SUBSTANCE ABUSE A SAD REFRAIN IN THE LIVES OF MANY HOMELESS

`Once You Get Stuck In This Rut It Is So Hard To Get Back Out. . . .
People Can't Imagine.'

If you listen, you'll find the life stories of many homeless people
heartbreaking yet infuriating.

For homelessness and addiction go hand in hand. At the weekend protest
in Allan Gardens, many of the homeless demonstrators seemed caught up
in a futile battle against substance abuse.

One 28-year-old mother spoke wistfully of her two children - a boy, 4,
and a girl, 7 - who are living with her mother because she could not
stop drinking.

The fair-haired, freckle-faced woman said she stayed sober for two
years after being admitted to a west Toronto treatment centre in 1996.

``But then I started drinking again in July of last year, and I had to
leave my kids in December,'' she said. ``They're so sweet and I miss
them. But I have to get things together. My mother wants me to go into
treatment again. I don't know if it would work.''

Today she lives with a boyfriend in a park at King and Parliament
Sts.

``Once you get stuck in this rut it is so hard to get back out,'' she
said, looking down into her plastic cup of beer. ``People can't imagine.''

Studies indicate that about six in 10 people who use homeless shelters
suffer from substance abuse - drugs or alcohol - said George
Tolomiczenko, a researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Of those, he said, three-quarters also suffer from mental
illness.

In its background papers, the Golden report on homelessness notes that
alcoholism is the ``most pervasive health and mental issue among
homeless adult males.''

Tolomiczenko said it is not unusual for homeless people to make
numerous attempts to recover from addiction.

``But it must be recognized that addiction is similar to having a
disease like diabetes. The treatment and commitment must be
long-term.''

Unless homeless addicts get immediate treatment when they go to a
detoxification centre and follow-up support after, they end up back on
the street and soon relapse.

The downward spiral for homeless addicts is very hard to escape,
Tolomiczenko said.

``If you look at the kind of stress attached to homelessness and the
environment and availability of substances, you can often predict the
outcome,'' he said.

That seems the case for one 34-year-old man at the protest. The
British Columbia native had successfully completed six treatment
programs but returned to using cocaine and crack each time he got out.

The sandy-haired man estimates he's lived on and off the street -
between bouts with jail - for 12 years because of his addictions.

He's proud that for the last seven months he's been off cocaine,
though he still smokes marijuana and drinks alcohol.

But he is homeless again, because several weeks ago he drank so much
he blacked out and woke up missing more than $400 he had planned to
use for his rent, with no idea what had happened to it.

His serious problems with addiction began when he was 24, when the
young woman he was engaged to marry had a stroke and died.

``I didn't handle it well,'' he said. ``I kind of went off the deep
end.''

Over the past nine years he has spent about four in jail, largely
because of petty theft to support his habit.

``I did stupid things like steal meat from the back of a meat truck
when the delivery guy went in,'' he said. ``Nothing violent, though.''

Will he seek treatment again?

``As much as I want it (to get off the street), I don't know what you
can do,'' he said. ``Maybe I'll be all right.''

Another protester said he was on a waiting list for treatment. The
Toronto man, whose weathered face and puffy eyes made him look much
older than his 45 years, had a winning smile and warm laugh. He said
he started drinking at 13 and now drinks more than 40 ounces of
alcohol each day.

``I'm an alcoholic, signed, sealed and delivered,'' he
said.

In the late '80s, on a drunken binge, he robbed a bank because he had
no money in his account to buy booze, he said. Released after two
years in jail, he went back to drinking.

He managed to stay sober for two years through Alcoholics Anonymous.
Three years ago, he completed a treatment program in Ottawa, but again
didn't stay sober long.

Since he broke up with his wife earlier this year, his drinking has
escalated, he said.

``She was everything that kept me together at all,'' he said as he
started to cry. ``Now, there's nothing.''

Former addict George Panagapka came to the protest as a
volunteer.

Two years ago he completed treatment for his cocaine addiction, and
he's been clean and sober ever since. For nine years before, he had
often lived in hostels and sometimes been in trouble with the law.

Next year, he will complete a program at George Brown College and be
certified as a community worker with addicts.

``I was exactly the same for years,'' he said in a phone
interview.

``The system is set up for failure. So many times I would clean up my
act and then get back out, with no money and nowhere to live. So I
went to Seaton House. In no time I slipped.''

His turning point came when he was accepted into a halfway house and
linked with a support program after finishing treatment in May, 1997.

Homeless addicts become caught up in a cycle of hopelessness,
believing their lives can't change, Panagapka said.

``It's not true, but it is awfully hard work, and the system doesn't
make it easier,'' he said.

Street nurse Cathy Crowe, with the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee,
said substance abuse and mental illness have always been significant
causes of homelessness.

However, she said a growing number of people end up homeless because
of job loss, high rents and cuts to provincial welfare programs.

The stress of these events can trigger substance abuse in susceptible
people, she said.