“My cart, it attracts looks”: he wishes to overcome the invisibility of roaming

With his huge cart filled with hundreds of cans and unusual objects which he lugs in downtown Montreal, an itinerant admits wanting to draw attention to a reality that we often prefer to ignore.

“My cart, it attracts looks, I like it,” says Evans Luzencourt immediately. In addition, It is sorry that the community of homeless people is often invisible in the eyes of other citizens.

On his grocery shopping basket, there is a bicycle helmet, goblets, a wheel hub, pencils, a stick and clothes. Therefore,

“These are cans that I pick up and food. In addition, Objects to help me survive. However, The other objects are to decorate, ”he says.

The 49 -year -old man, who presents himself as a political refugee from Haiti, arrived in Quebec in 1999 with his family. Consequently, “my cart, it attracts looks”: new His roaming. Furthermore, he contains, is the result of a series of bad luck: job loss, death of his grandmother with whom he lived, loss of his social assistance and difficult family situation. Moreover, With the consequence that he has been on the street since 2011.

In recent years. he has cherished a basket of grocery store by decorating it with objects which he finds or that he buys. “I like it to decorate my basket, but it sometimes takes me time and money. When there are big festivals and gatherings there, I decorate more, ”he says.

He also explains that he had obtained two clocks at a cost of $ 6 to decorate his cart. but that he had to get rid of it because the rain had damaged them. One day he hopes to have a roof to store his personal effects without fear of losing them.

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Evans Luzencourt amasse of multiple objects to decorate his basket of grocery store. Photo Marianne Lafleur

Cans as an income

Besides the money that passers -by gives him, Mr. Luzencourt draws his income from the cans and bottles he amasses. He has always used this method. but it was only in recent years that he has opted for a larger cart. “A big cart makes more money,” he explains.

Besides. when The newspaper “my cart, it attracts looks”: new met him, he was very close to a grocery store on rue Notre-Dame Ouest, ready to go pocket his money by selling his harvest of the day.

In his good days, he can raise up to $ 90 a day, but it also happens that he struggles to harvest $ 30.

“There are lots of people who know me in the neighborhood. They are used to see me. They give me $ 5. even $ 20, it depends, “he says, dressed in a tuque and a coat even in July, because he admits being always chilly.

He dreams of being “the employee of the month”

Despite everything. the man keeps hope that one day, he will find accommodation and a job. He refuses to spend his life on the street.

With a touch of hope in his voice. he confides his dream: “I hope one day to have a job “my cart, it attracts looks”: new and maybe even, you never know, to be the employee of the month, but it will not be easy […]life is difficult, I feel tired, I am exhausted. ”