Vancouver: Young, poor, nowhere to live

Young, poor and nowhere to live

Downtown shelter turns away as many youths as it serves, as the ranks of the destitute grow

Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007

Aaron and Mary struck gold on Monday night. A discarded mattress in a dry out-of-the-way alcove of a West End apartment building gave the pair a place to sleep for six luxurious hours. At least until they were jolted awake by angry threats from a building resident -- or possibly the landlady, Aaron isn't sure -- at 8 a.m.

"My girlfriend and I were looking for a spot to sleep last night and we found a place by the parking lot of an apartment," he said. "It was dry and there was a mattress; it wasn't even old."

The pair stacked their packs and other belongings up around them. The trick to sleeping outdoors is to avoid being seen and a pile of garbage is less likely to be rousted by a cop or a security guard than a human being. It worked for a while.