Homeless close to home

Home for someone
London, ON
October 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The red blanket haphazardly strewn across a field of rocks under an overpass for the four-lane road that borders our sleepy suburban subdivision betrays a dark secret that #LdnONT probably doesn't want to face: Homelessness is growing faster than we thought, and it's spreading to places whose residents think it's someone else's problem.

Homelessness in London always happens far away - at least that's what many Londoners will themselves to believe. It doesn't happen in our neighborhood. It's a downtown thing, and when we return to our quiet little houses in our quiet little 'hoods, we can comfortably tuck in at night, safe in the knowledge that it happens somewhere else.

It doesn't. Somewhere else is now here. Everywhere. And this picture, captured as I wandered an otherwise idyllic path through the woods just a few blocks from home, paints a different reality than the one we've tried to construct for ourselves.

The irony of this photo is stark: Look at yesterday's pic of a brilliantly colored stretch of trees. Seconds after I took THAT photo, I turned around and shot this one of some unseen stranger's temporary home. Night, meet day. At least whoever slept here had something nice to look at. If only that were enough.

What we see in a frame almost never tells the complete story. Then again, many of us aren't ready to hear the complete story, anyway. That needs to change.

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