14 •• The The Langley Langley Times Times •• Thursday, Thursday, October October 4, 4, 2012 2012
news
A Starting Point for Langley’s homeless Oldest homeless person is 89, youngest is 11
Monique TaMMinga Times Reporter
The name says it all -- Starting Point. Langley’s homeless outreach services in partnership with Aldergrove Neighbourhood Services has opened up an office in the heart of Langley City, on Eastleigh Crescent, that is a drop-in spot for those in need, said outreach worker Fraser Holland.
A one stop-shop, if you will, for young and old looking for help with filling out welfare forms, tax returns (which are now required to receive welfare) and to find housing or emergency help of all kinds, said Holland. “Before I was out in the community at different locations, from the soup kitchens to the bush and I was hard to track down,” said Holland. “Now, people can come here five days a week and there will always be an outreach worker here.” The success of the outreach program has allowed Stepping Stone to hire a fourth outreach worker. His function is mainly to work with the homeless at the
s ' e i l r Cha
Gateway of Hope. Langley’s homeless population is growing. Holland said his oldest client is 89 years old. Here’s another telling number: Out of the hundreds Holland works with, 255 are 55 and older. “That means I’m dealing with cognitive issues and other age related health problems,” he said. As they got older and stuck in their addictions, along with age related issues, they become harder and harder to house, he said. Just through word of mouth, they have already had 280 different people through the doors of Starting Point. In the meantime, the Gateway of Hope homeless shelter is run-
ning at 108 per cent. “We have to look at prevention, making sure youth get the help the need before being homeless becomes entrenched in them,” he said. That’s where ANS comes in, with their youngest client being 11 years old. Alison Cartier, ANS youth housing and placement support worker, said her role is to prevent youth from living on the streets. “When home isn’t an option, youth can come to us here and we can do housing searches together, find a safe place to live and set up a life plan,” she said. Because there is no shelter for youth, a lot of teens will couch surf so they can stay in
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