Social Sciences DOWN TO THIS: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown

Down to this

7/10

This is a rather fascinating true story of a man who decides to live for a year in tent city, a plot of undeveloped land in Toronto that had been taken over by the homeless. The author has just finished detox (unprofessional) for cocaine addiction.

In the shanty town, there is lots of alcohol consumption. As time goes by, crack takes over. There is also one individual who likes to use cough syrup.

The book is as much a biography about some of the homeless people there as it is about the author. It turns out all the homeless people the author questioned had been abused as children. Most were addicts, some prostitutes. A lot of the men had done time.

I found it interesting that the author said there is no reason the homeless should go hungry in Toronto, because there is free food available every day of the week at different shelters/churches, not to mention churchgoers would go right to tent city to deliver sandwiches. Thus most of the money that was panhandled went towards intoxication.

Excellent read for those interested in homelessness, sociology, etc. Shows a great deal of the varieties of human behaviour.

Enjoyable, interesting, but it I could put it down and not think about it easily enough.

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