The streets are cold places for the women who walk them selling their bodies, but when the mercury dips to this week's temperatures it can be especially cruel punishment.
Alison Paul and the volunteers of the New Hope Society were on 24-hour alert for calls to their hotline in the cold snap. Women forced into survival sex have that number and were calling at all hours for rescue from the weather.
There were more calls this year than last, said Paul, New Hope's executive director, but they are coming from fewer individual women out on the street in the extreme weather.
"I'm seeing an improvement in those numbers," Paul said. "Pretty much we are able to make sure everyone is in for the night. It is much better than last year when we had two in particular who were continuously out there even at minus 45. Sometimes people are banned from the shelters for different behavioral reasons, and sometimes there simply aren't enough beds for emergency shelter in Prince George even though the shelters work really hard to find ways to get people indoors."
Paul doesn't know the reasons fewer women are getting stuck out in the cold, but suspects it has to do with innovative and diligent work done by the shelters run by Active Support Against Poverty, the Association Advocating For Women and Children, Phoenix Transition Home and others.
New Hope had more good news as 2009 gave way to the new year. Paul said the front line society has been operating long enough now that its programs and storefront facility (1046 4th Ave.) seem to be slowly getting ingrained in the minds of the vulnerable women they aim to look after.
According to their intake statistics, about 170 individuals have utilized the New Hope menu of services about 3,000 total times since March, 2009.
Virtually all of them, said Paul, are addicted to drugs or at risk of becoming addicted.
"We are sending a lot more women to treatment these days," she said on a positive note, but stressed that amongst the steps to success were many sad stories too. "The addictions piece is coming along, we are seeing improvements. I don't mind sending the same woman to treatment 10 times because that 10th time might be the one that sticks. We are really working with the addictions piece and the shelter piece."
The trend that is causing the most concern to the New Hope board, staff and volunteers is the demographic of the women working the streets and black market brothels.
"What is a little frightening is, the average age is dropping. They are getting younger. I have files on most of my women, we update their notes, it is always good to keep track of our girls, and we are noticing the overall age getting younger," she said. "We are alarmed by this."
In addition to the 24-hour hotline, New Hope's facility is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. There used to be a weekend opening as well, but funding constraints have caused that to be lost. Paul said that is a big dent in their outreach abilities, and adds risk for the women they service, but the New Hope staff and volunteers are thankful to have another year's funding confirmed for what work they can do, and they intend to reach out to the community more than ever in 2010 to acquire more income. Anyone who can help is urged to e-mail Paul at newhopesociety@shaw.ca.
For comments on this story or tips, e-mail fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
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