언 땅이 갈라지며 괴성을 지른다. 영하 십칠 도의 날씨, 워셔액도 꽁꽁 얼어붙었다. 운전대 옆 손잡이를 당겨도 물 한 방울 나오지 않고 팔만 이리저리 휘젓는다. 희뿌연 차창엔 안개만 자욱하다.
다운 타운에서는 오십오 세 된 홈리스 아저씨가 동사(凍死)했다. 티셔츠에 청바지 차림이었다. 사십팔 시간 이내 두 사람의 희생자를 낸 셈이다. 추위를 피할 장소(shelter)를 제공하고, 거리에 웅크리고 계신 분들을 일깨워 모셔드린다고는 하지만 역부족이다. 씹다 붙인 껌인 양 거리에서 떨어지지 않겠다고 고집을 부리기도 한다.
저녁부터 아침까지 팔십여 분의 손님을 섬겼다. 올겨울 들어 가장 추운 날, 그분들과 함께 하여 다행이었다. 이십 세 전후의 커플도 보인다. 곱상한 차림새로 보아 잠시 집을 나온 듯했다. 마주보는 눈빛에서 불꽃이 튄다. 엉덩이를 포개고 앉아 비디오 안으로 들어갔다.
City lets homeless freeze to death
We agree with Mayor John Tory’s decision to call an extreme cold weather alert in Toronto this week, before the temperature dropped to the official alert level of -15C.
We support his intention to review the policy, to give the chief medical officer of health more discretion to call an alert when needed — which activates more resources such as opening up warming centers.
As the mayor noted, the wind chill factor means that while the temperature may technically be a few degrees warmer than -15C, it feels much colder to the human body.
That said, there’s no guarantee calling an extreme cold weather alert earlier would have saved the lives of two men found frozen to death this week, one in a downtown bus shelter wearing only jeans and a T-shirt on Tuesday, another in an unheated van on Monday.
The tragic reality is that as long as we allow homeless people to live on our streets, some will die in the cold in winter.
Many are physically and mentally ill, addicted to drugs and alcohol, incapable of making rational decisions.
This is not about stigmatizing the homeless. It is about acknowledging that, even in life-and-death situations, we have decided as a society that people have a right to live on the street. And that decision has consequences.
True, people can be committed to hospital against their will if they are judged to be an imminent danger to themselves.
But the process is burdensome and difficult to apply and enforce.
The homeless and their advocates say the homeless fear going into shelters, even in severe weather, because of the risk of violence and theft.
They argue there is a lack of beds in the system, meaning some homeless are turned away even in severe weather because of government cutbacks.
If that’s true, it should be corrected, although we suspect the real problem, as with so many city files, is a failure to spend funds earmarked for homelessness as efficiently as possible.
But in either case, there would still be people who are homeless who refuse to come in off the street.
As long as we won’t compel them to do so, some will die.
It’s as simple, and as awful, as that.
<From Toronto Sun Friday, January 09, 2015 page 14 (Editorial)>