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| My Bike is My Car Genevieve Jones*, 2006 I cycle from about April to October as the weather allows and when I feel well enough to do so. I walk often, but this also takes better shoes that I cannot afford. Bus money is very limited. I hope Saskatoon soon passes at least a trial bus pass for a minimal amount for people in poverty, like Regina this past year. |
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| A Heavy Load Elaine Gamble, 2006 I saw this couple struggling with their stuff from the Food Bank. I really felt for these people. I have a vehicle. I can drive where I need to go. But there is a strength for them. Even though they don’t have a vehicle and they’re in poverty, they’re doing something. They are going to the Food Bank. They are walking to bring their stuff back. And this gentleman stopped four or five times in that little stretch, so you know that what he was carrying was heavy. As photographers in this project, we made a commitment to treat people with respect, and not use their pictures without permission. We have blurred the images of the people to protect their privacy, but we wanted to share this picture of poverty in our city. |
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| A Safe Place to Live Smith*, 2006 I live in the Saskatoon Housing Coalition which has three apartments and a group home for people who have mental illness. I am fortunate living at the Housing Coalition. I’ve been there sixteen years. They need lots of buildings because there is a long waiting list for people with psychiatric problems who want to live there. We are dead centre in the inner city where there’s crime, because that’s all we could afford. Guys have been beaten up because it’s not a safe area. Inside the buildings we’re very safe. They shouldn’t put them all in the high-crime area. |
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| Comfortable Shoes/Scared For My Life Lynn*, 2006 If I want to go out at night, I walk. Most people do not want their mother/ daughter/sister/wife walking in the streets after dark, but it is okay for women in poverty. |
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| Getting to the Bus Stop Butterfly Russell*, 2006 This is outside my apartment block and I stuck my cane in there because I wanted that to be part of the picture. Unfortunately I can’t afford to run a car and so I have to walk up to the bus stop all year round. And in weather conditions like that, the bus stop may as well be two miles away because I feel that I can’t get there. I am scared of falling. I just wish that I had a car. |
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| Povertymobile Dawn McGraw*, 2006 Why this is considered a luxury is beyond me—my car, a.k.a. ‘The Povertymobile.’ It is really hard to afford a car. I have been lucky and have had no major problems with it, other than a brake cylinder. I have had to do the tires, but one at a time. I don’t have a proper spare and my front passenger tire is as bald as bald can be. It slides all over in the winter. It’s not safe and very difficult to maintain, in addition to being a gas guzzler. Lots of times I go nowhere at all because I can’t afford the gas. Heck, I can’t even afford a car wash. |
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| Feed or Bleed Lynn*, 2006 The choice is clear. If I don’t eat – no one will know. If I don’t buy sanitary supplies – everyone will know. I already use $110 toward extra rent money needed, out of the $210 that I have to live on. |
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| The Right To Food Mary Jane*, 2006 If you know your Human Rights Code, you can use that, ’cause the Human Rights Code says that the government has to provide an adequate amount of money for food, clothing, and shelter. Go to the line for yourself. Get some support. And if you have to, get a lawyer, ’cause there are lawyers that will take you on. Go to them. It’s hard and sometimes you feel like crap. But you’ve got rights. You’ve got to go for it. Don’t give up. That’s the only way things are going to change. |
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| Fifty Miles Away Butterfly Russell*, 2006 These are all the things that I can get for nothing at the library—the tapes, the books, the movies. But the bus fare costs me $4.50 and I am living on a budget of $6 a day. It feels like the library might as well be fifty miles away when you don’t have enough money for bus fare to get there. I sit on the Get on the Bus Coalition. We’re trying to make some changes so that people who are on assistance will be able to get a discounted bus pass for $15. |
