I was literally crying when she told me her story. I interviewed her December 11th 2013.  I really.. wow. I don't think any introduction I could come up with would render it justice. I gave her a hot chocolate and a croissant at Tim Horton's, a lunch box with fruits and an old sleeping bag of mine. This is her story

 1. What’s your name & age My name is Cat Spence… spelled like a cat, not with a “k”. And Im turning 20 years old this February.

2. Were you raised in a religious house hold?  Daddy was a church man. He went to church every day, every day. Not my mother (laugh) My mother never gave a f*ck about anything with religion because of Daddy.

3. How long have you been homeless? (laugh) I hate that! (she kept laughing for a while) It’s easy to just call a bunch of people a certain name, huh? Has anyone ever called you a n*gger? Yes. I bet you hate it don’t you? Yeah, I do. It’s the same thing… They just like everyone to be perfect and to look perfect. If you aint got a house (laugh) If you aint got a house well you’re put in to our category of people. And what category would that be? The f*ckers! (laugh) You gotta admit, it aint easy for us. If you don’t got a dick, you aint blond with blue eyes and don’t got a nice house in the suburbs, you’re one of us! They put us here, girlie. They? Them! (pointing to the people that were walking around us) I’ve been here my whole life. None of them ever stopped to talk to me. Only once and it was the police to arrest me cause I was in an alley for more than 20 minutes or some sh*t. Do you know what they call that? No, what? They call that the law my dear (laugh) they call that the law!

4. Do you have any siblings or close relatives? If I do I’ve never met ‘em (laugh)

5. What area do you prefer to stay in? You gotta be smart with that you know. If I stay out, I can get robbed, raped, beaten up? F*ck no. I’ve had too much of that for one life, thank you! You stay in the metro, you stay inside. I got caught 2 times but the TSM don’t do sh*t about it! Haha, do you mean the STM? (laugh) yeah that one too (laugh)

6. What is the general response you get from people regarding your appearance?  No one pays attention to my appearance! They know I’m gonna look like trash, why bother giving a second look? Let me tell you something. I’ve lived here all my life. And there aint anyone that had the balls to look at my face. You know why? No, why? They like it better when they think I’m trash.  Look, have you ever seen a stray dog? Yes. You can’t look it in the eye can ya? Tell me you’ve already been able to look a stray dog in the eyes and be able to walk home like nothing. You can’t. So you don’t look at it.

7. Are you religious?  I don’t understand. Do you believe in God? No I understand that (laugh) I don’t get it much, you know. People are always so busy planning what’s they think is gonna happen to them after they die? That’s plain dumb. Worry about how f*cking sh*t life is now, then talk to me about your plans for maybe what might happen after. Well said.

8. How did you become homeless?  I aint got that good of a story, sweets. My mother didn’t want me. She gave me to my Daddy. I visited her sometimes but… I aint like her much, you know. Daddy took me in but he was always at church working. I was never important. Daddy had a lot of stress and had pulled me out of school when I was still a little girl. (she started crying) He used me to relieve his stress. He said I looked like my mother (she started to weep. It took her a while to get back. I told her she didn’t have to continue and I understood but she told me she absolutely wanted to) I left and took all his money. It’s the least he could give me right? I’m not a thief. I never took anything from nobody in my whole life except from Daddy. I don’t want him to know about it, so I gave you a fake name, is that okay? Of course it is, Cat. (pause) I didn’t know what to do with the money. I spent it on my ink (she showed me her sleeves and the pieces on her legs and told me about their symbolism)

9. Do you visit any programs to help the homeless? If so do they help? Yeah. The Maison Tangeante is a cool place. It’s the only one I know. (I gave her the name and address of other places)

10. Do you have any plans for the future? I don’t know. I guess I wanna get out of this. I wanna forget everything that got me here and just… I don’t know.