多伦多信息港/Douglas Belanger是一位乞讨者，他一边为商店客人们开门，一边举着咖啡杯等待人们的施舍。
在这个寒冷的早晨，他被遗忘在角落。人群来来往往，有的脸色苍白，有的眼神空洞，估计在动荡的股市中身家从天堂跌入了地域。黑色的阴影比寒冷更能吞噬整个人。
“股市倒后，我注意到很多人已经不像以前那样了，似乎只剩下躯壳。现在，我必须工作更长时间，并不是我贪，而是要保证自己能填满肚子，因为现在一个月只能乞讨到206元，而住宿费要300元。”如今，Belanger睡在一家著名咖啡店外，渴望在来往的人群中看到熟悉的脸面，希望他们的慷慨没有随股市被吞噬。
像很多乞丐一样，Belanger不免回忆起以前富裕的日子，那时很多人都愿意扔给他几枚硬币。“通常好的时候一天就能赚到100元，如今我仍然为顾客开门，仍然说早上好，但有时候他们显得猝不及防。开着宾利车的可能是百万富翁，但他却一分也不给你，而开着雪维特车的却给你5元大钞，很滑稽，穷人帮穷人。”
Louis也是一名乞丐，过去十年间一直在金融区混。像Belanger一样，他同样感受到了人情的转变。“现在他们的施舍稍微有些迟疑，人也显得阴冷。以前经常照顾我们的人现在却不再给予了，经常和我们唠两句的也不愿多说了，他们肯定在股市中损失了钱。这是我见过的最严重的一次。”
Queen West西街的Terry以卖艺为生，但他强调自己不是乞丐，因为自己从不乞讨，但他同样靠的是路人的慷慨。干这一行已有12年了，他说自己也注意到了最近的变化。“每个人都受到了影响，从挣钱多的到挣钱少的。可以看出来美国股市倒后人们很失落、疲惫、担心、焦躁。他们一次次地投钱，认为股市会好转，结果努力工作赚来的一切都没了。以前我一天能赚100元，现在20或30就不错了。整个国家确实受影响了。”
Panhandlers Feeling Effects Of Staggering Economy
Wednesday October 29, 2008
Story and photos by Michael Talbot, video by Brian McKechnie – CityNews.ca
Douglas Belanger is working overtime in front of the Tim Horton’s at Adelaide and Sheppard, opening doors for those in need of a caffeine fix while holding out a nearly empty coffee cup that he hopes to fill with enough loose change for a square meal.
On this cold, drizzly weekday morning, his efforts are being largely ignored by the throngs of jaded investors and assorted business people who shuffle past with pale faces and empty eyes after witnessing, and absorbing, a staggering stretch of market losses — the effects of which have wormed their way from the mammoth skyscrapers that paint the downtown skyline, down to the maze of streets below where the scurrying game of survival takes place on a daily basis.
As Belanger knows all too well, the streets are cold, and they feel even colder in the abysmal black shadows cast by the financial district’s towering institutions — shadows that can seemingly swallow a person whole.
But it’s not just the approach of winter or the lack of sunlight that has Belanger feeling a chill in his road-weary bones these days. Like many who, by choice or otherwise, attempt to make a living on the streets through panhandling, busking, or washing windshields, the already-struggling former iron worker is now facing an even bleaker reality. What used to be prime real estate in the panhandling world is slowly drying up.
“I notice a lot of people don’t have the same spirits since a couple of weeks ago when the bottom fell out of the stock market,” he admits. “You get some crusty people for sure.”
“You’ve got to work longer hours now. I’m not greedy or nothing, I’m just trying to make enough to eat because on assistance you make $206 a month, if you get a place you get $300 a month for a place. Try finding a place for $300.”
Instead he sleeps out front of the popular donut and coffee shop, and hopes to run into familiar faces that haven’t let market woes erode their sense of generosity.
“I have a lot of regulars, but it kind of fluctuates. It takes a while to build up clientele, the same with any business.”
Like many panhandlers in the area, he fondly recalls more prosperous days when the markets were thriving and people seemed more than willing to throw him a few bucks.
“Usually I could make $100 a day on a good day, give or take. Not now, (but) I still open the door and still say ‘good morning’, and sometimes people surprise you.”
“They might be a millionaire driving a Bentley and they won’t give you a dime. The next fella comes along in a Chevette and gives you a five dollar bill. It’s funny how that works. The lower class helps the lower class.”
Louis has been pandhandling in the Financial District for the past 10 years, and like Belanger, he’s seen a change in the collective attitude in the area — one that he believes coincides with a tough run at stock markets in Toronto and throughout the world.
“They’re not giving as much because of the stock market,” he asserts. “People are hesitant to give nowadays because of that. We’re trying to get food and rent money and it’s a lot harder than before. People are a little bit more bitter, and colder. People I know who used to give before, they’re not giving any more. I guess they lost money in the stock market.
“This is the worst I’ve seen it,” he adds. “It’s hard to explain, I’ve had a couple guys who used to talk with me, and they don’t want to talk anymore because I guess they’re in a depression with their stock markets. It’s crazy.
Huddled in an abandoned store front stoop on Queen West, Terry is playing the guitar with gusto when I approach him. He isn’t a panhandler, he stresses, and never begs for money. But he does rely on the generosity of others to get by. He’s been busking for 12 years and admits he’s noticed a slow down lately.
“It affects everybody, from the guy who’s making the most money to the guy who’s making the least money. It’s like a trickle down type thing. If they’re not making as much money they’re not dropping as much money. People are depressed, angry, you can literally see it, like when it went downhill with the U.S. stocks, you could literally see it. People look tired, people look fed up, worried, concerned.
“There’s no security anymore. Those people work really hard and they lose it all. They invest in stocks and think that it’s going to be good, and it ends up falling through.”
Across the street, James is sitting at what used to be the big money-making corner at Queen and John. He’s been travelling across the country, and sees the same thing everywhere he goes. People are tightening the hatches and those who used to freely toss loose change his way, are now gripping it tighter than ever.
“It used to be that you could make $100 in a day, but now I’m lucky to make $20, or $30. It’s really affected the entire nation right now.”
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_28578.aspx
