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Shelter offers ‘positive energy’ From page 3
People in the shelter want what everyone else wants, she says: “a warm meal, a friendly face and someone who gives a damn.” For Rhea, a small, pretty woman with long blonde hair, the North Shore shelter has offered her a piece of stability as she tries to put her life back together. The shelter is a place with “positive energy,” she says. “You don’t walk out and see needle users and crack heads.” A self-described crack addict herself, Rhea says the shelter has offered her the best chance to get clean since she arrived in North Vancouver last summer. Since then she’s been in and out of the shelter a couple of times. She left once, she says, and got an apartment up at Chesterfield and 19th. It didn’t take too long to return to her old habits. “I went back downhill, using NEWS photo Paul McGrath every day. I’m 30. I started using NORTH Shore Shelter resource worker Teresa Picher talks with a client at the drugs when I was 19.” She has lost two children to West Second Street facility for the homeless. her addiction — one who she gave up through adoption and another who was taken by social “I have faith,” she says. “I’m a faithful person. I’m hoping I can learn services. to be continuously clean.” “They did the right thing,” she says, wiping away tears. “It’s ••• nothing to be proud of, but it’s where I’ve been.” People like Rhea and Fergie who are struggling with addictions Her parents live elsewhere in the province, but, “When I start — or mental illness — do make up a sizable portion of the shelter using I don’t talk to them. I don’t lie very well.” population. “It’s the first thing people think of,” says Yurkowsky. The shelter and its staff support — plus others at the Harvest “But it’s not everyone.” Project and Salvation Army — have been a refuge in her battle to get There are seniors in financial crisis who come through the door, off crack, she says, despite several relapses. “When you’re out there she says. There are people who’ve lost their jobs and “they didn’t have enough savings to look for a new job.” (on the street), you’re stuck.” Regardless of how or why they arrive, “They are our brothers Rhea says she’s now waiting to get into a residential treatment program. “I want it. Nobody forced me to do it.” See Be page 10 She’s hopeful this time will be the one that will make a difference.