Bumtown

Are homeless people in tents still homeless? They're still technically living somewhere.
The homeless situation in Abbotsford is noteable for how audacious and long it's been going on. I remember getting on a plane to go to Calgary and reading about the homeless camp, and thinking, "Thank God I'm leaving," only to return a week later.That was eight fucking years ago. The camp moves around like a malignant tumour around the town, but it's always there in some form. Last I heard it was in Jubilee Park, which is like Abbotsford's Pigeon Park. I've literally seen a crackhead get beat up by a big black dude there, and I KNOW he was a crackhead because he dropped a bag of crack while it was going on. Still, there's a "Jam in Jubilee" festival going on in that park right now, which sounds like a good way to lure people into getting stabbed.
Where'd all the homeless people go? Homes? No, they moved back across from the Salvation Army in the really shitty part of town. It used to be the site of an old, abandonded supermarket and an old, abandonded building that looked like something out of Fallout 3. Those building have been replaced with shiny, new government office buildings, but the crackheads remains. There were at least seven tents along the road... and then another three or more down the way directly across from the Salvation Army. I guess those guys weren't cool enough to hang with the big crowd. It was the same spot the city recently spread chicken manure to get them to get the fuck out, then apologized for. I wasn't for using chicken manure, but still I thought that it wasn't really fair to the locals (most of whom have packed up and left their unsellable homes), that they were living there.
First thing you need to know is: They have a fucking teepee. I can respect that. My grandpa was raised in a teepee... then he got a job and built a fucking house. Teepees aren't even fucking from around this part of the country. Native used pit houses, wigwams and lodge halls. Fucking hipsters.
There was a couple crouched down inside the opening of one of the tents, with their asses hanging out, almost literally. People were acting all casual and conversation-like, as if theyr weren't living next to a road. The other camp down the road had people jaywalking in front of it, like it's fucking East Hastings. I've never understood that about homeless people. They have no jobs, nothing to do all day, but they still fucking jaywalk everywhere, and not the look-both-ways jaywalking either. They walk righ out in the middle of the road in front of traffic at any time, for any reason, assuming they have reasons. It's like the "chicken crossed the road joke," but with crackheads. In East Van, they had to lower the speed limit just because they couldn't fucking stop people from jaywalking. You can't ticket crackheads, because they don't have any fucking money. They just have your car stereo. So the laws are changed not to stop their bullshit, but to work around it. That's why Vancouver has safe injection sites right next to the places selling the crack. Anyway, I had to slow down and swerve to get around this guy crossing the fucking worst street in the world, just so I could get the fuck out of there.