Feb. 18, 2009
While most kids his age were tucked into warm beds at night, 17-year- old Will Goguen was sneaking into apartment buildings to sleep under the stairs.
For three or four years he lived on the street in Miramichi and said at first it was hard to find places to stay at night.
"After a few months it started getting a little easier."
Now he lives at the Miramichi Youth House where four of the residents gathered around the kitchen table Monday night to share their stories about the hidden problem of homelessness.
Sporting a short mowhawk, Steven Maynard, 16, is barely old enough to drive, but can tells stories of having lived on the street in Nova Scotia for three months after a six month stint in jail for theft and assault with a weapon.
He ended up at the youth house after getting kicked out of every place he stayed.
"I ran out of places to live," he said.
Goguen had a similar story. With full beard and long dark hair hanging over his eyes it would be easy to mistake him as holder than his 17 years as he talks about leaving home because of fights with his parents.
Eventually they kicked him out and he began couch hoping, going from from friend to friend, sleeping on their couches.
"I pretty much ran out of places to stay too," he said.
As the they talked about their lives, the pair joked and kicked each other under the table, while Maynard laughed about how far his ears stuck out since he got his hair cut.
It was a distinct change from the days Goguen would wait outside grocery stores and ask people for help. If he couldn't get any that way, he said he would go through garbage.
"That's only when I couldn't find anybody or real bad weather when no one was out."
Maynard said he would often steal to get enough to eat and was even arrested once for stealing two boxes of Kraft Dinner.
"I was big for stealing out of grocery stores."
Goguen wasn't alone on the streets of Miramichi and said he would run into people in the same situation as he was in when he went looking for places to stay at night.
"Pretty much every night when I went to go to sleep."
During the cold winter months he would look for buildings with open doors so he could sneak in to sleep, huddled in utility rooms or under stairwells.
People would come and go looking to do the same thing and would move on if they saw people were already sleeping there, he said.
"A lot of times it would be one lad or two lads."
Goguen said when he got up early in the morning he would see people outside scrounging for food.
"I find there's a lot more people than people know."
But now, with a skull t-shirt underneath a hoodie that covers part of his tattoed arms, he sat in the warm kitchen where he just had to open a cupboard to get food.
The metal chains and crosses around his neck might be a menacing sight for some, but Goguen's easy smile was disarming as he talked about his experiences.
For Maynard, he struggled with an addiction to the painkiller dilaudid and as he tried to beat it, his withdrawal symptoms were so bad he would throw up.
"Thank God I'm off it."
But while Goguen and Maynard lived on the street, there are people like Karen Desnoyers and Francesca Dube who were only hours away from homelessness.
Desnoyers is 18 and has been living at the youth house for 11 months. She ran away from home and was staying with a friend of a friend's mother while she went to school, but the woman couldn't keep her anymore.
When she first moved into the youth house, Desnoyers thought she was there for the wrong reason.
"I don't think there actually is a reason. If you're homeless you're homeless."
Dube has only been in the house since Friday. At 19 she is a little older than some of the other residents and said she was living with a friend's mother after getting laid off from work.
"She kicked me out because I had no money coming and I had no place to go."
Residents can only stay at the youth house until they are twenty and Dube has to start looking for a job so she will be ready to move out.
She plans on going to college in Ottawa in August and the youth house has helped her get back on her feet.
"I'm sure the next time I move I'll be more stable," she said.
As one of the other residents came home, the group took turns going out for a smoke before settling back in to talk.
While they all came to the youth house from different situations, the four residents agreed there was a problem with homelessness in the Miramichi people don't want to aknowledge.
"It's like they don't want to look at something gross," Desnoyers said.
Goguen said people in the Miramichi don't want to admit there is a problem.
"It's not their problem."
Maynard was quick to agree.
"I think you hit the nail right on the head."
But the homelessness problem doesn't just affect people like Goguen or Maynard who lived on the streets.
Goguen said he used to pickpocket from people on the train and would steal from their backpacks when they were sleeping.
"I stole from everything and everyone."
For a while he would go out with people he knew and make their way up and down Miramichi streets to steal from unlocked cars. He said they would sometimes hit 200 cars in a night, but never did any damage to them.
"I've shimmied a lock before, but never smashed a window."
Maynard said stealing was the worst thing he ever did to get by while he was on the street and would even jump people to take their money.
"I made so much money from stealing."
He admitted he struggles with anger issues and said he needs help, which is getting at the youth house.
"Thankfully these guys will help me out with that."
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