Over three editions of The News, we shine a light on people in the community who are helping those struggling with addiction, poverty, and mental illness on the streets in downtown Maple Ridge. They reach out not because it’s their job, or for pay, but simply because they care about their fellow humans. There are many of these Samaritans, and these are just some of the city’s stories.
It’s Saturday morning in Maple Ridge, and a group of people are working at the CEED Centre in Haney. They’re chatting and lighthearted, but the work they’re doing is changing lives, and even saving lives.
A large table is covered with a variety of boxes, and swift hands reach in, assembling care packages that will be given to people on the streets downtown. The five people doing the assembly line work have mostly been drug addicted and homeless themselves, so they know how good it feels to get a clean pair of socks or brush your teeth, after a long time of doing without.
They are now part of the Non-judgmental Recovery group, and they are getting people off the streets.
They grab water bottles, deodorant, toothbrushes, Wagon Wheels, granola bars, toques that a volunteer has knitted, and other items, and pack them into seal-able bags. They include a list of local resources that they nickname a Street Survival Guide. They will also hand out bag lunches provided by the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministry, at the same time.
They like to offer a couple of cigarettes, which are always appreciated, to spark a conversation.
They will hand out 30 of the packages every Saturday, and so far, they have given out some 1,400 since May. It’s all done with donations, and with no government funding.
More impressive, they’ve helped about 45 people get into detox, just since October.
Dena Jones, one of the group’s founders, said you can’t underestimate the importance of the hygiene products.
“You have to feel good about yourself to believe your worth it, to be able to make that change,” she said.
“That change” is what they’re really all about. Having been addicted, she knows how important it is to seize the moment – that one almost inevitable instant when a person who is addicted, and living outdoors, says they’ve had enough. They want to quit.
It can be fleeting – the addict’s resolve wavers, circumstances change, and if you talk to them in a week, or even an hour, they might have changed their mind. They think they’re fine where they are.
Unfortunately, there is a shortage of treatment beds in the province. So in that moment when the endless spinning carnival ride of addiction gets unbearable, and they want to get off, sometimes there is just no place for them to go. Too often there are waiting lists.
That lack of beds in detox facilities keeps people on the streets in B.C. In November, the province announced 195 new treatment beds and an additional $132 million, and people in the field said it will do little to quell the epidemic of overdose deaths in B.C.
“Being in recovery, we recognize in that moment when they’re done – it’s a moment,” said Jones.
When it happens, they work the phones, and they will drive people to anyplace that has an opening. That sounds basic, but whether because of COVID-19 protocols, or bureaucratic reasons, not there are not a lot of groups that can be so flexible. By driving drug users wanting rehab to a facility ASAP, the volunteers with the Non-judgmental Recovery group are filling a niche.
“We can usually move people the same day, or the next day,” said Jones. “We’ll drive them anywhere in the Lower Mainland.”
She founded the recovery group with her partner Jesse Sokol. He calls what they do “rapid recovery response.”
Sokol asks virtually all the drug users he speaks with if they are ready to do detox. Not everyone does, but he is willing to put it out there. If he gets the right answer, he drops everything and gets on the phone. There are waiting lists, but he also has dozens of pages of recovery houses he can call.
Sokol said doing this work, helping people recover their lives, feeds his soul.
“This is my program of recovery. This is how I continue to make it,” he said. “It’s just untapped joy, because this is my step 12, and this is the way I stay clean and sober.”
Jones too.
“I get high on that sh…” she said. “If I can get three people moved in a day – that’s our record, the trifecta, three people moved into treatment or recovery in a day – I’m on top of the moon.”
They were out handing out packages on Christmas Day, and on New Year’s Day. They said it was a great holiday.
They’re simple volunteers, and they consider the people they’re helping friends.
“We don’t just drop them off. We’re not done there. We stay in touch with them all the time,” said Jones. “The second they get out, whether because they’ve graduated or because something’s happened, we’re back there – ‘okay what do you want to try next?’ – whether it’s somewhere different, or housing, or whatever. It’s that continuum. Our job’s not done. We’re about the connection. These people are all my friends. They’re not our clients or anything. They have our numbers and they can call us whatever happens.”
READ ALSO: B.C. adding addiction treatment, transition services, minister says
Rafe had been living on the streets for about seven months before he was helped by Dena. He started doing drugs at 16, and by 19 fentanyl was his narcotic of choice. He was kicked out of the house by first his father, and then his grandmother. He doesn’t blame them.
“It was fair, because I wasn’t treating them fair. I was being a crappy human being. Drugs made me desperate. Drugs were more important to me than anything else, and I put drugs ahead of anyone.”
He was on the streets, but for a long time he wouldn’t admit he had a problem. Then he was barred from local shelters for six weeks.
“There’s rain, it’s freezing, and I don’t know where to lay my head at night,” he said.
He began to see himself winding up dead or in jail.
He asked Dena for help.
“She got me a bed that night at a youth shelter. I was there three nights, and then got into detox.”
He admits he has relapsed, but has gone 54 days at a stretch without using. “I felt amazing,” he said.
“I love Dena for how she helped me…” he said, and is impressed by the whole recovery group.
“They’re special because they help everyone out here on the streets. They care for people they don’t even know. They care so hard… They put so much work and effort into it, and they’re not getting paid.”
The group meets Wednesdays in Maple Ridge, Thursdays in Mission, and has a Zoom meeting as well.
It’s tailored for what they see as essential in recovery. It’s not 100 per cent abstinence. If someone needs to smoke cannabis to cope, they do. If someone relapses, it’s not an end, and there is no shame, said Jones.
“We’re still going to help you celebrate that 58 out of 60 days you stayed clean, and that’s the record for you,” she said.
“This is what I needed when I was out there,” said Jones.
She tries to be the person she needed when she was on the streets.
Anyone interested in contacting the group can email nonjudgmentalrecovery@gmail.com
READ ALSO: Samaritans of the streets – big hearts reaching out to Haney’s homeless
Have a story tip? Email: ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
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