When did that moment come for Athena, when life for her and her young son went from “having everything to having nothing”? She remembers it as an unravelling, one that started slow when her boy was 5, then faster and faster. But she also remembers being 14 and standing on the corner of Yates and Government hustling while her friends from Grade 8 drove by with their families. Then there was all the messed-up childhood stuff that brought her to that corner – the stuff that exposed a little elementary-school dropout to a pimp and sex work. She turns 45 next month, and never did get more than a Grade 7 education. Her son is 19 now and living in the US with his father; Athena hasn’t seen him in years. She sleeps most nights on a mat in the shower room at a local shelter, but says somebody’s always trying to get her and her two dogs kicked out. In fact, she’s under a 48-hour SOS right now – Suspension of Services, which in practical terms means no bed, no food, no place to get water or use the washroom. “I feel like I’m in a game of Snakes and Ladders, starting from the beginning every day,” says Athena. “I go everywhere begging for a bed. They tell me it doesn’t work that way. But I tick all the boxes – I’m a woman, Metis, working at 14. What box don’t I tick that I can’t get housed? I’m so scared I’m going to die out here.”