Church stands behind homeless man told to move

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This article was published 16/03/2017 (3442 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

John and Ammo were on the move Thursday. Again.

Police ordered the affable homeless man with the friendly black Lab to move his elaborate shelter strapped onto a shopping cart by 5 p.m. Thursday.

The order prompted a flurry of support from local church officials at Crossways in Common on Broadway where John has been sleeping outside most of the winter, with no complaints from them.

West Broadway Community Minister Lynda Trono said the Crossways community has kept an eye out for John since he moved in with Ammo about three or four months ago.

She and the minister at Young United Church, one of five agencies that share the the Crossways in Common building on Broadway, have both befriended John and his dog.

They said the man is homeless by choice, turning down offers from neighbours and social agencies to take him in for the winter, or to loan out their garages for him to sleep in.

“He’s a free spirit. He’s been here basically all winter and because it’s been a cold, cold freezing winter, people have been offering him housing. A bunch of times. But he’s got this caravan of his and he’s got a different life,” Trono said.

“It’s a tough situation all round,” Young United Church Minister Tim Crouch said inside Crossways. “It’s cold and you want to support him and you want to keep him healthy and happy but he doesn’t want to go inside anywhere.”

Crouch said the first time he laid eyes on John he assumed he needed a home. Learning he didn’t was a major lesson for him as a minister.

“Live and let live, that’s been a big learning for me,” Crouch said. “He lives by a different set of rules we don’t understand.”

John was part of a crew of homeless people who lived in the back parking lot of the church all summer. When it started to get cold, they drifted away one by one. John is the only hold-out. The church folk can’t even persuade him in for a meal — it serves four a day — or a shower.

Outside, John is a fixture on the street, a stop-on-the-walk for people in the neighbourhood. Maybe it’s the nature of West Broadway: a place with a lot of foot traffic year round. Certainly John seems to welcome visitors.

His semi-permanent status outside the church this winter has made him something of a local celebrity.

Thursday, despite the move, there were a couple of crates of soda pop and energy drinks he handed out as people dropped by. The drinks were a donation from a “delivery guy,” he said.

“I always come to see John. He’s always helping other people, whatever he can give them. He never turns anyone away,” said a woman seated on the cement sidewalk, tucked into the alcove behind the girder on Broadway with Crossways sign punched out in big block letters. The woman gave her name as Jackie and said John’s ex-girlfriend is still living on the streets in the area in a different location.

Jackie, herself, said she used to be homeless but now has a place. She’s also known as “Mom” on the street, she said.

John posed for a photo with Ammo and a colourfully painted sign that read “Throw Change for the Homeless” in mauve, blue and pink.

John inherited it, one of the few possession of another street dweller, Dakota AKA Reaper. He committed suicide a few days ago, John and Jackie said.

“Will you mention Dakota?” John asked. “RIP Dakota,” he wrote in pen, on his own more humble cardboard sign asking for coins and change.

Police were nice about telling him to leave, John said. It’s probably the fourth time this winter tenants at Crossways, but not the churches, have called police to tell him to move on, he added.

Meanwhile, Ammo, the lab, was sharing an apple with a visitor and tugging at his leash.

“Everybody remembers Ammo,” John said, shaking his head. He seemed unconcerned about where he’d go next, he gestured off to the west, past Sherbrook Street.

“As long as nobody’s calling the police, I’m happy and the police say, ‘Don’t make people complain and we’ll leave you alone.’ They ignore my existence until somebody calls them. Then they come down,” he said.

John said he’s more concerned about the rain clouds that swept in over the city Thursday afternoon.

“I’ll be gone by five,” he said, tucking piles of blankets under plastic tarps to keep them out of the rain. “I think it’s nice of the church to let me be here for the winter,” he said.

His grocery cart, covered with tarps and cardboard to form a makeshift shelter, sat on the sidewalk, ready to roll.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca