When I came to Vancouver, I was a broken woman.
I wanted to make changes in my life, but I didn’t know how to do it. I had a criminal history and three months in recovery from substance abuse. It took me ten months to totally detox, but then I found myself alone and afraid.
I was sleeping on a friend’s couch. She smoked crack cocaine, but she only smoked it on the weekends. That was the safest place I knew.
After engaging in the recovering community, someone told me about Second Step Housing (the name at that time was YW Housing) so I made an appointment and filled out the paperwork. I didn’t think I had a chance. I was over 50 years old with no job, no rental history, poor credit, and I didn’t even have a driver’s license.
Then I met a woman who became my case manager and she asked me a few questions:
Was I:
I said yes and the rest is history; that was in the spring of 2000.
Today I am a productive member of society. I have a job, I pay taxes, and I vote. I get to be a human being again—a loving grandmother and an active community member. I get to live the life I always wanted.
—Patty Katz, Second Step Housing Graduate