Vancouver’s mayor fails on homelessness pledge with hundreds still living outside http://t.co/KX2TLXHav9 pic.twitter.com/BMMAJ2pKuJ

— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) March 23, 2015

Augie Merasty: 86, homeless and a first-time author http://t.co/2GGVOhPO3L pic.twitter.com/lwNvF5DODi

— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) March 22, 2015

NANAIMO – 41 new units of supportive housing are currently under construction for men and women who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness in Nanaimo.

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The Granville Youth Health Centre offers a wide range of support, including primary care, mental health care, psychiatric assessment, counselling, independent living skills programs, and housing support for people 24 years old and under

At 23, Alex Mann-Kuefler dropped out of college and ended up in the Downtown Eastside. Beset by addiction and undiagnosed mental health issues, he stayed in a squalid SRO hotel for six months until a St. Paul’s Hospital psychiatrist with the Inner City Youth team knocked on his door.

“I didn’t have insight into my own illness,” said Mann-Kuefler, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. “But when I did find help, it changed my life and it allowed me to go back to a great quality of life again.”  Read the rest of this story and watch video at The Province…

After battling addictions for more than four decades, Debra Rowe now feels she is on the correct path, thanks in large part to her new home (image by Aaron Hinks/Nanaimo Daily News)

After 43 years of addiction, Debra Rowe now feels as though she is on a path to a new life, due at least in part to her new home in one of Nanaimo’s supportive housing residences.

Sober for the last seven months, it was just last summer that Rowe (with a daily habit of crack and alcohol) lay near death in a hospital bed in Kamloops with failing kidneys and was told to contact family members so they could come retrieve her body.  Read the rest of this story at Nanaimo Daily News…