Stories of suffering and hope emerge at discussion of homelessness

In taking a hard look at London's struggles with addiction, mental health and homelessness, Nigel Stuckey's documentary film Atrocity pulls few punches.

Among the unhoused people he interviews is a man who reveals for the camera crippling burns and skin infections, the result of living outside.

In another interview that a security guard tries to end, a couple in Victoria Park explain their inability to escape fentanyl addiction. Another man struggling with addiction explains the challenges of supporting a $400-a-day habit through petty crime, including shoplifting. 

The interviews put human faces to the grim toll the combined crises of opioid addiction, missing mental health supports and a lack of affordable housing are having on downtown London. 

About 200 people attended Monday's screening at The Palace Theatre in London's Old East Village, a neighbourhood hit particularly hard by addiction and housing scarcity. 

After the screening Stuckey, along with city councillors Sam Trosow and Susan Stevenson and Chantelle McDonald of London Cares took part in a panel discussion about the film and the troubling reality it raises. 

Last winter was 'inhumane'

Stuckey had some of the strongest comments. He was particularly horrified at what he witnessed in January when overnight temperatures dipped to -20 C and the city, under pressure from service agencies, opened an emergency shelter at the Carling Heights Optimist Centre.

"What happened last winter was deplorable," said Stuckey, who prior to making Atrocity spent years as a police officer in London. "It can't happen again. It was inhumane." 

Some spoke of the ongoing challenges at Watson Park, the homeless encampment that was the scene of a fire and explosions last week. Some city councillors say the encampment should be removed, but with few clear answers about where to relocate its displaced residents.

Also featured in the film and joining the panel discussion was Lauralea Collins. During her interview in the film  Stuckey captures Collins only a few months into a period of sobriety and speaking about the fear of living in a tent. 

Since then, Collins has managed to find a path to living housed and drug-free.

"It took me a lot of self-will, and self-care," she said in an interview with CBC News after the panel discussion wrapped up.

It was a meeting with someone working for St. Joe's Cafe, which operates drop-in meals for people in need, that helped point her in the right direction, Collins said. She's now working as a peer support worker. Although no longer living outside, she's trying to help those who still do.

"In the winter I had six individuals come and stay with me in my two-bedroom apartment just so they could stay warm with their animals," she said. 

The city needs to do more to reverse a problem "that isn't getting better, it's getting worse," Trosow said. 

Stevenson derided the city's response, which she said isn't funding enough permanent overnight beds. 

"Something is clearly not working in the city," she said. 

For his part, Stuckey said he's not done turning his camera onto the Londoners left desperate as they face addiction, mental health challenges a lack of housing or all three. 

He plans to focus his next film on Cheryl Sheldon, a London who died last year in what police have described as an intimate partner killing. Sheldon was turned away from one London shelter the day she was found severely injured in her apartment.