One of the lowest points of her life came when her autistic young adult son was homeless, living on the streets of Prince George in 2015.
Now on the other side of that terrible time, Elda Egan decided to host the first Prince George Coldest Night of the Year walk on
Feb. 25 to help others that might be in a similar situation.
In partnership with St. Giles Presbyterian Church and AWAC, an organization that provides safe and supported housing to women and female youth at risk and on the streets, the event will begin and end at the church, located at 1500 Edmonton St.
There's an option for participants to walk two kilometre, 5 km or 10 km and return to the church for a light hot meal of either soup or chili and a bun - the kitchen coordinator hasn't decided which yet and is still seeking sponsors to help offset the cost.
The majority of funds raised will support AWAC, while the rest will help the church provide food to
St. Vincent de Paul Society's soup bus program and support the church's hamper program that sees about 40 hampers go to those in need every month.
The Coldest Night of the Year walk, which offers a hint of the challenges faced by those people who are homeless, started in Ontario in 2011, and events have started popping up all over Canada since then.
The inspiration behind Egan organizing the event is her high-functioning autistic, bi-polar schizophrenic son who was doing very well on a particular medication that suddenly became intolerable because it caused serious health issues. When other medication did not work, her son began self-medicating and soon lost the housing that he was in through Community Living and spent some time in hospital. When hospital staff determined they could not do much more for him, they released him to the street, said Egan.
"That was one of the lowest points of my life," said Egan.
"That was two years ago and he was on the streets for about three or four months and it was quite horrendous. Within a 30-day period, he'd had more than 30 police incidents because he was so unstable and police were just reacting to what they could see."
There was a Catch 22. Because he has autism, he's eligible for housing through Community Living but because he had addictions issues they could not provide a home. It was suggested he go to Baldy Hughes therapeutic farm and community but because he's autistic they were not equipped to help him either and the hospital wouldn't take him to stabilize him without him having housing because he couldn't stay stable homeless.
"So in the meantime my son was wandering the streets of Prince George and doing crazy things," said Egan. "He was on a bus once and he lunged at an older woman on the bus because he said he felt she was looking at him and burning him with her eyes."
Egan's son, who she wishes to remain unidentified, would not go to the shelters because in his mental state he believed he was not safe there.
"I was so afraid he was going to die out on the streets," said Egan.
Out of desperation, Egan reached out to a media outlet to tell her story. As a result of some light shed on the situation, Egan's son was admitted to the University Hospital of Northern B.C. until he could be transferred to the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction where he stayed for several months. When Egan visited her son at the Burnaby Centre, she also visited her aunt and uncle who participated in the Coldest Night of the Year walk, which she attended as well.
"Because it was at the point where my son had just finished being homeless, it was really meaningful and that's when I thought we should have something like that in Prince George," said Egan.
Egan's son was able to stabilize at the centre and returned to Prince George to Community Living housing where he still resides.
"He's always one bad decision away from losing housing but fortunately he gets really good support through an advocate to help keep him in his housing," said Egan. "It's always an adventure with him because that's the nature of who he is."
Egan had her son visit on Christmas Day, something she wasn't sure would ever happen again.
"It was wonderful," said Egan.
"I never thought that I would see him opening another present and he had little presents for us and it was one of my biggest joys that he could connect that way."
Egan is organizing the walk for one reason.
"If we can help anyone get off the streets and save any lives then we've done something," said Egan.
"That's why we're doing this."
Anyone wishing to participate can visit the event's website at bit.ly/2klUGWW for information.
