There's a saying that alcoholics have to hit rock bottom before they get sober. But Sudbury artist and photographer Larson Heinonen said he hit rock bottom at least 20 times before he finally turned his life around.
Immigrating to Canada from Finland at 14, Heinonen earned good grades and worked a part-time job as a teen. A talented artist, he attended the Ontario College of Art and Design after high school.
But Heinonen began drinking heavily in his late teens, and couldn't stop. Unable to hold down anything but menial part-time jobs, he ended up on the streets, drifting across the country for about two decades.
As a guest speaker Nov. 23 at the three-day-long Poverty, Homelessness and Migration Conference at Laurentian University, Heinonen shared the story of one of these rock-bottom moments.
He said he was sleeping in an alleyway in Kingston, Ont., and woke up early one morning with every cell in his body “screaming for alcohol.”
A fellow homeless person — an elderly gentleman — took pity on him and shared his gin. “If I was drowning and you gave me a life preserver, I would rather have a drink,” Heinonen said. “That's how good it felt.”
But then he started reflecting on the sorry state of his life.
“I started to think 'OK, I have no home, no job, no money, no girlfriend, I have a family who hates me, I really don't have anything,” he said. “If I had a gun I would have shot myself in the head that morning.”
Twenty years ago, after going through detox yet again, Heinonen's road to sobriety began. He said he'd already been through detox “hundreds” of times, and always headed straight to a liquor store.
“But this time for some reason I just went the other way,” he said.
“I didn't go to the liquor store. I think the motivation was 'I've been doing this for a long time. I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to get a bottle. I'm going to go to the park and drink with some other wino, then maybe end up in jail that night or sleeping in an alleyway ... Been there and done that so many times that now it's time to do something else.”
Heinonen credits the life he has today to a kind welfare worker that helped him get back on track, as well as to his art and photography.
“Drink and drug addicts spend all their time either drinking or looking for a drink, so it's like a 24/7 job,” he said. “You have to replace that time with something, and for me it was art.”
As for what should be done about homelessness, Heinonen said it would be nice if welfare rates were increased. Ever the realist, though, he said that's unlikely to happen.
“The well-being of homeless people has never been a priority of any politician that I know,” Heinonen said.
What people can do — and it's free — is be nice to homeless people. Even a bit of small talk about the weather or sports will do. “They want you to talk to them and acknowledge them, just like anybody else,” Heinonen said.
Unfortunately, homeless people are sometimes mistreated by passersby, who yell at them to get a job or even kick the coins they've panhandled, he said.
This kind of attitude is also reflected at an institutional level, said Laurentian University social work professor Carol Kauppi.
She points to the spikes installed in the downtown to discourage the homeless, leading to further marginalization.
“There are things like camps in the bush where people stay because they're pushed out of the downtown,” she said.
Kauppi, who has been studying homelessness since 2000, is the director of the Poverty, Homelessness and Migration Conference project.
The six-year study — supported by a $1 million government grant — examines homelessness in northeastern Ontario.
She said at any one time, there's about 400 to 600 homeless or near-homeless people in Sudbury. Many come from remote First Nations reserves they left because of lack of housing.
Kauppi said the city needs more emergency shelters such as the one the city is currently building in the old police station, but adds that's a short-term solutions.
Homeless people tell her what they really want is affordable housing and employment.
“There are too many people out there who think these people are on the street by choice, that they don't want to work,” Kauppi said. “That is not true. It is a false stereotype.”
