Even money isn’t enough to land a place to rent when they ask you where you’re living now and you have to say you’re staying in a shelter, says Mike. “I’ve looked for an apartment, but something is stopping me from being the successful applicant. I could show them my bank statements, but I don’t have the references. And when you tell people you’re living in a shelter, it’s like jeez, we don’t want you.” Mike spent five months living outside in enough bush that no one knew his camp was there – until bylaw found him. Mike worked in the trades installing heating and ventilation systems, and had a regular life raising a family in central Alberta up until eight years ago, when he came to BC and things took a hard turn. “I put my kids through university, but then I hit my stumbling blocks out here. But I’ll turn it around.”