Mico halili biography of william

Why Keela Keeping is Sleeping Outside

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A decade ago I was working on the Downtown Eastside, in a fabulous job, for a wonderful organization. I was well-taken care of and really happy for the privilege of making a meaningful difference.

But when you see people every day, struggling after decades of chronic homelessness and addiction, with so few accepting true help, relatively speaking, you get curious: How did these people get here? What is their origin story?

It was my very job to interview those beautiful people. In my work, I started to see themes. I was shocked by how many started on alcohol at age 9, and how broken some of family homes were.

It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that issues started in childhood, and carried on in the teens. I started asking some who had been to hell and back and succeeded in recovery: “Had you had a consistent caring adult in your life when you were a youth, do you think it would have made a difference in the trajectory of your life?” The answer was almost always most certainly.

It began to weigh on me that the world’s attention was on the Downtown Eastside with a massive amount of funding, could not funds be funneled into prevention? Into youth? It’s infinity times cheaper, and not only better for

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