RECOVERING ADDICT CALLS SPADY CENTRE HOME FOR 3 YEARS

No Housing Available For City's Social Misfits

EDMONTON - Dwight Schultz has no qualms about admitting his
faults.

He's a recovering heroin addict, he's been in jail nine times for
stealing and he doesn't have what it takes to make it in this world.

"I have no coping skills," Schultz said. "I can't handle arguments, I
can't handle abuse, I can't handle rejection, I can't handle poverty
and I can't handle loneliness."

The 40-year-old had a run-in with Edmonton police Saturday morning
when he was found with two silver cases filled with expensive
industrial tools. Schultz said they were hidden by another homeless
person and he found them. Police took the goods and let him go.

"I wander," he said afterwards.

"My family don't want me at home and I don't really have any
friends.

"The friends I do have, I don't really want to hang out with. So I
stick to myself and I just wander around and look for places to eat
and hopefully get into the (George Spady Centre) every night."

After three decades of drug use and going in and out of shelters and
rehab programs, Schultz said he has difficulty with the way different
levels of government deal with the problems of homelessness and drug
addiction.

"I think they should do what they do over in Amsterdam. They should
just give us our drugs," he said.

"They should have a clinic where we can go . . . if you're a cocaine
addict, you should be able to come in and get your cocaine."

The logic to Schultz is obvious.

"Nobody will steal anymore. Nobody will wreck anything anymore. Our
jails will empty and our hospitals will empty," he said.

"These people are going to do it anyways till they're dead. If the
government did something like that, they'd just cheer the government
right on and it's the last you'd hear of them."

Schultz is thin and can't remember where he got a small wound on the
top of his head. But he said he hasn't used heroin for five months and
methadone keeps him steady.

He has been staying at the George Spady Centre for three years, but he
said there are at least 30 to 60 people in downtown Edmonton who don't
get a shelter bed each night. With the cold weather, Schultz worries
for those who don't have a place to stay.

"It's terrible," he said. They go to "stairwells, anyplace that's
warm.

"There's a few other people that have a couple other places that they
wouldn't divulge that are a little warmer than stairwells.

"Most people have blankets or sleeping bags and they carry them with
them and they get in a stairwell and they jump in the sleeping bag and
they sleep."