Patrick J. Schnerch

It has been quite exciting executing the marketing and publicity campaign for “The City of Gardens Collection”. As for the eight months since the campaign started, There has been more interest during this time period than any other during my whole career.

The publicity has been more cost effective and has made major connections with politicians, community leaders and institutional heads. There has been nothing less that at least acknowledgement of who I am and what is my goals amd intentions.

Being at least acknowledged is a major accomplishent for it paves the way for the remainder of the series, thus increasing the contact list. Every name included on the list is one more step closer to achieving these goals.

There has been a lot of things happening lately all at the same time. There has been the marketing and publicity campaign for the book series as well as a whirl-wind of activity trying to finish the second book in the series by October 19th, 2009.

This is a lot of work for one person to accomplish, but is not imposssble. There has recently been a major victory in finding material provided by the homeless people of Victoria who are receptive to participating in a interview to have their stories told to a world audience. They are the ambassadors of the street community around the world.

Their words will become the voice of the most vulnerable from nation to nation here and across our oceans. This books series proudly boasts itself as a street-level publication. Through decades of being neglected, ignored and silenced by society, the most needy will be given a platform to stand tall and to have their voices finally heard.

This is only the beggining of the seven year project and it is off to a great start. This series has the potential of becoming the nation’s guide to eliminating homelessness in Canada and perhaps around the globe. Victoria, BC, Canada will become the core of a world movement fighting the affects of mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

It is certainly has nothing to do with making money or becoming successful in the literary world as it is more important that their voices will break the silence and finally be heard.

Some closed minded people will choke on these words, but they have to come up for air eventually. That first breath may leave a bad taste in the mouth, but there is nothing else left to do than to take action now rather than later. This book series will be the icebreaker connecting countrys’ around the world thus provoking them to stand up and be counted.

This small city of Victoria, BC will become the guiding light for others to follow. The book series will act as a permanent record and case study for generations to come. This documentation will freeze seven years of our history and mark this time as one of the most important moments of our very own being.

Everything emminates from our citys’ downtown core. If thes conditions are visible to the eye, it is safe to say that there will be very hard times yet to follow for that city. Some cities that once had the world reputation of being the most socially damaged city of the world have made a 360 degree turn for the better. Now the eyes are on the City of Victoria, BC, Canada.

This historic time our our history will be recorded from the blood of our most vulnerable. The series will put faces to these statistics, counts and reports. To understnd the full intentsity of this crisis we must open ours hearts and minds. I am only a messenger of this truth. The most accurate gage of these truths come from the mouths of our most vulnerable, we must open our hearts to the truth.

“The City of Gardens Collection” is not intended to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. This could be taken as a warning shot over your head, your next move will determine your fate. The ball is in our court, we have to decide quickly of what to do next. We can either act now or cower behind our shame.

With my book, “City of Gardens: The Other Side of the Fence,” I have been approaching national and local leaders who have the ability to make the neccessary changes to the system that will litterally save lives among our most vulnerable citizens.

I must say that I am receiving several responses from these prominent leaders who took the time to provide important information about mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

The governments, service providers and non-profits have implemented many new incentives towards addressing these conditions; however, through my own research I have noticed that these actions have had little to no effect on the streets themselves. In fact, the problems are worse now than they have been a year ago.

I have to realize that these actions take time to materialize into results, but this could have been totally avoided if we did not neglet, overlook and ignore these problems as they were developing.

Even major attempts and aggressive actions don’t even come close to producing positive results. It has been ignored for much too long and the aftermath of this neglect is seriously impacting our streets in a very negative fashion.

My book series is designed to wake-up the sleeping giant. There has to be more participation from the general public in an attempt to tip the scales to our favour. The deterioration of our Canadian cities are living proof of a society gone wrong.

The leaders of this country are working very had to make the neccessary changes for all Canadians to embrace gratefully, including our street people. We must educate ourselves about these conditions and put aside or fears and misconcertions about this situation.

It seems that the upper echelon are open to suggestions and opinions, so this is a good time for the general public to ask questions and learn. Since these issues are so serious and critical to our well-being, the books push really hard to get the message through.

The Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Society has just received charity status. This is excellent news for the city. This is an golden opprotunity for its citizens to take an active role to fight homelessness in Greater Victoria.

This is a very exciting time for the city for there has been great advances recently in dealing with these issues more now than ever before in Victoria’s history.

This is very true, but there is is a very long and winding road ahead of us. This book series was perfectly timed to doccument this historic time in Victoria’s history. It will serve as a permanent record of the successes and challeges that we face in hopes of ending homelessness in the city.

I want to thank my readers for their kind words and even some constructive criticisim. One reader mentioned that my blogroll requires a little more attention. I appologize for this and thank-you for bringing this issue to my attention. I really appreciate your comments. I will work on this soon. Please keep tuned.

The comments are encouraging and flattering. I welcome all comments. If you have other ideas as to how I can improve this site for you, please let me know.

You are the single most important part of this site. I am interested as to what are some of your more detailed comments may be on the social issues that I mainly focus on?

These issues have a great deal of influence on the public at large. How are you affected by mental illness, addiction and homelessness? Do you have any fears or questions as to the effects these conditions have on your life or city? Is it environmental, political or ecconomical?

I had a great comment today and it was deleted by error. I would like that person to contact me again and I will e-mail them with more information as requested. I am very sorry for the error. Your comment is very important to me and I promise to contact you ASAP.

As you know that there are six more books to go for, “The City of Gardens Collection.” I am just slightly jumping the gun right now, but I have a request of you. I would like the third book to have inserts and testimonials from you and the most vulnerable in your city or town to be used in the book for publication. I would like to prove that these conditions are not just isolated to Victoria, BC, Canada.

How is your city or town dealing with the situation or are they doing anything at all? You can personally e-mail me at pjschnerch@shaw.ca. Keep this address for your records. Perhaps you may just want to shoot the breeze and that is absolutely fine by me.

Do you suffer or have suffered from some or all of these conditions? What is your current status. When and how did things take a turn for the worse. What is your experience with stigma, discrimination and unwarranted fear about you or your friends?

Did your family support you or abandon you? What services have you tried to connect with to receive support. Were they successful in helping you. Were you successful in helping yourself? Does your government have a plan to improve your town or city’s social issues, if not, why?

What other organizations are there in your community to help those who need the most help? Are there churches, soup-kitchens, emeregency shelters or even homeless drop-in centres in your area? If you had the power to change this situation, how would you go about doing so?

Can your taxes dollars be better redistributed in your community that not only saves money, but lives too? What are your observations and feelings are about these social issues in your city or town?

If you are personally affected by these conditions, what would you like society to do to ease these burdens? This third book is dedicated to my friends who visit this site. If you do not wish to partiicipate, that is fine too. I would however like to talk to you anyway just to touch base and get an idea of who you are and what are your likes or dislikes?

The comments are wonderful and very supportive. If anyone would like to be on my blogroll, I would be more than happy to include you. There are no words to express as to how much you all mean to me. As you know, I am a humantarian and I love all people reagardless who they are or what they do.

We all have a heart and soul and that is where I focus my attention on, not sexual preference, colour, beliefs or any other personal character make-up you may have. You are special for who you are, not what I may think. The driving force behind your whole being is your heart and soul. This is where you find the absolute truth.

There a great number of people who intitiated several methods of provoking attention from politicians and itheir governments to spark action in providing afffordable and supportive housing, increased income assistance and more effective social programs and involvement.

There are hunger strikes, rallies, stands and marches and none had any positive affect on promoting government action. Through my work, I have noticed that each influential politician, service provider and community leader must be personally contacted to have any real effect.

My books serve as a permanent record that documents these social concerns and the city’s successes and challenges in addressing these issues. I use this book series as ammunition for my gun. First, I have to stalk my prey and pick my target.

The stalking of prey for an activist such as myself is to go on a major e-mail and letter writing campain to every prominent person I could think of, including the Prime Minister. Many times, my contact attempts were ignored.

Each time, the contents of these messages became more aggressive than the one before. Eventually, it narrows down to highlighting their past errors and rubbing it in their faces in it.

I provide simple, but proven solutions that have been successful in other cities and countries around the world. This usually includes improving the ecconomics of the country, social system, and the well-being of all its citizens especially including those on our streets.

Polititians don’t particularily like to be associated with the deaths of our street people and the government’s lack of compassion and morality as well as being responsible from making critical errors while in office that have a direct impact on the numbers of these fatalities.

It has taken me several letters and e-mails to each of these people around the country. I have reached a point in my work that these offices know who I am, what I do and that I will never stop initiating contact with them until I recieve a personal and direct response in which they must explain their actions.

My military influenced tactics are provoking responses from these people. Names, dates, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses and all contact information are recorded and stored paving the road for future contacts relating to the release of each book in the series.

This is not just a one time attempt to make noise and wonder if they are listening. In my case, this is only the beggining of my seven year project. This will consist of literally thousands of letters and e-mails and not to forget phone calls and follow-ups.

If you want somebody to listen to you, you have to ensure that they know who you are and what is your intent. You may have to bang on the door several times before they answer, but they will eventually respond.

In the meantime, you must establish your credentials, cause and name in your own community. Everytime you end your message with your name and contact information, you have established an image of yourself and will soon earn a label.

Use this label to your advatage. Play it up. A little tip for you is to spend a few dollars for your own webiste and insure to include this address with each and every contact. Using your label as a tool you should follow its direction and go where it leads you.

A daily blog will most certainly cause a following. Many of these prominent people will soon keep tabs on you and try to predict your next move. When to get your website, make sure you a visitor counter.

In time, you can graph as to what is causing an interest and what isn’t. I have certainly found this much more effective than anything else I tried in the past. Another trick is to ride the coat tails of someone else who is already established. That’s business.

Many may not know that “The City of Gardens Collection” is not generating any personal profits for myself. Much is being donated to charity, while the rest is being used to fund the project.

The seven book series was not designed to profit off other people’s pain and suffering, but help them. I have personally invested tens of thousands of dollars from my own pocket to provide a platform for our most vulnerable to break the silence and be finally heard.

This is a golden opprotunity to tell your story and capture the hearts of society. Together we can level the playing field and lay down some new rules. Without standing up and speaking out, no one will even care to listen to you.

This has been the case for almost since the beginning of time. To gain respect you have to earn it. There is a choice between a lifetime of disparity and poverty only to die on the streets, or to stand up for yourselves and demand for change and respect.

This book series is designed to put a face to the numbers, figures and statistics. Your blood and tears will be the ink. We will breathe life into those pages.

I am disappointed that not one single person has the guts to stand up for themselves. From the 1,242 homeless or unstably housed, it seems that no one wants to change their lives around. You are being given the opprotunity to voice your views, concerns and observations of life on the streets of Victoria.

One of my personal reasons for writing this book series is that I was tired and frustrated of how society treated me when I was in my life’s darkest moments. I was so angry that I decided to stand up for myself and push back. I felt first hand the stigma, discrimination and unwarranted fears of me and where I stood in mainstream society.

Neglect, ignorance and silenced by the mainstream shoved me down in the cracks of this so called civilized society. For most of my adult life, I was continually battling between suicide and a forty ounce bottle of rye every day. I used self-mutilation to calm me down from going over the edge. My body is a roadmap of scars, blood and tears.

My mental illness was a permanent label awarded to me by society where my rights, freedoms and respect were taken away from me. I lost my job, self-esteem and my will to live. I was told what I can or cannot do. My words fell on deaf ears, my actions caused me to be thrown in the mental ward hidden away from society as to not to disturb their precious lives.

For the past twenty years, I have isolated myself from the society who is not willing to accept me as a fellow human-being. Hidden in my office, I fill my pen with poison and fight back. I have personally been around the block a few times myself.

After all these years,we now have 1,242 people on the streets of Victoria with no place to call home and are living the same hell as I did. Society has not changed. There are some efforts being made, but have little affect on the reality of the streets.

It became my mission in life to provide awareness of mental illness and and homelessness to the public in hopes of reducing stigma, discrimination and unwarranted fears.

I have anger in my veins. My blood was spilt decades ago. I have made a commitment that I would do everything in my power to break the silence and fight back. I don’t want my brothers and sisters on the streets to go through what I did.

Now, I am offering the people on the streets of Victoria an opprotunity to join me and have our voices heard around the world. Together we can break the imposed silence and provoke change. This action will pave the way for us to achieve a better life free from pain and destitution. My death-bed wish is to smile one more time. pjschnerch@shaw.ca

The City of Gardens Collection” is not only a socialogical catagorization, but is also quite political. I went on a major e-mail campaign to many prominent people in government, institutions and governing bodies. To my delight, I have been receiving several responses. Some are positive, others are nevgative and there are those who are defensive.

If you look at it at a publicity point of view, this was a successful campaign. If you look at it as a political observation and view, it may even seem a bit threatening.

If you read between the lines of the government’s explanations, you can clearly see a sense of panic and concern. Even with laws and freedom of speach to abide and be protected, the big guns get a little nervous when you see their true colour.

You cannot go wrong if you keep a civil tongue and speak the truth. The wonderful thing about the truth is that the truth is in the eyes of the beholder. My truth may not be particularily your truth. We may fully believe in our views full heartedly, but it does not mean that it is an actual proven fact.

This margin of error is not only debatable, but can also be highly inaccurate depending on your personal beliefs. An accademic will rely on numbers, stats and figures while a homeless person will base their views from actual experience.

When facing the government in a showdown you must realize that you must abide within the rules and laws of the land and you will be granted the freedom of speach to express your views without prosecution.

You can jot memories about de-intutionalization, income assistance reform, and lack of affordable housing stock. This is always a nice ice-breaker. It proves that government officials are only human. There is no denying of these facts.

It paves the way to the present situation that this too can be a great error. My research is low budget, but highly accurate for I look the mentally ill, addicted and homeless in the eye and listen to them. I also provide a platform for which their words will reach a large audience and break the silence.

Most people don’t really listen to reason until you kick them in the groin. My book series does just that. My loyality is for our most vulnerable. They can’t write letters to the editor, go on a TV Morning News Show or be interviewed on a radio talk show due to stigma, discrimination and unwarranted fears of our most needy.

An average Joe with balls can do this. With the heart in the right place and a strong will, we can kick up some dust and ask questions. In my research, about 85% don’t have the guts to respond. I admire those who do. Positive, negative or indifferent does not matter, they took the time and effort to respond. You have to respect them for that and I really do.

Mental illness, addiction and homelessness is not only a social concern, but also very political. Their decisions directly affect those living on our streets. Not one of these issues can be singled out with acknowledging the others. It is like a tight knit sweater. The colours may be different, but it is still a sweater.

My friends on the street are never given the opprotunity to speak out. They are not considered to be not worthy of opinion, a respected member of the community or even classified as a human being. My book series will prove that theory absolutely wrong.

The government does not like to be accused of being wrong even though the facts are straight in their face. The people wield much more power than they realize. If one person can stir the pot, what would happen if there were 40,000 more in the kitchen?

Promised open communication between five cities and their partners in the system is not a viable solution. Increased affordable housing stock, increased social assistance and tailor made supports in place is the onlty real solution.

Forget the numbers, figures and stats, they are not worth the paper they were written on. The truth is in the eyes. Clear, dilated or shadowed, the truth is definately in the eyes.

As a citizen of this country, we are responsible for the welfare of those who have fallen. A soldier will never leave a comrade behind to die, why are we so different? As a nation, we are responsible to protect the rights and freedoms of all Canadians. We are the people for the people.

It is our duty to protect our friends, neighbours and community from disparity. Then tell me why hundreds upon hundreds of homeless people die on our streets every year? Don’t you think this is worth a letter to your government?

Society has become accustomed to tragedy, pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters. We don’t give it a second thought unless it happens to us personally, then we call foul. By that time, it is too late.

We must look outside the box and see the world for what it really is. It is cold, cruel and unrelentless. It is not rocket science why so many who are homeless will take to a crack pipe or a bottle. It is pure survival.

Government figures, numbers and stats don’t factor in these issues in their reports and surveys. I do. I always hated mathematics and I still have no trust in numbers. My trust is in the heart and soul of those left for dead on our Canadian streets.

When I write a government official, I am not always tactful or polite , nor should I be. I have also earned my right to speak out in accordance to the freedom of speach. I intend to open eyes, raise blood pessure or even cause a heart attack or two if need be.

I will stop at nothing for my friends on the street to be finally heard. I am devoting seven years of my life for my brothers and siters on the streets. I don’t see any problem why you can not devote ten minutes to write your premier.

It is us who have the real power. Every four years, you are requested to put an X in the box. Even then, more than half will neglect their duties. I just can’t come up with any flattering remarks for this neglect of duty. There are several names I would like to use, but there is always a proper time and space to express these views and it is not on the web.

I have written these blogs for quite some time now. Not once has anyone made a comment or remark. I also have a few names for that too, but I will keep it under my hat. We are allowing a group of a few to control our lives with or without our consent.

At this point of time, the governments have never expected opposition. One stupid e-mail puts them into a tailspin. To get change, you have to want it. To get it, you have to fight for it. If no one has the courage to fight them, then take me on.

Currently, I am writing and doing research for my next book, “City of Gardens: The Invisible Society.” I have been making appeals to our street people to stand up and tell their stories, observations and views, but it is the same as any where else. If there is no money to touch their palms, they don’t want nothing to do with it.

I had money last year and the project went well. This year, the funding is just not there and the project will suffer for it. My work and experience in life showed me that a lot of peoples’ morals and beliefs are stamped on a twenty dollar bill.

I can’t blame them at all for feeling that way at all. I also put some value into currency, but it is not my driving force. Money is very important. Like it or not, people need it to survive, even if there is just enough for a cup of coffee.

There are a lot of other things that have more value to me than money. Unfortunately, I have been known to be quite strange. I still believe in the human heart and soul. I put value in humanity, equal rights and freedoms for all. Many people don’t believe me when I make this claim because it is not very common for others to share my values.

I admit that I am from the old school and many people don’t think that way even if it is to their best interest to do so. Today, money speaks louder than words. I still have faith in the unrevised version of that quote. I still believe in action and I don’t have to be paid if it is for a worthy cause.

Victoria street people are worthy of my attention and actions to help them in any way I can. I find it very disappointing that there are so many people who don’t want to help themselves. There are some strong and brave people out there who fight tooth and nails to change there situation around and I am more than honoured to help them.

I believe that my books have the power to cause a change in heart among mainstream society to reach out and help their neighbour. When you feed your dog, you don’t expect to have your arm ripped off.

The sad thing is that this is also very common in mainstream society, no one is immune to selfishness and greed. It is in every walk of life and is almost impossible to find anyone who thinks differently.

People don’t have the self-respect needed to fight for themselves anymore. Endosements, sponsors, investors or panhandling is more important that a loss of life on our streets.

You can’t buy human rights, freedom of speach or the freedom to be your own person. We not only have to earn them, we sometimes have to fight for them. I may die as a pauper, but at least I can go to my grave knowing that I did a good thing.

My book research has uncovered a lot skeletons about human nature and society. We are all equally to blame for this. No one wants to fight with their fists anymore unless its filled with fifty dollar bills.

As you noticed, I do not believe in the material world. I think I earned my right to hate it as much as I do. I have watched it destroy human lives, families and whole communities. For those who have nothing, at least they have guts.

Many of us would curl in the fetal position and die if we left our wallet on the bedroom dresser, never mind being homeless. We find it difficult to seperate ten dollars from our wallet and put it in a Salvation Army Kettle at Christmas time.

None of os know what disparity really is until you experience yourself and not in a tent in front lawn of a university. Very few people in mainstream society has ever felt real pain. Those who have are now crippled and fallen through the cracks of society.

Once you know real pain, only then will you understand the significance of a mickey of rye or a crack pipe. To many, this is the only peace that they will ever have and then they will die. It is not about choice, it is a matter of survival and being able to live within your own skin.

To me, one day of peace is better than a lifetime of money. Don’t measure pain by wearing a Barbie Band Aid. Pain is when you have a loaded pistol in one hand and a loaded syrienge in the other. Many see death as nothing more than a pernament change of address.

Many of our most vulnerable are dead already, they are just waiting for their bodies to catch up. As a society, we turn a blind eye. This is what I have witnessed during my book research. The glimmer of hope went out years ago for many of my brothers and sisters on the street. I can’t blame them for not being more cooperative in fighting for their rights when they don’t even know if they are going to wake up tomorrow morning.

I went on a major e-mail campaign armed with a poignant message to politicians, institutions and organizations in relation to the issues of mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

It is a little to early to tell how effective it was, but I did receive several that were very promising and positive. This also included sales by some very influential people.

At this point, it is not the sales that are important. It is what happens after the books are read that is more important. During the writing of the first two books in the series, I have had several very interesting interviews with community leaders in Greater Victoria. At home and accross the country, the book series has sparked great interest.

This is presently in the works and the details will be released when they are confirmed. Political offices are the most interested as well as the mental health field and housing developments. These are the organizations to watch. There has been a great deal of work done in the past few years.

If Canadian Sociology is your thing, the next six years will blow your socks off. It seems that the book series may play a part of this through the advocacy. It is not just the books. It is the interviews, phone calls and e-mails behind the scenes that that sets a spark.

It will be several months before there is feedback from them reading the book, but the fact is that they want to. Mental illness, addiction and homelessness are tough issues and not a lot of people want to know the details. These people and organizations do want to know what is happening outside their office buildings. Unfortunately, deplomacy restricts them from checking out the back alleys looking for answers.

I go into these alleys, under bridges and in the parks and get my questions answered right from the source. I show the upper echelon life from the other side of the fence. This is a world that they don’t normally see for themselves. For this reason, the books are causing interest. More and more people are becoming more comfortable releasing information to me for it is done tastefully and in a good light.

It is non-biased and the faults are noted as well; besides, every rose has its thorns. It is that time again, on Tuesday, May 18th, I will be taking to the streets of Victoria for the book research for the “Invisible Society.”

There is great anticipation for the next book. As for “The Other Side of the Fence” it will make an appearance in an entertainment publication in Victoria on June 12th, 2009 in a special summer book edition. There is also another review in progress originating from Colorado, USA.

In fact, a lot has happened in two short months since its release in March. At the same time, I am trying to write the 2nd book as well as market and publicize the 1st. Talk to you soon.

Victoria must change the way they think of the homeless. Many of us can easily find ourselves on the street too. With the reccession, we could lose our job, miss a couple of house payments and the sherriff will lock you out of your house.

You could be be line at the soup kitchen, waiting for a mat in the emergency shelter or waiting for the homeless drop-in centre to open. What about your family?

This is reality. It is only common sense to help our neighbour on the street. You are no better than them. You may have money today, but what about tommorrow?

We are in need of a change in heart. It is time to meld our souls with those in need. Families, single parents and the ill take to the streets everyday. We can expect 450 people to become homeless this year alone in Greater Victoria. This can happen to you. Have a heart.

May 26th, 2009, I am going out to the streets of Victoria to seek the truth. Politicians, community leaders and institutions are not on my list. I am going straight to the people who call the streets home. This is where the real truth lies.

Numbers, statistics and reports are often very inaccruate and usually is only an example of what is really going on. When I look in the eyes of a homeless person, I see pain, suffering and saddness. They may look rough and tough on the outside, but when you connect souls and look deep inside, you will see through that hardened shell.

The streets are rough and they have to play the game if they want to survive. As a society, we don’t make it any easier for them to do that either. It’s not a matter of choice on the streets, you do what you have to do. We are too quick too judge; besides, that is not our job to do so anyway.

My research will prove that they are human beings and not animals. It is time that we stop treating them as such. When I did the research for the last book, I went to the streets as well. I made more genuine friends in that short time than what I had during my whole life.

A street person has sincerity and an honesty that make them real. It’s not like the masks and phoney smiles that you will se in mainstream society. They may not always smile either, but they are genuine.

I found this out by respecting them and treating them fairly. By giving up our time to look them in the eyes and really listen, you too will sense a strong connection. Their hearts and souls speak volumes.

I want this book to make society to find their hearts again. It is my friends on the street that can do this. Their soul, their voice and their tears will make your hearts cry. There is a true saddness when I hear them speak.

Most people who do research neglect to put a face to the number. Numbers are boring and inaccurate. The human heart is the only accurate gage of the truth.

I would like to fill 200 to 250 pages with stories from my neighbours on the street. Society will have no other choice but to listen for the first time in their lives.