Personal Dispatches – RANDY MILLIS

When Asking Questions Becomes the Problem

By admin Posted on 2026-11-10 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, British Columbia, disability, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Personal Dispatches, Turning Points Collaborative Society

Turning Points Collaborative Society describes emergency shelter as temporary housing that provides access to case planning, referrals, meals, showers, and other essential services. Screenshot from the organization’s website.

Personal Dispatches — November 10, 2026Kelowna, British Columbia There’s something particularly exhausting about having to fight for the things that should never have been a fight in the first place. A place to sleep. A safe place to charge a …

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The Kitchen Sink Is Taken, but the Garbage Can Has Potential

By admin Posted on 2026-11-06 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, British Columbia, disability, homelessness, Kelowna BC, Personal Dispatches, un affordability

November 6, 2026 — Kelowna, British Columbia There’s a pizza place in Kelowna that sells a pizza called The Kitchen Sink. I discovered this tonight while contemplating spending approximately forty dollars on a large pizza. Forty dollars. For a fucking …

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The View From the Top of a Very Small Mountain

By admin Posted on 2026-11-04 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with British Columbia, disability, homelessness, housing, human stories, Kelowna BC, Personal Dispatches

Untitled Original painting by Randy Millis.

Personal Dispatches — November 4, 2026 This morning, I ate pasta salad for breakfast. I wanted eggs. Toast. Coffee. Something hot. Instead, I had a chocolate bar, chili and rice, meat sticks, and pasta salad to choose from. Not exactly …

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The Stories We Never Hear

By admin Posted on 2026-11-03 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, British Columbia, Community Advocacy, disability, healthcare, homelessness, housing, human stories, interior health, Kelowna BC, Personal Dispatches, transit, un affordability

Personal Dispatches — November 3, 2026 I’ve had a lot of things happen to me. Some of them have been difficult to believe, even as I’ve been living through them. But perhaps the most profound realization I’ve had throughout all …

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Room 301. The Oasis Inn. Of all the fucking places

By admin Posted on 2026-11-03 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, disability, homelessness, housing, Kelowna BC

I’m lying on a bed right now, and I’m actually crying. After everything that’s happened over the past six months—the shelters, the hospitalizations, the wheelchair dispute, losing my shelter bed, fighting for accommodation, and trying to figure out where the …

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When Mission Statements Become Muscle Memory

By admin Posted on 2026-10-22 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with addiction, bc housing, British Columbia, Community Advocacy, disability, harm reduction, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Lived Experience, Personal Dispatches

Personal Dispatches — True Stories. Real People. Public Good. October 22, 2026 | Kelowna, British Columbia Today, I lost my bed at an emergency shelter. After more than three months at Kelowna Gospel Mission’s Bay Avenue Shelter, I was told …

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Cleaning Up an Encampment Is Only Half the Story

By admin Posted on 2026-08-20 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, British Columbia, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Personal Dispatches, un affordability

An open letter to Castanet Castanet’s August 20 story about the cleanup near Mill Creek reports on legitimate concerns: fire hazards, accumulated debris and public safety. Those things matter, and dangerous conditions should be addressed. But there is another part …

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When Does a Housing Crisis Become a Housing Emergency?

By admin Posted on 2026-08-11 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with addiction, BC Wildfires, British Columbia, Climate Change, disability, Drought, Evacuation, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Personal Dispatches

Screenshot

The everyday inconsistencies of everything. When wildfire forces someone from their home, the question is: Where can we put them? When someone is already homeless, too often the question becomes: How do we get them out of here? Over the …

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I’m Homeless. I’m Eating Better. Something Is Broken.

By admin Posted on 2026-08-09 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with addiction, British Columbia, food insecurity, harm reduction, healthcare, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Personal Dispatches, Street Photography, un affordability

The Price of Being Housed There is something absurd about becoming homeless and discovering that, in at least one important way, my life improved. I’m eating better. Meat. Vegetables. Salads. Fruit. Yogurt. Eggs. Potatoes. Pasta. Actual cooked meals with variety. …

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Home Sweet Homeless

By admin Posted on 2026-08-07 Posted in Personal Dispatches Tagged with bc housing, British Columbia, eviction, homelessness, human stories, Kelowna BC, Kelowna housing, Personal Dispatches

When “Home” Becomes Something Everyone Else Is Selling Gallery: A collection of advertisements, storefronts, and scenes that all use the idea of “home”—viewed through the perspective of someone currently experiencing homelessness. Home. It’s one of the smallest words in the …

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Category: Personal Dispatches