Already our neighbours

Regarding the Agassiz Road development, a reminder that the homeless are already our neighbours.

Like everyone, sometimes they make good choices and sometimes they make poor choices – drinking alcohol or using drugs. The only difference is they don't have a safe place to call home.

On Nov. 12, I had a profound interaction with an Aggasiz Road resident. After dropping off recycling at the bottle depot, I heard a man yelling: "Does anyone have Narcan?"

Narcan is used to resuscitate someone who has overdosed. I drove my truck over to where he was standing. There was a young man out cold on the pavement. The gentleman who gave the alert was trying to wake him up. I called 911 and jumped in to help. The young man wasn't breathing and had no pulse. We started CPR, me doing chest compressions and the gentlemen doing rescue breathing.

For what seemed like an eternity, we worked on resuscitating the young man. Thankfully, his heart and breathing restarted and the ambulance showed up. 

Before jumping to the conclusion that the homeless man was the overdose victim and the bystander was someone like you or me, read on.

The person who alerted me to the overdose victim and did the rescue breathing was the homeless man. From him, I learned the person overdosing was 23, comes from a "good," church-going home with money and means. This young man could have been my son or yours. Thanks to the care and action of a homeless man, that young man's parents didn't have a call from the morgue. 

Before turning a blind eye or throwing stones at the people who live on our streets, take a good, hard look in the mirror. Have you ever made poor choices or a mistake? Would you have jumped in to save another human being’s life as this homeless man did?

After the ambulance left, I spoke with the homeless fellow, Richard. He was very upset. He said: "I told him not to buy drugs on the street. Drugs ruined my life. I once had a good-paying job making 70-80K a year and became addicted to heroin. I'm off drugs now, but I can't seem to make more than $8K a year. That boy comes from a good family, a good home. I really hope he doesn't end up throwing his life away because it's so hard to get back on your feet."

Addiction is a real and unfortunate part of the human experience. If you have been blessed with an addiction-free life, please try to have compassion for your neighbours who are struggling and need a hand up. 

Have compassion and embrace this opportunity for a stable home for our homeless neighbours. Our community will be better for it. Richard already is a great neighbour we are blessed to have!

Nicole Rustad , Kelowna