people off the streets?
- Find a place to live,
first start.
Got to find
someplace to live.
Not this Bailey house,
fuckin' shit they was talking about there, they started.
I was on (mumbling) program and they
piss test you and stuff.
I don't mind all that, but still it's not fair.
It was supposed to be open for everybody, anytime.
Any homeless man that go down there,
they were supposed to be able to go down there
and sober up, do their whatever,
not go to meetings every damn morning and,
that's kind of a joke.
That wasn't part of the deal when
we all had a big meeting down at St. Pat's church
there a few years ago before she started this place up.
I'm not complaining.
It's nice, it's still going.
It's just the fact is there's just a lot of us
kicked out of Sally Anne and we got no place to go and
it's like I don't know what the solution is,
it's just got to find someplace solid to live.
A lot of us, too,
a lot of us, we're on disability payments, and
we can't afford it, we just,
we have no choice but to keep doing what we're doing.
And summertime's the best because now
I could go down the road over here
and go to sleep on a bench for the night,
and not worry about anything.
Especially a nice breezy day like this.
But it's the wintertime that freakin'
get picked up steady by the RCMP.
It's like I should just start getting my mail
forwarded over there.
I should too, yeah.
- [Interviewer] What would you want people to know
about homelessness?
- Don't take it out on us.
For most of us, it's our choice.
For me, it's my choice.
It's my choice to be homeless, I mean,
I guess I don't really have much of a choice,
I could go check in somewhere or go to the
hospital or something or get off the street, but it's
not that easy.
I just want people not to look down on us, that's all.
I mean, my whole family shunned me already, and
it's a little disheartening, but then you got
the camaraderie-ship, you know?
Everyone on the street, you get to know them so well.
Sometimes I know some people,
they don't even want to leave the street,
'cause we're so many good friends here, you know?
We get along so well, and everything.
Take care of each other.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- [Jacob] We need booze (mumbling).
(laughing)
- You are so sad.
Go get me that bike over there.
Just kidding!
Come here.
That's my buddy.
My little left hand man.
Right hand man.
If I had three wishes.
One would be if Gina could give me a smoke.
(laughing)
- [Gina] What's the second one?
- I would wish poverty was ruled out
and they could help us out somehow.
Build a great big damn,
give us one of those apartment buildings
and let us all stay there, you know?
Let us all get our feet on,
get a sure foot in the door somewhere.
That would be my only wish, I wouldn't wish for three.
One would be good enough.
- [Interviewer] A place where you could all stay and
have community?
- Yeah, someplace like that,
somewhere where we could all go and just.
- [Interviewer] For yourselves.
- Eat and get your head together, straighten up.
I know there are places like that
but the beds are so limited,
I mean they got WMS and there's what,
eight beds for men, eight beds for women?
You have the hospital,
but you got to be a drug addict to go there.
Salvation Army, but half of us are kicked out of there.
The Women's Center and
all those womens are half crazy.
- [Gina] As sin.
(laughing)
- Just kidding.
No.
I just.
- [Interviewer] Well thank you very much for talking to me.
- Well thank you very much for the interview,
I hope this makes its way through somewhere.