News about a few of our regular guests

It's been a while since we've seen some of our regular guests, but we still manage to make contact with most of them.  Here's the news.  I'm using fictitious names:

"Carl", the man who took possession of a bachelor suite in Burnaby is still doing very well, presumably still enjoying his baths.

"Bud", who went into detox a week ago Saturday left the day he was scheduled to go into a recovery home. He was AWOL for the next few days and is apparently in a hospital now, although no one's been able to make contact with him to see how he's doing.  Confidentiality rules at places like detoxes and hospitals prevent access to information to most people, including ourselves.

Welcome supplies for Wally and Neil's new home

The two fellows who found an apartment together in Burnaby ("Neil" and "Wally") were doing well as of Saturday.   Wally landed the job he'd applied for and had worked two days.  I arranged to meet him in Richmond last Saturday and we went together to pick up a carload of household supplies and furniture from a friend of Margaret's.   He was overjoyed.  I dropped the stuff off at his place, where now 3 of our guests are staying.  Wally had a few options for what next: staying put, moving in with another person, taking a job in another city.  He was going to contact me once he'd sorted that out.


"Dorothy", the young woman with a dog hasn't been around much because her dog was hit by a car and hasn't been well enough to travel to the shelter on her bike.   We drove her and her dog to the shelter a couple nights and the last time the dog was looking pretty much normal.

Upgraded bike

The two fellows who each received a bag of empties are both doing well.  "Otto", the younger of the two, has been working and has more permanent accommodation at one of the shelters run by the Lookout Society.  And "Dave", the veteran, continues to have his ups and downs.    I met him at McDonald's when I went in to pick up Wally to take him to pick up his furniture.   Dave had just bought Wally a burger (they'd feuded at the shelter a couple times so this was great to see).  Dave was sporting a fresh hair cut, was clean shaven,  had a new ball cap and he took me outside to show off his bike: it now has 3 new rear red flashing lights, 2 new front headlights, a mirror and a new padded seat.  He had been hit by a car a month or so ago near the shelter and ICBC had arranged to cover the costs of fixing his bike, outfitting it with more safety gear and also gave him a cash settlement.  The cash allowed him to take a few days off from collecting empties and buy himself a few niceties.  He was still planning to enter a recovery house the end of January and his worker is trying to find him a home in Richmond for after the recovery program.  She's also arranging CPP for him -- he'll be eligible next month.