Out of the woods: One London woman’s escape from homelessness

Then: A tent in the middle of the woods in a London park, far from the city lights.

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Now: A place to call her own, a roof over her head for the first time in two years.

Then and now are only days apart for Tanya Burke, a Londoner who moved into her own place over the weekend after a long stretch of often sleepless nights living outdoors in a tent to which she always made sure to return before dark, to help keep danger at bay.

The 44-year-old’s journey will take another notable turn Wednesday, when she sings in a choir at a downtown hotel at a forum highlighting the experiences of women like herself, telling their own stories and their struggles with homelessness in a bid to reduce its Fallout in London.

Burke shared her story with The Free Press, to help promote the All Our Sisters forum.

THEN: THE TENT

The journey to the tent is slippery, as Burke pushes her walker through mud, rocks and bushes.

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Darkness adds anxiety.

“Anything can be in the dark, anything,” Burke says, as she locks herself in her tent.

“I’m petrified (of the dark),” she says. “I just want to be safe, somewhere to call my own and bring my son.”

Her campsite has a small fire, a line for clothes that “never dry,” a couch that a friend brought and a battered table.

Going downtown for a meal and a shower is exhausting for Burke, who needs her walker because of back illness. “I’m always in pain,” she says, adding she has no choice but to soldier on.

“It hurts and it’s very tiresome.”

Burke says it feels safer to sleep in the woods than on the street, where the risks for women are greater. As for shelters, “you don’t know who’s sleeping beside you. . . “

THE BACKSTORY

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The 2021 death of her eldest son, Brayden, and a relationship she calls abusive sent her into a downward “spiral,” Burke says.

Her son died of a suspected drug overdose just shy of his 21st birthday, about the same time as another young man, 21, who also struggled with addiction, died on a downtown street.

“It was two boys that didn’t need to go, and one of them was mine,” Burke said at the time. “That’s one of the reasons I believe I’m homeless. . . I never got over it.”

A second son, now 12 and living with family, she lost when she became homeless two years ago.

NOW: THE APARTMENT

A volunteer worker from Just a Bunch of Friends, a group that helps the homeless, met Burke during the summer and guided her toward Street Level Women at Risk. That’s an agency that helps homeless women and sex workers to find secure and stable housing.

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They found an apartment for Burke, and that began “the longest few weeks” of her life – waiting.

“I’m so excited and it’s going to be amazing,” she says. “I won’t have to worry where I’m going to sleep tonight, and if I’m hungry I can cook. I can’t wait to cook and bake.”

What Burke most looks forward to?

“To be safe and lock the door. . . But also (to have the) ability to do things for myself – be a mother, a better person, just knowing that I have security,” she says.

THE CHOIR

Burke sings in a choir at My Sisters’ Place, a day shelter and social service agency for women. She didn’t like singing before, but has gone to the rehearsals for weeks.

Now, she says, she sings with “passion.”

The choir will perform at Wednesday’s forum.

To make sure she stays on key, Burke underlined verses including those that touch her heart.

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“The days turned into years then/ But she still wonders every night/ Is it safe enough to stay/ Or should she be on her way/ To find shelter from the fight?”

THE FUTURE

Winding up on the street “destroyed me,” Burke says, leaving her neither who she is nor who she wants to be. Now, she says, she has a chance to turn that around.

“I just want to be myself again. And I haven’t been able to be me in a really long time. It’s hard, but I’m going to make it this time.”

THE FORUM

Wednesday’s forum at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in London will feature women experiencing homelessness, talking about their “stories and struggles” to speak to those “with the power to act for change.”

The choir will perform a song that “illustrates the conditions that women face,” says Susan Macphail, former head of My Sisters’ Place.

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Those conditions include how women become homeless, which Macphail said is often linked to violence in their lives and the apprehension of their children. “And then they really lose hope and often also lose their housing as a result.”

The goal is to help prevent that hopelessness and help stop the homelessness cycle through more conversations with the city, Macphail says.

Between 1,700 and 2,100 people, more than one-third of them women, were homeless in London last year, according to city hall statistics.

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