Covenant House Vancouver

My working relationship began with Carrie during the summer when she and her boyfriend came to Vancouver from another province. When I first met Carrie I could see she was sweet and gentle woman with much kindness in her heart; I could tell she came from a good family background. As time passed and my relationship continued to develop with Carrie I noticed she carried with her a heavy weight of sadness and learned she suffered from bipolar disorder.

When Carrie came to Vancouver with her boyfriend, she wasn't on the streets long before she began coming into Covenant House to see how we could help them find housing, get off the streets, and begin a normal life. The first thing we began to do was help Carrie get set up to stay at the shelter at Covenant House. Carrie seemed interested in this option so we went through all the necessary procedures and she was set up to stay for the night. The next morning I learned that Carrie had left the shelter the evening before to see her boyfriend who was still on the street and never came back.

This experience was the first of many that our relationship would encounter over the course of the next 5 months. There were times when we were on the road to making progress but then Carrie would disappear for periods of time or we would set up arrangements to shelters, or meetings for her to get housing and she wouldn't show up.

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