‘He was terrified:’ Woman recalls finding man freezing in Saskatoon dumpster

A Saskatoon woman wants people to be more aware of what’s around them after she discovered a homeless man stuck inside a dumpster outside her house.

Lisa Kusch was at home Friday afternoon when she heard yelling outside her River Heights cul de sac. She initially dismissed the noise as kids playing, but went to investigate when the cries became more desperate.

“That’s when I saw his hand on the edge of the Loraas bin,” she recalled. “He was trying to pull himself up to stand. He kept falling. He couldn’t feel his legs.

“When I called out and said, ‘I’m here,’ he started crying, ‘Thank God, I’ve been in here for two days.’ ”

Kusch recalled the man’s hands and feet were blue as she brought him inside to warm up. She offered him food and water before her husband drove him to the Lighthouse Supported Living Centre.

Kusch said the man — who called himself Rueben — had recently landed in Saskatoon from out of province and climbed into the bin to stay warm by covering himself in drywall pieces.

She said her own complacency in dealing with the situation showed her that often we can be too quick to dismiss people in need.

“I live in an area of town where I think people don’t have to deal with the issues of homelessness very often,” she said. “We don’t consider when it’s that cold (that) maybe we should check our yards (and) maybe we should check the garbage bins.

“Are we responding to the yelling or are we just staying in our house, just hoping it goes away? That was a big lesson for me.”

The bin was placed on her street for a neighbour’s renovations. Loraas said it is happy the man found the help and safety he needed.

Alexa Mofazzalai with Loraas said it’s rare for people to get trapped in the bins.

“It is dangerous to be in crawling into or hanging around our bins, which is why we have those warnings and labels on the front and sides of those bins,” Mofazzalai said.