Sean’s Story

Sean’s first steps home

Two years ago, Sean never imagined he would spend a night in a shelter. At 60, he had built a full life. He worked for years as a contractor. He went back to school to earn a diploma in addiction counselling, and he spent years as program manager of a second-stage recovery house in Vancouver, teaching men the practical skills they’d need to live on their own: cooking, cleaning,even how to run a washing machine.

“I had the pleasure of helping many men recover,” he says.

He moved to Victoria to be close to his mother and to help her as she ages. When things didn’t work out as he had planned, he rented a room in an apartment in the Tillicum area. “I paid the rent. I did everything,” he says.

Then, with no notice, he was told to leave.

Renting a room left him with few protections, and suddenly he had nowhere to go. “I couldn’t believe how stunned I was,” Sean says. “So I just got on a bus and came here.”

Walking through the door Sean knew almost nothing about Our Place. Once, walking past an event outside 919 Pandora, he’d stopped to ask for a glass of water. That was all.

Walking in was terrifying. It wasn’t the people on the street that frightened him. It was the voice in his own head telling him he had failed.

The night staff were among the first people he met, and that first night, their kindness was all he had to hold on to.

“Our Place saved my life,” he says. “It’s really that simple for me.”

The hardest moment came the next morning, when shelter guests head outside at 7 a.m. so the building can be cleaned and made ready for the day.

After a lifetime of heading off to work at that hour, Sean found himself standing on the sidewalk with nowhere to go.

“That’s where it struck me,” he says.

“How did I get here?”

Finding his place

Later that morning, Sean came back inside and settled in for breakfast. That’s where he met Kristen Sanborn, Our Place’s social inclusion support worker for seniors, who introduced him to the 55-Plus Club. “Her kindness, her enthusiasm, it makes a difference,” he says.

At first, he admits, he wasn’t sure he belonged in a seniors’ program. “I didn’t connect with my own age,” he laughs.

It was on his second visit that it clicked.

“I thought, wait a minute, Sean, are you in denial? You ARE actually a senior. I’m okay here.”

He’s come to love the 11 o’clock circle, where members gather for coffee, treats and conversation.

“We cheer, we talk. It’s very freestyle and it moves very quickly,” he says.

“My brain moves very quickly, so it’s quite entertaining for me.”

He enjoys never knowing who’ll be at the table.

“Charming people,” he says. “You get different people all the time. It’s exciting, and I love it.”

Most of all, it’s the welcome. From his first days, members and staff made it clear they were glad he was there.

“We all enjoy you being here,” Kristen told him. Some might call that kind of warmth corny, but not Sean. “It’s not corny,” he says. Being accepted just as he is, he says, is helping him get back to his true self.

His first steps on the pathway

As a man who had always worked, Sean found the world of housing support completely unfamiliar. “I didn’t know about subsidies,” he says. “It was all foreign to me.”

Our Place’s housing staff took the time to sit with him, answer every question and walk alongside him through each step, from applications and paperwork to supports he never knew existed. That work has paid off quickly.

Sean is now moving into My Place, one of Our Place’s supportive housing locations, where he’ll be welcomed into another part of the Our Place family. Residents have a room that’s truly their own, along with meals and on-site support staff as they work toward long-term housing. There’s no signing up each night and no changing rooms. It’s their place, for as long as they need it.For Sean, it’s a place to feel settled and safe, and to catch his breath.

“It allows me breathing room,” he says. “Every day, every hour, I’m returning to okay. I forgot who I was.”

He’s clear that this is a beginning, not an ending. “It’s all just rebuilding for me,” he says. “That’s what I’m doing.”

Twenty-six days ago, Sean had nowhere to go. At Our Place, he found safety in our shelter, community in the 55-Plus Club and support to find a home. Now he is preparing to move into My Place. His story shows what can happen when someone has people alongside them at every step.

Twenty-six nights on a mat in a community centre may not sound like much to be thankful for. But Sean is grateful for every one of them.

“It’s been hard, but eye opening,” he says. “But necessary.”

That time gave him room to learn and grow, and now he’s ready for his move to My Place, a stable place of his own.

He doesn’t like to imagine where he’d be without the emergency shelter at Our Place. “If it weren’t for here…” he says, trailing off.

Every night, he and 55 others find safety, warmth and kindness at 919 Pandora. “What would our city be without these critical safety nets?”

Giving back

Sean says he admires how Our Place staff are “right in it” with the people they serve, and he already knows how he’d like to repay the kindness he’s received. “It’s a debt I can never repay, but I’ll try,” he says.

“I’d like to come back as a volunteer in the future.”

With his background in addiction counselling and years spent helping others rebuild their lives, he has a lot to offer. For now, he’s focused on taking the next step, with a community behind him.