A year and a half ago, life for Christina looked bleak.

Along with several other Fraser Valley Inn residents, the young woman was evicted from the downtown Abbotsford hotel in August 2005.

She and her boyfriend found shelter behind a dumpster before they moving into an empty house with homeless friends. But the house burned down, taking her faithful dog in the blaze.

Christina found her way to "Compassion Park," a temporary squatters' camp Mayor George Ferguson allowed to stand for a few months in April 2006.

A month earlier, the Community Outreach Program pilot project began.

Run by the Salvation Army and funded for half a year by the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, it sent workers into the hidden camps of the homeless in Abbotsford and Chilliwack.

In its first six months, the outreach team helped 162 people in Abbotsford look for housing. Of those, 48 people moved into permanent lodging, including Christina, who had been on the street for 10 months.

"The first thing I did was have a bubble bath with candles all around," Christina said in a six-month review of the outreach program.

"As far as I know, she's still in her apartment. She was even working for a while," said Dave Woodland, Salvation Army community pastor in Abbotsford.

The secret is connection

The role of the seven outreach workers was to build relationships and trust with the homeless men and women, identify their needs and their barriers. The outreach workers advocate for the homeless when everyone else had given up, including themselves, said Lisa Nalos, an outreach worker and the report's author.

"[They] needed someone to walk them through the process," added Woodland. "The secret, if there is a secret, is the opportunity to build relationships and trust with the individual and working with them one-on-one."

Once the human connection was made between a worker and a homeless person, things began to happen.

In Abbotsford, the workers contacted a total of 472 homeless people who spent their nights on the streets, in cars or on a friend's couch. By September, 48 people were in permanent lodging, 73 went into addictions treatment, and 54 went to transition houses.

From the start, outreach workers were excited with the response from the clients, and the hope it gave to the people in need was evident, said Woodland.

"For a while at first, it was a daily buzz, once people were getting into places," he said.

Woodland said the results to date as a "tremendous success."

"People who have been homeless for years are now in housing and making positive steps forward," he said.

As of December, 112 clients in Abbotsford and Mission have homes, while 175 went into addiction treatment or transitional housing.

THE WORK WILL CONTINUE

On Monday morning, outreach worker Arla McGregor helped another client into a treatment centre.

"One of our goals is building relationships with people, to treat each other with respect," she said. "We just try to support people to the point of giving them confidence so they can get back on their feet again and function in society."

With provincial funding, the Salvation Army continues the outreach program in Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and Hope.

Homelessness will remain a challenge, but the outreach work may reduce the time people are out on the streets, Woodland said.

"It ebbs and flows. People lose their residence for all kinds of reasons. We'll see some new faces but the nice thing is we have these programs."

Christina Toth
Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007
Reprinted with permission from the Abbotsford Times

From March to September 2006, outreach workers in Abbotsford contacted:

- 472 homeless
- 364 were men, 108 were women
- 162 sought housing
- 48 moved into permanent lodging
- 73 referred to addiction treatment
- 110 went to transition housing
- 6 referred to mental health
- 71 people got social assistance
- for 24, housing didn't work out

Illustration:
• Photo: Jean Konda-Witte/ Abbotsford Times

Salvation Army outreach worker Arla McGregor chats with Enio, right, and Melvin, left, at the Centre of Hope on Monday [Jan. 29] in Abbotsford. She had offered a pair of shoes to Enio, but they were too small. Mel, however, said he wanted the laces. Both men are homeless.