- [Mark Horvath] Russ. - Yes.
- [Mark Horvath] Russ, you're from Winnipeg,
but you're here, homeless in Ottawa.
- Yes.
- [Mark Horvath] Tell me about it.
- Well, when I was in Winnipeg, I worked
for four years with the Mental Health Commission of Canada,
helping people get off the street.
I worked as a, what would you call it...
- [Mark Horvath] Were you a case manager?
- Case manager, helped out people,
stoppin' 'em from hurting themselves, and you know,
getting places, and now I'm here
because I know that there's work here,
so I came here to work.
- [Mark Horvath] Oh my gosh, you lost your job in Winnipeg?
- Yep.
- [Mark Horvath] And, you were once helping people
get off the streets, and now you're on the streets.
- Yeah, well, you know, I've lived on the streets before,
and that's where I had the, I guess,
the experience, where to help people,
by knowing what they're going through
and knowing how they live, and knowing the problems,
you know, there's, a lot of it is stigmatation,
I guess, stigmatized that they're on the street,
they don't think there's hope,
and that is one of the big words
that they should be used a lot
with people on the street, is hope.
- [Mark Horvath] More hope. - More hope, because you,
when you're on the street, it's hopeless.
You don't see it, you don't see getting a place,
you don't see getting off the street, you don't see
getting a good job, you know, you stink,
you're wearing dirty clothes.
- [Mark Horvath] Right. - You're living in places
where you're tired all the time, tired, constantly tired.
People think that being on the street,
that they're lazy, they're not lazy, they're tired.
You're sleeping in places where it smells,
with the snorers, the screamers, you know,
not many people know about the screamers,
these guys that wake up in the middle of the night screaming
because they've been molested when they were children,
and they've never dealt with it, so,
if they never dealt with it, how can they you know,
move on and heal?
I'm a Métis man myself,
a very proud Métis,
and I understand a lot
about the culture, and when I'm talking about the culture,
I'm talking about the aboriginal culture.
I've been involved in the culture and ceremonies
and helping people, and that's what I've done all my life
is help people, so you know,
it's quite natural for me to help others.
Now I got to start helping myself again.
- [Mark Hovath] So how do we in Canada, people in Canada,
how do we end homelessness?
- Our biggest problem is that all the cheap places
are being bought up and condos are being made
in there and that's--
- [Mark Hovath] Affordable housing.
- Affordable housing is the biggest thing.
The government's selling the affordable housing in there
to make condos, and make their buddies rich,
but they're forgetting that, you know,
it costs anywhere from 100,000 and up,
a year, for people to live on the street.
But they don't care about that,
because taxpayers pay for it, so you know,
they're just out there to fill their pockets, that's all.
- [Mark Horvath] Now what's your future like?
- My future? - [Mark Horvath] Yeah.
- I'm always gonna have a good future.
I don't care what happens, I'm a strong person,
I survived, I'm a survivor, you know,
knock me down I'll get back up,
and I feel like one of them little rubber dolls
that you know, you can knock 'em down,
they keep on landing on their feet,
I'm going to do it again, I know, I'll get a good job,
I'll find myself a good place, and I'll go back out
to volunteering and helping people on the street,
'cause I know what it's like.
- [Mark Horvath] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- First wish, get a good job. (laughing)
Second wish, get a nice place, third wish,
would be, just to be happy.
- [Mark Horvath] Well thank you very much for talking.
- No problem.
Thank you.