This Saskatchewan homeless man patrols the streets to save people from freezing to death

Ernest MacPherson rarely sleeps on cold winter nights.

Instead, a 54-year-old homeless man wanders the streets of Meadow Lake, 300 kilometers northwest of Saskatoon, saving himself and others from freezing to death.

During his nightly patrol, McPherson checks on about 20 people gathered in various locations, including alleyways, abandoned buildings, and cars.

“I walk around and make sure they stay awake and alive,” McPherson said.

Like many small cities, Meadow Lake, population 5,300, has no homeless shelters or places for vulnerable people to warm up after 4pm or on weekends.

Saskatchewan’s harsh winter is just beginning, but coroners are already investigating the deaths of two men who were found frozen. One was Saskatoon and the other was Prince and he was Albert.

“Nowhere in the world for them”

On a recent patrol, McPherson bought soup from a 7-Eleven for a shivering young woman without a jacket.

Then, in a back alley, I hit an old car that was half covered in snow.

“Who’s here?” he cried. No one was allowed inside, but there was a black garbage bag filled with scraps of food, bed sheets and clothes.

“It’s like there’s no place for them anywhere in the world and no one wants them,” McPherson said. i am really happy to find [alive], because it doesn’t take long to freeze here. ”

However, MacPherson is limited in what he can do. Often, he wakes someone up to get some exercise, puts them in warm clothes, or takes them to the lobby of a 7-Eleven or his ATM to take a little break from the cold.

He feels he has to watch over others in the same way his “guardian angel” watched over him last winter.

“I lost direction and time… So I sat for a minute and thought I’d rest for a minute. I fell asleep,” McPherson said. I had a guardian angel, and she came and kicked my leg.”

take refuge in a hotel room or police cell

Last week, the state of Saskatchewan announced up to $1.7 million in additional funding to build more emergency shelters in large cities.

“In areas without shelters, if emergency shelters are full or do not meet human needs, residents will be connected to hotels or other shelters that provide the support they need,” said a government press release. .

At Meadow Lake’s Door of Hope Soup Kitchen, Natanis Bundschuh doesn’t think hotel room tokens are a real solution.

Bundschuh is executive director of a non-profit Christian organization called Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries. We provide about 100 hot lunches a day, distribute free clothing, and have a food bank that is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm.

Bundschuh took homeless people to social services offices only to be denied a hotel room because the hotel was full or the person had “exhausted” an undefined token limit. said.

“I often had to tell people, ‘Call the RCMP and they’ll give you a safe and warm place. [in the cells]They feed you, they keep you from getting too cold. Because you feel trapped. Maybe they’ve been to prison. ”

A woman told Bundschuh that one night McPherson had rescued her from the cold and thawed her out.

“She said, ‘If it wasn’t for Ernie, I’d be dead,'” Bunshu said. “She cried.”

Homeless Coalition

Volunteers who have worked with vulnerable clients at Door of Hope for decades say homelessness is on the rise in northern communities for many reasons, including addiction, mental illness, changes in social assistance policies and rising costs of living. said.

The situation was so alarming to some that a group of businessmen, church leaders, and concerned residents formed Home Plate. But so far I’ve run into obstacles.

“People are going to die. It’s up to us. We have to deal with it,” said Home Plate chairman Bob Steeg. He is frustrated with all the bureaucracies involved, from building codes and zoning issues to insurance and financing standards.

“I don’t think we’ll have a shelter in six months. We’re just struggling to find a place to warm up,” Steeg said. “Somebody has to say, ‘Just do it,’ and do it and keep people alive.”

“In my opinion, turn on the heat and throw in your sleeping bag.”

The coalition believes someone will die this winter if they can’t find a safe haven for about 20 chronically homeless people at Meadow Lake.

live in an ice box

In the short term, the Coalition is seeking emergency funding to extend Door of Hope’s visit hours from 8 hours a day, 5 days a week to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It won’t create shelter beds, but it will provide people with round-the-clock heating, surveillance, and safety.

Beyond that, the coalition hopes to secure funds to raise some of the vacant social housing units and eventually to cover the building and staffing of homeless shelters.

Ernest McPherson said the only reason no one died last winter was because a group of homeless people, including him, illegally occupied an empty downtown hotel.

A Metis man who dives into dumpsters to make money recycling recently collected $300 from a friend to buy a truck camper, even though he doesn’t own one.

“Now there’s an icebox,” he said, standing in the doorway of a camper leaning against a stand.

The camper provides a roof over your head, but McPherson still needs to find the money to fuel the propane heater.

He said he would continue to sneak naps in the kitchen or on a friend’s sofa. But he does not stop wandering the night streets.

“I will stay here and patrol every night until the shelter is ready.”