“I was a very nervous person when I came here. I was scared.”
Murray Schreinar neatly placed one of his paintings alongside a wall tiled in horse photos. He walked over to the corner of his bachelor suite and pointed to the side of an open closet. Tucked away behind a few hanging shirts was a suitcase.
“I had my suitcase and some clothes when I came to [the Waterston Centre]. I’ve never stayed in a dorm with 52 people. I’ve always had my own bed.”
Six months ago Schreinar came to Regina from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in search of a job but quickly found himself homeless. He turned to the Salvation Army’s Regina Waterston Centre for shelter.
The men’s shelter offers 52 emergency beds for temporary use, and 39 private rooms available for longer stays. Extended stays are permitted through a case-by-case evaluation. Last week, Schreinar moved into one of the private rooms in the building attached to the shelter.
“Everybody goes through a period in their life where things aren’t going right but things do get better. They will get better. They just have to believe that they’ll get better,” said Schreinar.
“There is a stereotype out there that the homeless people are lazy or drunks –and no, that’s not the case.” John Butt is the Intake Manager at the Salvation Army’s Regina Waterston Centre. He’s the first point of contact for the men who arrive at the shelter.
Butt has witnessed his fair share of unfortunate situations working at the shelter for over a decade. He recounted, “One guy had the same job out in Ontario for 26 years. The plant [where he worked] closed down and there was no work there, so he came out here because there were jobs. I’ve also had a fellow [come here] who was a minister, plus he had a PhD.”
Scruffy, dirty people that just need to pick themselves up – these are just some of the negative perceptions that people have of the homeless, and this is what Butt thrives to disprove. “There’re a lot of people out there that, due to any number of circumstances, are homeless and they need help,” said Butt. “We need to work together to solve the problem.”
According to a Regina homelessness report conducted in 2013 by Carmichael Outreach, a community organization that offers support services, the first step in helping the issue is lobbying governments to develop what is called a Housing First Model. This model focuses on the housing of homeless individuals first, and then supplying support services as needed. This way, individuals will have proper housing that will eventually lead to more positive life changes.
“In order to improve the current situation there needs to be a greater collaboration between stakeholders and greater investment in social and affordable housing. Concrete goals need to be set and systems for monitoring and evaluating progress need to be implemented,” the report concluded.
Marc Spooner is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Regina who specializes in research focusing on homelessness. He also sat on the Board of Directors of Carmichael Outreach for five years working with the homeless. Spooner thinks that not only do the homeless face a housing problem, but the people who find themselves without a permanent home are attributed with all kinds of stigmas.
“For one, if you’re in the shelter system, it’s very difficult for an employer to phone you to even get a job. So, you’re already at a disadvantage. If you go to an employer and admit that you’re in a shelter, you’re probably not going to get that job,” Spooner said.
Even getting a place of your own would become a tedious task. Butt recalls situations when Waterston residents faced difficulties getting out of the shelter: “A few times where [a resident] has phoned and the person had a place available, the resident would go out and meet the person and all of a sudden – oh, that’s right, the place is rented. Funny that.”
A solution to this problem, in which Spooner calls to action, is to bring exposure to the issue of poverty itself. “The best way to get people to understand more about homelessness and housing is to meet people who happen to be there,” he said.
This exposure can be achieved by meeting people like Schreinar.
“[People] won’t give you the time of day in the city,” Schreinar admitted. “If they know that you’re staying at the Salvation Army, they’ll want nothing to do with you.”
Schreinar worked in the maintenance field for over 17 years before separating with his significant other. In search of a fresh start he found himself leaving Weyburn, ending up at the Regina Waterston Centre. At one point he had a house with a 50-inch television, a family that he would come home to every night, and he would even go on regular snowboarding vacations. Getting through Christmas was especially hard for him this year.
“Right now, I have resumes in for jobs,” said Schreinar, and though he is jobless at the moment he remains optimistic. “[In the future] I’d like to have a little condo or something.”
Schreinar smiled as he proudly showed off his tidy place. He sat on his couch, calmly staring out the window of his private room.
“Each individual is different. There are people out there that want to be helped, some refuse to be helped, or some cannot be helped at all,” he said. “It’s a tough world out there and it’s not going to get any better. I just want to move on. I want to move on and I’m not going to give up.”
