FIRST PERSON: SAVED FROM THE STREETS

I spent my first night on the streets when I was 21. I'd been using
heroin and cocaine for two years, my family was tired of my constant
lying and stealing, and there was no one left in my life who felt
safe letting me sleep in their house.

I spent that first night in the fire escape of the elementary school
near my house in east Vancouver. In the subsequent weeks, I spent
nights under the SkyTrain tracks, in abandoned shipping containers,
the beach in Kits, and some just wandering around looking for things
to steal to support my habit.

I was propositioned by strange men offering a warm place to sleep,
drugs, and money in exchange for whatever it was they wanted. The
more nights I spent scrounging for money and sleeping outside, the
more appealing these offers began to sound. I was completely lost and
had no idea where to turn.

At the behest of my beleaguered mother, I tried a few adult shelters
but found them to be scarier and more unpleasant than the streets. A
shelter worker was in the process of kicking me out for breaking
curfew when he asked me how old I was and suggested that I call Covenant House.

Disgusted with the idea of spending yet another night on the streets,
I made the call, and was told to be at the door by 10 p.m. I walked
in fully expecting to find another warehouse-style shelter where I
would have to sleep in my shoes lest they be stolen while I slept,
and with one eye open to watch for predators.

Instead I found a clean, warm place full of people my age and staffed
by friendly people who talked to me and made sure I had everything I
needed. I was fed a surprisingly good dinner (the first decent meal
I'd had in a week), and put in a clean, comfortable bed in a room
with a few other youths.

My first night in Covenant House was the first time I had felt even
mildly safe or comfortable in more than a month.

The staff at Covenant House were on my case from day one. It was made
clear from the get-go that this wasn't a flophouse and that there
were conditions to my stay. They pushed me to seek out addictions
counselling, and take a realistic look at what I was doing. A man
named John, a recovering addict himself, spent a lot of time with me,
encouraging me to seek residential treatment to address my addictions.

I committed to a plan and was assured that as long as I was working
on it, Covenant House would support me in any way that it could. I
learned the hard way how serious they had been about this deal.

If I deviated from my plan, came home high, or missed curfew, all of
which I did on several occasions, I had to find somewhere else to
stay for a couple of nights. Eventually I always came back to
Covenant House and every time I was welcomed back into the fold.

It took me two attempts at treatment before I made my way to
InnerVisions Recovery Society of B.C., where things began to turn
around. After treatment, I entered Covenant House's transitional
housing program, "Rights of Passage," which offers long-term housing
and an opportunity to form a solid foundation to move forward in life.

As I had for most of my life, I let drugs and alcohol screw the
opportunity up. I stole one of Covenant Houses VCRs and hit the
streets once more.

I returned to Covenant House's shelter and spent my last night there
on Oct. 16, 2003. The staff helped me get into detox, then back into
InnerVisions for my third attempt at recovery. I haven't touched a
drink or a drug, or slept in a shipping container, since.

Almost four years later, I resumed contact with Covenant House
through my work on the GVRD Regional Steering Committee on
Homelessness. I bought the house a new DVD player to replace the VCR
I stole a lifetime ago.

I have been working full-time as a facilitator and frontline worker
for InnerVisions Recovery Society for more than three years, helping
others like me to find their way, and I have recently founded the
RIND Youth Society, which serves to form a strong community of youth
who have had, or do have, struggles with substance abuse and want to
find a new way of life.

Without the help of Covenant House and InnerVisions, and the generous
people who support these organizations, I don't know where I'd be
today. I thank God every day that these people kept me from slipping
through the cracks and becoming just another derelict wandering Main
and Hastings wondering where it all went wrong.

I recently learned that Covenant House is looking to expand its
program to offer more beds to young people, and felt compelled to
pledge my support to the cause. During my time at Covenant House I
saw the staff turn away youth like me every night because there just
wasn't any more room, and every one of those kids could have been an
absolute tragedy.

Covenant House is a program that works; it is run by good people, and
they deserve our support.

Stuart Elmes works at InnerVisions Recovery Society.

Where They're At

InnerVisions Recovery Society of B.C.: www.Innervisionsrecovery.com

RIND (Recovery Is the New Dope) Youth Society: www.newdope.com

Covenant House Vancouver: www.covenanthousebc.org