NORTH BATTLEFORD - Angel has been living on the streets for the past 10 years.
"It gets pretty rough," said the young North Battleford woman, whose last name SaskToday is not disclosing to protect her privacy.
"The reason I'm on the street is because I'm an addict. And the reason why I'm an addict is to be numb. It's not really a choice," Angel said.
Ten years ago she lost her son, a premature baby who did not survive.
"I was five months pregnant," she said. "He was alive for half an hour, but he was just too early. His skin was too thin."
Dealing with her grief at the loss of her child, Angel turned to drugs, anything that would help with her pain.
"I decided 10 years ago that from losing my son, I wanted the pain to go away," she said. "So then I started looking for a drug that would make the pain go away. And then, it found me. I didn't find it. It found me."
The drug she turned to was methamphetamine.
"It's addictive. But it was the drug that I was looking for," she said. "It made me numb."
"I'm an addict and I probably won't ever decide to get off drugs until I find some good meaning in my life, like something that's actually worth living for or working for, or actually quitting for," Angel said.
This was Angel's journey to becoming unhoused. She has lived on the streets in North Battleford, Saskatoon and Lloydminster for the past 10 years.
Angel wants to share her story so more people will know what someone like her is going through.
She hopes people will take the time to talk one-to-one with a homeless person, because they all have their own stories that led them to the streets.
Angel also wants to see more trust among homeless people, so they can better understand one another and be supportive.
When it's after dark, Angel goes to the local homeless shelter, Miwasin Kikanow, to seek respite.
Angel said when she can't fall asleep at the shelter because she is not comfortable, she sleeps in the park the next day instead.
She said her mother is concerned about her living on the streets.
"I don't really like talking to her about my lifestyle and stuff, because I don't want her to worry, because I already see how she worries," Angel said. "I don't want to talk about it because it might break her heart even more."
At Miwasin Kikanow, Acting Director Pearl Little said clients come in for the night at 8 p.m. and stay until 8 a.m. the next morning. Seven days a week, the shelter gives out a bagged lunch from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. clients also receive a small bagged lunch. When they come back at 8 p.m. they can get a sandwich, but no hot meal.
Hot meals aren't served through the summer hours.
In the winter time, the shelter is open 24-seven.
Starting in October, the shelter provides mental health therapists to help clients, as well as a licensed practical nurse.
If people have a mental health emergency, the RCMP can help by taking them to the hospital.
Little said the shelter does what it can to help the people in its care.
"We try our best to help the people here," Little said.
For Angel, she still hopes for change and hopes to open communication between people on the streets and working folk.
"It would be nice for one of the people that work could come out and take time with one of us," she said. "Talking, one at a time."
"I want the homeless people to care more," she added. "I want them to love themselves more, pay attention to everything else more. To stand side by side more, because we're breaking each other down and we're losing one another. We're losing people for not caring."
