Covenant House Vancouver

It was cold and rainy morning on the downtown streets of Vancouver. My partner and I were doing our routine morning outreach down Granville. On this particular damp morning, we came upon a young woman asking for change. As I looked to her weak body I could tell the cool temperature was taking a toll as she was shaking hiding beneath a canopy at the entrance way of a store. Her knees were pressed against her chest trying to conserve whatever heat remained. The closer we walked to this young woman I realized I knew her; her name was Stephanie, but we called her Steph. Part of me was saddened, as the last news I heard about her was she was living with her parents. I wondered what happened to her and was shocked as to why she was back on the streets downtown.

Immediately I called her name and asked her how she was doing. Initially she tried to hide her face from us, as if embarrassed by the situation she had fallen back into. She eventually looked up and I asked her how she was doing again. Steph then went on to describe to us how she had relapsed after being clean from heroin for 5 months. She had come back to downtown Vancouver with her Mom for an appointment but the memories of her past overwhelmed her as well as the cravings for a fix.

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