Mothers in recovery are reuniting with their children, thanks to housing designed to help | CBC News

Leaping through the courtyard of her new home in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, 10-year-old Serenity shows off all the things she likes about the place. 

She bounces a basketball, turns a cartwheel, points to the cubby where she puts her bookbag at the after-school program. 

But when asked about why she likes living here, she brings up something else entirely — her mom. 

“I really love her, I was born with her,” she said. 

“It was kind of sad not having her when I was living with my grandma. I’m way more happy because I’m living with my actual parent.” 

Serenity’s mom, Katy, is a recovering drug addict. When Serenity was seven she was placed in the custody of her paternal grandmother because of Katy’s drug use.  The pair reunited 10 months ago, something made possible because of where they live. 

They have a two-bedroom apartment in the Union Gospel Mission’s Women & Family’s Centre, a seven-storey building with 63 units of supportive housing for women, 33 of which are designed especially for mothers in recovery and their children. 

The concept, which is largely funded by private donations: keep families together, create supports to help them heal, and break the generational cycle of addiction. Some floors are dedicated to women in treatment, and others provide supportive housing once that treatment is completed. 

“I really love this building a lot, I think it’s saved my life big time,” said Katy, who started using drugs at 14 and spent much of her own childhood in foster care. CBC News agreed to use the residents’ and their children’s first names only to prevent harassment related to the stigma of drug addiction. 

The 36-year old gestures to the window, and says if she wasn’t able to live with Serenity she’d be “out there, using, and probably dead by now.” 

Given that Katy is a former heroin user, and British Columbia’s toxic drug crisis continues to kill close to seven people each day, that blunt assessment isn’t off base. 

Women who use drugs and live on the streets face additional dangers, including sexual violence. Addicted mothers feel shame and face stigma, explains Tara MacDonald, the director of the centre where where Katy and Serenity live. So far, seven families have been reunited at the centre, not counting the mothers who have been allowed to stay with their infants.

“If we can keep children with their parents, and we can help people learn to parent … if we can remove those obstacles and barriers,” said MacDonald, “that’s how things change.” 

A unique approach

The Union Gospel Mission’s (UGM) Women & Family Centre is one of a growing number of facilities across the country reflecting changing attitudes toward addicted mothers as the toxic drug crisis intensifies.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says in 2020, 1755 babies were hospitalized because of exposure to drugs during pregnancy — a 73 per cent increase since 2010.

In that same decade, there has been increased awareness that keeping mothers and children together in recovery is better for both parent and the child, says Heather Watson, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Separating women from their infants is especially detrimental, she says. 

“We see incredibly high rates of relapse, high rates of unintended overdose both survived and fatal and we also see profound postpartum depression, with a really high risk for suicide.” 

As jurisdictions across the country grapple with how to help moms and babies, UGM’s program stands out in three ways: the supports offered, the level of accommodation, and how long women get to stay.

Everything happens in the same place, from recovery treatment to day care to after-school programming. The goal is to build a community where mothers have the support they need to stay sober. Although the organization is faith-based, there is no obligation to participate in religious programming. Women must abstain from drugs to live at the centre. 

Money was spent to make sure the units don’t feel cheap or institutional, something possible because most of the funding to build and run it comes from private donations. 

And, perhaps most significantly, says MacDonald, women can stay at the centre for up to five years. 

“We recognized that trauma and poverty and the oppression that people have experienced, that’s not something that [with] counseling and a few months of classes, all of a sudden it’s OK, I’m good,” said MacDonald. 

“It really gave people that opportunity to heal to a point where substances didn’t have that same draw, the same pull, and they could reinvent, kind of what life could look like for them. “

John Kelly,  professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the president of the American Board of Psychology, says that studies show after five years of full remission, the relapse risk for a recovering addict drops down to 15 per cent, about the same rate of risk as the general population. 

“That’s a really good time line to make some goals,” said Tianna, 31. She recently moved into a two-bedroom apartment at UGM after being reunited with her nine-year-old son, Cairo. 

Able to breathe again

Tianna plans on completing a four-year degree in social work while she and Cairo live at the centre.

Before she became addicted to crystal meth during an abusive relationship, Tianna was an early childhood educator. It only took a year for her to lose her job, contact with her family and custody of her son. A bad hit — meth laced with fentanyl — landed her in hospital.

An outreach worker connected her with detox and treatment, and ultimately the chance to be reunited with her son at UGM. 

She’s hard on herself about her past. 

“I felt a lot of shame, about myself as a mother, as a woman, especially having come from a good family and having a career,” she said 

“I felt like I was better than all that, it  didn’t help that I was being judged by the whole world.” 

When she walked into her new apartment, she said, it felt like she could breathe again.  From two big windows in her corner unit, she can see the Port of Vancouver and North Vancouver’s mountains in the distance — a view shared with some of the most expensive real estate in the country. 

“I felt really loved on, really cared for, like we did deserve it.”

Building in a sense of worthiness is deliberate, explains MacDonald. The architect approached lighting, furnishings and layout with an eye to creating hope. 

“We spend hours over every detail, about how this could not feel institutionalized, not sacrifice when it came to quality,” she said, adding that it did mean spending more money than anticipated. Of the $35.95 million raised for the building’s construction, close to $20 million came from private donations, and the remainder from various government grants. Private donors also fund more than 90 per cent of operating expenses, according to UGM.

“We really felt it was important we were showing how much we value these individuals.” 

More staff needed

The approach has the support of the B.C. government. The second floor is designed especially for women in recovery and their infants. Many are under supervision orders, meaning that without a safe place to stay, the infants would likely be separated from their mothers. 

In a statement, B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development says UGM is one of several organizations it works with to help families stay together. 

“Their programs include wraparound supports and services for infants and new mothers and they work collaboratively with the ministry to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child and parent.” 

Leigh got sober when she was pregnant with her daughter.  The baby was just two weeks old when the pair entered an earlier version of UGM’s program, before the new building was built. 

She says one of the biggest reasons why the Women & Families Centre’s approach works is because there is support from women who have been through the same thing, at various stages of recovery. 

“People who have been there, they know the programs, they understand where you’ve been, they can sympathize, they can empathize,” said Leigh. CBC News agreed to use her middle name only to prevent harassment related to the stigma of drug addiction. 

More than two years clean, Leigh is now employed at UGM as a peer support worker. 

Workers are something the Women & Families Centre needs, badly. Despite a waiting list, some units remain empty — half of those dedicated to moms and babies, and 35 per cent of the other supportive housing units — because they don’t currently have enough staff. 

“It’s just been a real struggle to recruit,” she said. “We’re on the cusp of filling some of these last, lingering positions so we can safely have more occupancy.” 

Katy says Serenity is doing well in school, making friends, and seems happy. The two make music together, there’s a guitar and an electric piano in their new apartment. Her room is full of stuffed unicorns, and she points out her favorite sparkly dresses in her closet. 

She says she feels safe with her mom in her new home. And Katy is getting used to hearing something she longed for. 

“She’ll just randomly go ‘I love you’ — and I’ve been waiting to hear that for a long time.”