Before he died, Nelson’s Michael Guy relied on a now-closed support centre

His mother Judith advocated for him in doctor appointments, made daily calls to outreach workers and travelled the province to try to convince him to get off the streets.

Michael was just 14 years old when an injury led to him being given morphine at a hospital. It was the start of a substance-use disorder that ended in a Nelson encampment on June 28, 2023, where he died of a drug poisoning. He was 42. Knowing Michael was at the Hub also offered his family a little relief from the constant and chronic stress over his health and whereabouts.

In the weeks since the facility’s closure, Kelly said his team has received a 70-per-cent increase in calls, ranging from reported shoplifting and disturbances to concern for the health of people seen on Nelson streets. But it didn’t take, and shortly after he left the family’s home in Nanaimo for the streets of Victoria.

Michael had his first son at age 21, which prompted him to get sober. He worked as a carpenter, and after his marriage collapsed he started another relationship that begat another boy. But that partnership also ended, and not long after Michael relapsed. After that, people 19 and older can return to the West Kootenay and enter the eight-bed Kootenay Boundary Adult Supported Recovery Program, which focuses on life skills training but requires completion of an intensive treatment program like the one in Kelowna.

But he also craved human connection, even a small acknowledgement that he existed. He found that at the Hub, where he could socialize with other people. “The worst part of removing the searching for drugs every day for people is that when that goes without some other supports, you have tons of time now but you have no interests. You have no way to to make the day productive.”He lived outdoors, began using street drugs again and soon developed a viral pneumonia that was likely exacerbated by his opiates, which can suppress the respiratory system.

On April 15, the Ministry of Addictions and Mental Health announced it was funding 240 new complex-care housing units for people living with mental health, trauma and addiction issues. None of the units will be located in the Kootenays.

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