Prince George City Councillor Debora Munoz took up the challenge and spent a night on the streets, to experience first hand what it is like to be homeless in Prince George.

It was an eye opener and she learned she had to keep her eyes open.

“I found out I wouldn’t last very long on the streets” says the Councillor. She says she learned very quickly life on the street is a lonely existence and survival is the first priority. “You have to keep moving” Munoz told Opinion250, “otherwise you get so cold”

She tried to keep the elements at bay by grabbing some cardboard from a dumpster, and sleeping on a pallet in the damp and drizzly that carried on overnight, “It was nearly impossible to keep yourself dry.”

Although the participants in the Night on the Street event were given a survival back pack, Munoz shared the contents of the pack with the people she met on the street. Items like toothpaste, a warm hat, a cup-o-soup, and the backpack itself were welcomed by the people she gave her items to. “I was met with suspicion by the people on the street, they don’t know who I am or what I am trying to do” she says. “They didn’t know if I was there to take their things or what” Munoz says those who live on the street told her newcomers have to earn their place within the community of the homeless.

Munoz teamed up with three other people from local service agencies. “The shelters had been advised we would be dropping by, but they were full.” Munoz says one men’s shelter packed in 5 men per room, and at the AWAC shelter for women, she was told women were already being turned away because there wasn’t any room. “This was the middle of the week and there wasn’t any room.”

Munoz says she was able to set up a cardboard shelter for herself but she says she can’t imagine anyone being able to actually sleep “There was constant noise from the vibration of the trains, the shunting of the cars, the fire engines and alarms, and you could feel the vibration.”

She did take note of irony “There was a sign that read heated storage space available, I found it ironic that we would pay to keep our furniture warm but the homeless have to fend for themselves.” And there was the reality of life on the street “The biggest drug dealing spot in the entire city is right across from the Courthouse.”

What did she learn?

“It isn’t going to change because of just one Councillor or one program. It has to be an effort by the entire community with proper funding from the Federal and provincial governments.” She has come away from the experience supporting the need for safe injection sites. “Those sites can help save lives, I have seen some of the shooting galleries in town, and the sharing of needles, the discarding of needles on the street. Safe injection sites not only reduce those risks, they also allow drug users a chance to connect with drug counsellors.”

Would she do it again?

No.

“When my night was over, I was so happy to get to work to be in a place that was warm, a place where I could get a hot cup of coffee. I did the night on the street to get a snapshot of life on the street in Prince George, I did it to learn.”