Since I was forced by financial limitations to leave my cozy apartment and move to cheaper downtown accommodations, I have been making regular use of a local drop-in centre with a notorious reputation. Some of their clients are the criminally insane type and they make the other clients look bad. So I thought I should share a little more prose to clear up how I ended up a member of this facility. For the moment, membership is limited to clients with disabilities.
Since I arrived here in 1995 I have tried to avoid the downtown area. However, as a single man, my high rent often forced me to make use of the downtown free food services. While standing in line for a meal at one of the Missions here I met a poet. It was great to meet someone else like myself in such a desperate situation and we became friends.
This fellow collected disability and had a membership in the reserved drop-in centre. At that time I found full-time work, but I regularly visited him on weekends and shared my earnings with him. A few years later, when I quit that job, he returned the favour by letting me eat with him as his guest in the reserved drop-in centre. The drop-in staff got to know me and offered me a membership. This must have been sometime around the year, 2000. I found more full-time work for the next two years as a cashier. Then I found another full-time job in a recycling plant to keep me out of the drop-in centre until I quit and went on Employment Insurance back in 2007. My steady income over that seven year period is what enabled me to secure my apartment on East 8th Avenue. This location was far enough from the drop-in to discourage me from visiting it, even if I needed food. So I haven't had any occasion to take advantage of my membership until just the last few years as I try to survive on the money NBC and CBC and WEA didn't pay me for my hundreds of sketches and scores of songs. Visit these links and see for yourself:
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