‘We are trying to help people who can’t do this on their own, to turn it around’: My Place is making its mark

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“I always tell him that if I didn’t have him, I would be lost,” she says.

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It has been roughly five years since life for the couple began spiralling out of control.

In that time, they say they have seen family, stability, safety and security all crumble away. It left them with few options other than to bounce between sleeping rough and staying in a crowded temporary shelter in downtown Vernon.

“We’ve been at our worst on the streets,” Jamie said. “We need to get away from the drugs and have a better life. That’s what I know. We don’t want to be doing drugs anymore.”

Wiping her nose, a tear runs down to Robyn’s chin before she catches it with the sleeve of her shirt.

“Forget about getting clean,” she says in a cracked voice. “It’s everywhere when you are homeless. We are always trying to stop drugs, but it is always around us. Trying to stay away from drugs while living on the streets is almost impossible.”

Many people will make the argument that supportive housing is an important step in addressing homelessness, and for many, even addressing addiction.

In May, My Place opened in Vernon. The building is a 52-unit, supportive housing development run by Turning Points Collaborative Society.

The province invested $11 million to construct the project, and it will supply an annual operating budget to fund the facility every year.

“My Place is based on the housing first model, which has been proven to be extremely successful in many provinces in Canada as well as throughout the United States,” Jacob Philp, the My Place program coordinator, said.

“Housing first takes people who have struggled to stay housed, the people who are chronically homeless due to any number of circumstances, whether that be mental illness or addiction. From a city’s perspective, the most expensive kind of homelessness, and we house them.”

My Place residents, like Jamie and Robyn, will be able to access supports and programs aimed at helping with employment, addiction and mental health; albeit, these programs are not mandatory.

“Nothing is mandatory because we house you first, but through building trusting relationships we can then connect with them if they need help with mental health or if they need help with addiction,” Philp said.

Being a person in long-term recovery, Philp’s area of expertise is in addiction — something he knows all too well.

His story of addiction, homelessness and eventual recovery was well-publicized in the media.

Through sharing his story, Philp has developed a reputation as an advocate for peers and people with lived experience.

He says that he is the example of what is possible and Philp uses his experiences to connect with the residents of My Place.

“When I was struggling with homelessness and addiction, the people that I trusted, the people that I understood, the people that I believed, were the people that had been there, and I get that when I communicate with our folks here,” he said.

According to Philp, part of what makes supportive housing work is the eclectic mix of staff from all backgrounds with all kinds of lived experience.

“All of us seem to have our own kind of relationships with pretty much most of our clients. Through our staff, we sit down and develop case plans with our clients,” he said.

“We don’t have to identify the barriers to housing, so we can look at what the other challenges or barriers they are facing. We can identify a barrier, sit with our clients and identify what they are struggling with or what barriers they are facing and we try and work on it with them in a way they are comfortable with.”

Residents of My Place are not solely people living with addiction, either. The residents’ life experiences vary as each person faces a different challenge.

“We have people who have been sleeping outside for a long, long time,” Philp said. “We have people coming from other service providers in the community who have mental health issues that prevented them from finding stable housing. We have a vast array of people and the common theme is they have all struggled to find stable housing, and that is the common goal of the people we have brought in: Provide stable housing.”

As is the case with many supportive housing projects, My Place has its supporters and its opponents.

Some opponents argue that the surrounding area will experience an increase in crime and drug use. Others say projects like My Place just enable, and others still believe the housing first model doesn’t work.

“It depends on how you define success,” Philp said.

“Is a success getting somebody into treatment? Is success setting up a service plan for a resident? Is success getting somebody who has been chronically homeless for 40 years off the streets?

“We are trying to help people who can’t do this on their own, to turn it around.

“I was one of these people, just in a different community. Now, I am in a position to share that with our folks,” he added.

According to Philp, My Place completes the continuum of care within Turning Points Collaborative Society.

“Up until now, we have always moved folks around who have maybe come from the shelter and moved to Bill’s Place and then to Blair Apartments, maybe wheels fall off they go back to Bill’s Place, whatever that might look like to somebody, but this really does afford us that ability to move people within our programs to wherever it is they are.”

In May, Jamie and Robyn moved from the temporary shelter in downtown Vernon to My Place.

Since then, they have started methadone treatment and a program called wellbriety. According to the North Okanagan Friendship Centre website, it is a way to live through the best attributes of traditional Indigenous cultures.

“I appreciate everything that they have done for us,” Robyn said about the My Place staff. “We haven’t had a chance to rest in forever; to be by ourselves. We can now.”

“We want to be there for each other,” Jamie says. “We want to have a life together. This is a step in the right direction.”

“It’s FABEM,” Robyn says. “Forever Always Beyond Eternity Marriage. We have a lot of love.”

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*Bill’s Place is an addictions recovery home in Vernon run by Turning Points Collaborative Society.

*Blair Apartments is an affordable housing complex run by Turning Points Collaborative Society.

*Robyn and Jamie’s names have been changed to protect their identity.