Woman Invites Homeless Man to Live With Her Family
David McDonald and Kim Cormier met by take chances, just their friendship has endured. Now McDonald is awaiting delivery of his new home — a place to phone call his own later on years of rotten luck.
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- The fundraising entrada has surpassed its goal of $eighteen,000. Donations are no longer existence accepted.
Ask David McDonald and Kim Cormier who's getting the most out of their new friendship, and they'll both point to themselves. "I feel very blest to have met David," Cormier said from her abode in the Skeleton Park neighbourhood of Kingston, Ont. "I'chiliad the blessed one," corrected McDonald, sitting beside her. It was a risk encounter this past July that brought them together. McDonald, 46, who's been intermittently homeless since 2016, was passing Cormier'southward house on his e-scooter before this summer when he blew a tire. He asked Cormier, who was working exterior on her laptop, if she would sentry his property for him while he went to Canadian Tire for a new inner tube. A lot of his things had been stolen recently, and he didn't want to lose more than. When he returned, Cormier invited McDonald to stay for dinner with her and her partner, Andrew Embury. "We hitting information technology off," McDonald said. "Every time we take a conversation, there's laughter." McDonald needed a good laugh after a string of rotten luck. Until 2010, he owned a Pioneer gas station in Kingston, pulling in close to six figures a year. But when gas rose to a dollar a litre, fewer customers showed upwardly and he lost his business — and so his house in Kingston'south Cataraqui Woods neighbourhood and then his Dodge Durango. Around the same time, his 10-year relationship with another man ended. "I literally lost my whole life after the gas station — the life that I knew then," he said. McDonald relocated to Toronto with his teenage daughter, and when she moved out he took a Greyhound passenger vehicle to Vancouver, where he experienced homelessness for the kickoff time. 9 months later, agape he'd dice in B.C., McDonald packed up his few possessions and walked and cycled more than iii,000 kilometres back to Ontario, somewhen ending upwards living in a Toronto park. 'I couldn't imagine being homeless. I cried," he said. "And so it was difficult for me to have help — charity, I felt.' Later stints staying with various relatives nigh Kingston, he returned to the city at the cease of 2018. For the next year and a half, McDonald shared a one-bedroom apartment with a stranger, but he says other tenants made his life miserable, stealing from him and threatening violence because of his sexuality. Shortly after his first encounter with Cormier, McDonald vacated the flat and began living in a tent. When information technology rained, he sheltered in an abandoned transport trailer he called his "cave," supplementing his monthly $one,124 Ontario Inability Support Program payments past roaming the city collecting what he calls "boozy cans." (McDonald suffers from social anxiety and is unable to piece of work in a traditional setting.) "I don't utilize the services provided for [the] homeless because I feel that, although I'thou homeless, other people are worse off than me," McDonald said. He finds most of what he needs in the trash, making use of the things the rest of united states throw away — an air conditioner, a coffee car, even a toothbrush. "It'south a disposable society. I find everything," McDonald said. Some days, that includes food. "You have to swallow your pride when yous're homeless," he said. "There's a misconception virtually homeless people not wanting to work and being lazy, and he'due south none of the above," Cormier said. "He doesn't drink or do drugs. He's out all day long just finding things, accumulating, and he's generous to the rest of the homeless people." McDonald will tell you Cormier is the generous one, every bit she gradually replaced his stolen belongings. One time, when she noticed his likewise-small shoes were leaving his anxiety blistered, she literally gave him the Birkenstocks off her own feet. Cormier and Embury accept also given McDonald new wearing apparel, as well equally a backpack equipped with a solar panel so he tin charge his phone. Earlier this calendar month, Cormier and Embury invited McDonald to motility into their backyard. His new three-season tent, donated by a sister he hadn't seen in years, has a queen-sized mattress, a sofa, a refrigerator and carpeting. He cooks over Cormier's outdoor fireplace and knocks on the door to use the washroom or do his laundry. "She's done more than than I can ever say cheers for," McDonald said. According to Cormier, McDonald gives back in his own way. "He has very good stories, and he's just friendly and respectful," she said. "It's kind of nice to have someone come up in and out, and someone to talk to, and a friend to rely on." Cormier, 35, is so pleased with the arrangement that she and Embury accept come up with an idea to allow McDonald stay there all winter — an insulated "micro domicile" that he'll one day exist able to call his own. A mortgage amanuensis, Cormier says she got the idea from a local organization she's involved with chosen Our Livable Solutions, which is in the early stages of planning a community of tiny houses to give Kingston's estimated 400 homeless people a permanent place to live. She launched an online fundraising entrada, which by Friday was about halfway to its goal of raising the $18,000 needed for McDonald'southward new fourscore-square-foot living space. With the deposit paid, the Niagara Falls, Ont., manufacturer is expected to deliver the domicile to Cormier's backyard sometime adjacent month. The donations have included a $2,500 gift from a consummate stranger, an employee with the local public school board. "It brought tears to my eyes and goose bumps. I couldn't believe information technology," McDonald said. He plans to repay Cormier whatever balance is left, and when that happens the portable home volition become his to move wherever he wants. Only Cormier says she'southward in no rush for that to happen. "He'due south office of the family unit now," she said. He's part of the family at present. - Kim Cormier
Cord of rotten luck
Robbed and threatened
She's done more than than I can e'er say thank yous for. - David McDonald
'A friend to rely on'
Home pocket-size habitation
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/backyard-tiny-home-kingston-homeless-1.6179272
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