Documentary Series- Homelessness In Brockville
What Is This Work About?
Homelessness is always been the issue around the world, the homeless population in Canada is growing every year. The area I grew up in seemed to have many homeless man and women on the streets. I am a Barber working downtown Brockville, I will see them walking back and forth on the streets. This documentary photograph allows me to understand how Brockville helps the homeless community.
Why I Decided To Do This series
Did you know in 2022, there is currently more than 235,000 homeless people in Canada? As a photographer, with this issue I wanted to document how Brockville helps out the homeless people. This journey started out when I met Chris on Oct 16th 2022 at downtown Brockville. I saw him sitting down right beside the alleyway. He looks stressed out and just constantly lighting up the cigarettes. so I approached him, just wanted to make sure if he was ok. He was very nice and friendly when I approached him, I asked how is he doing, he said he was doing OK. he said the winter is coming...
At this point I asked him how Brockville community helps him out, he said he doesn’t have family, but he just had a good Thanksgiving at the Richards coffee house. he said they gave out free turkey meals to people who needs in Brockville. Although eastern Ontario is lacking housing but he said he is able to sleep at the shelter to survive through the winter.
By documenting the current issues of homelessness in Brockville I was able to visit the local Richard Coffee House in Brockville and talk to the owner Sam Rawas. Sam mentioned to us that his next dinner for the homeless and people in the community will be on Christmas day and his next one will be during Easter.
We visited the shelter later on of the day, when we arrived, we saw few people standing around waiting for the door to be open and some of them are sleeping on the porch. I went on the porch and spoke to a lady who lives in there, she said it is a nice place overall, but they only open from 4 pm to 8am in the morning. During the daytime they are not able to go in, so they will have to find other places to stay until the place is reopen again.
What I learned
This was a learning experience for me, and I am glad I’m doing this project, I missed school for two weeks because of covid, but I am happy that I am able to do this project and interview them in person. This makes me realized how lucky I am, I mean, I could be like one them, I could possibly lose everything tomorrow, and be struggling on the street. I am grateful to be working and be in school moving towards my goal.
