Friends of man found dead in Halifax parkade shocked to learn he was homeless

It was the last thing Shelagh Sutherland expected to hear -- news that her friend of 30 years died in Halifax’s Cogswell Tower parkade.

What surprised her more was learning he had been homeless for the last four years.

“Chris was always employed and Chris was always employable,” said Sutherland. “So it was a shock that he had found himself in this situation.”

About five years ago, Chris Redden began experiencing stomach pain. After several trips to the hospital, Sutherland said Redden felt mistreated and decided to stop going.

She said due to the pain he would call in sick to work which eventually led to him being fired.

“It’s years of health care that needed to get him back to [being] healthy and in that time he lost, he wasn’t able to work,” she said.

It wasn’t long until he lost his home which forced him to live on the streets.

Redden took advantage of the snack program at the Halifax Central Library and the Sunday Supper Program at St. Andrew’s Church. He also continued communicating with friends on social media, but he did not tell anyone what he was going through.

“To ask someone else to be that unselfish or selfless for him, he would never dream of asking that and I don’t think that he would ever have reached out and asked someone for help,” said Sutherland.

According to Jeff Karabanow, professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Social Work, it is not unusual for someone experiencing homelessness to hide their struggles with friends and family.

“There’s a lot of stigma, there’s a lot of guilt and shame attached to this experience,” said Karabanow.

Sutherland believes the system is broken.

“Once you’re on the street, how do you get a job? You don’t have the ability to present yourself in a way to get a job and you can’t go on EI because you don’t have an address,” said Sutherland.

Karabanow said it is important that society start viewing homelessness differently.

“Being homeless for the most part is extremely tragic and it’s dehumanizing for many. They just don’t want to share that aspect their existence at that point. In order to support those that are homeless,” adding. “You don’t feel human when you’re consistently focusing on daily survival so we need to be more compassionate,” he said.

Sutherland said she was told that Redden was in a stairwell at Scotia Square before security asked him to move. He then made his way to Cogswell Tower where he was later found dead. Sutherland said as of now there is an autopsy set to determine the cause of Redden’s death, however, she said she was told it was caused by aspiration.

Sutherland, along with other friends, has started a fundraiser which will go back into the library snack program which his friends believe helped him get by. The fundraiser will run until Feb. 4 -- the day Redden would have turned 52.