OUT OF TREATMENT, BACK ON THE STREET

How Does Anybody Stay Clean When There Is No Place to Go?

I am writing -- I hope -- to make the public understand a bit better
what it means to be homeless, with nowhere to turn.

Not too long ago I attended the Salvation Army's Miracle Valley
treatment centre in Mission. I am a heroin addict who has been trying
to get help for some years, only to be disappointed time after time.

I went to Miracle Valley for the full 90 days and it cost a couple
thousand dollars a month. Social Services footed the bill.

When I completed the treatment, my spirits were high. I felt like I
was on the road to recovery and nothing could take me down. My family
and much loved ones were starting to trust me again.

Only I got back to Victoria and couldn't find anywhere to live on the
meagre amount that welfare supplies a single person.

I was told that until I could find somewhere cheap enough to live, I
could stay in the midst of where all the drug addicts and criminal
activity goes on, at Streetlink or the Salvation Army hostel.

This is not good for someone who has just come out of treatment,
especially after the government has just paid almost $6,000 for a
90-day treatment program.

Why wouldn't they go that extra mile and truly help those people, who
want to have a better life, by having somewhere secure for them to go
when they leave treatment or jails or institutions?

Instead, they throw a person basically back to the wolves and say,
here you go. Why not just give us a loaded rig or drugs and alcohol
right at the gates upon leaving jails, institutions or treatment centres?

It wasn't long at all before I was using drugs again and losing faith
and hope that any good things or positive change were going to happen.
Loved ones backed off. I had nowhere to turn. I was screwed again.

It is so crystal clear what is needed. Why can't it be dealt
with?

Are we really so dumb as a society that we don't see that after time
in a treatment centre or jail or just being homeless, support, housing
and after-care are needed? If homelessness, criminal activity and drug
addiction are looked at and frowned upon by society, then we should
take an honest look at what is really needed to deal with such issues.

There is much talk about homelessness and drug issues, but it seems
that by the time anything is done about it, I will be dead, or maybe
there will be a retirement village I can go to.

We need to help low-income people soon because things have been
spiralling out of control for some time.

I want help, but where is it? I am so tired of this revolving door, of
getting clean and sobering up only to be put back on the street. It's
frustrating and demoralizing and it really brings a guy down.

Oh, by the way, now I sit in jail on Wilkinson Road.

I'm in jail for a breach of my conditional sentence order, and guess
what? That is costing you, the taxpayers, about $300 a day.

Doesn't it make more sense to have somewhere for people who want help
to go? It would probably be more cost-effective in the long run.

Start housing people who want help, or the problem of drugs,
homelessness and criminal activity will only get worse in Victoria.

You don't have to take my word for it. But I have been living this
life for more than 20 years on the street, in jail, in treatment
centres, always to come out to nothing and put on the street again.

It's discouraging to a guy like me, and probably to others who realize
what needs to be done, not to mention families, friends and loved ones
who see this vicious circle first-hand.

But what do I know? I'm just one person with an opinion about what
could be done to stop such a growing problem. The current approach is
meant only to do one thing, and that's be a revolving door that keeps
us and the poor and working poor in one place. It's just not fair.

I want a better life, and I'm sure a lot of other people would agree
- -- house the homeless and deal with the drug issues and life and the
world, or at least Victoria, will start to become a much better place
for all.

I am trying to break this cycle and have been battling this for many
years.

Sometimes I believe that if support and after-care was there for the
masses, or those who wanted a better life, we would be able to see a
change in what some people seem to think of as the hopeless, incurable
savages of the street.

We need a solution now, not years down the road.