The boys carrying furnishings into Jimmy Howland’s new residence handled him like a celeb.
They’d seen Howland, 55, dashing his wheelchair down a hill in central Vancouver a number of occasions. These rides turned considered one of Howland’s favourite pastimes after he turned homeless and misplaced his leg in 2020.
Howland, whom The Columbian has interviewed a number of occasions over the previous few years, mentioned considered one of Vancouver’s 20-unit Protected Keep shelter communities not solely helped him get an residence however stuffed him with self-confidence and pleasure.
“I didn’t know I was going to be here. I didn’t know I’d be rockin’ it down that hill,” he mentioned. “I was unstoppable.”
A time of loss
Howland began utilizing medicine at a younger age, turning into hooked on meth at 17. Though he labored for years as a locksmith — a household commerce he beloved — he began utilizing medicine extra closely in 2013 when his father died, he mentioned.
“I was not afraid of this world because he was in it,” Howland mentioned. “I went to drugs, and I never worked. I just was broken, addicted.”
He was residing in Portland together with his ex-fiancée, Gina Muehe, and their youngsters on the time. (Though he and Muehe by no means married, they remained buddies and roommates.)
In February 2020, one month earlier than the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the household was evicted. One among their youngsters was sufficiently old to reside on her personal and handle her youthful sister, Howland mentioned. However Howland and Muehe turned homeless.
For a time, they lived on the streets of Vancouver in homeless camps. The pandemic threw a wrench into any hope he had of shifting up, Howland mentioned. Then, he encountered an excellent larger setback.
In June 2020, Howland awoke with horrible ache in his leg — a blood clot, docs informed him. At first, the docs thought they’d solely need to take away just a few toes. However the preliminary process revealed there was no hope for saving his leg.
“And boom — instant bawling. I’ve never instantly bawled,” Howland recalled. “There goes my dancing, there goes my running, there goes my sports.”
Whereas recovering from amputation, he lived with a member of the family in Portland. Nevertheless it didn’t work out. He ended up homeless once more.
Thoughts vs. matter
When Howland returned to the streets, somebody provided him small tablets referred to as “blues” and informed him to burn and smoke them. He had by no means felt something like fentanyl — the deadliest drug on Clark County streets.
At some point, he tried powdered fentanyl, which is commonly stronger than the tablets. His subsequent reminiscence is of a younger man shaking him. He had delivered Howland an overdose reversal remedy referred to as Narcan thrice. Howland refers to it because the time he died.
“I said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘You just killed yourself, Jimmy,’” Howland recalled.
Finally, Muehe discovered an residence. And after over a 12 months of homelessness and 6 months of fentanyl habit, outreach staff discovered Howland a spot in Hope Village. It’s one of many metropolis of Vancouver’s 4 Protected Keep shelters, which every have 20 small items for folks experiencing homelessness.
That’s the place Howland met Brian Norris, govt director of Stay, Love, Outreach, which operates Hope Village.
“(Howland) definitely had a great spirit about him, but you could also tell he was struggling, too,” Norris mentioned.
Norris mentioned Howland refused to be something however sturdy. After two months within the Protected Keep shelter, Howland give up fentanyl, a feat that comes with virtually insufferable flu-like signs.
Analysis means that solely 7 % of fentanyl customers can withdraw from the drug efficiently with out medication-assisted remedy. However Howland did it, with out counseling, too.
Howland remembers writhing in agony in his small mattress, beset by vivid desires and hallucinations. In a single occasion, his physique double stood throughout from him, Howland mentioned, screaming at him to discover a hit.
“It split me. I was enraged with myself. My body was enraged with my mind,” Howland mentioned. “I just kept telling myself, ‘We’re going to get to the other side.’”
Village handyman
As soon as freed from habit, Howland turned generally known as Hope Village’s slightly exuberant handyman.
Hope Village helped him construct up his toolbox, and in alternate, Howland helped make things better. In his free time, he labored on wooden tasks, together with fowl homes and coat racks.
Norris mentioned it made him pleased to look at Howland tinker and construct.
“It’s really cool seeing people find where their joy lies,” Norris mentioned.
For years, Howland watched as folks in Hope Village got here and went, congratulating every of them as they moved into housing. He didn’t perceive why it was taking so lengthy for his personal celebration.
Norris mentioned Howland scored low on vulnerability indexes used to prioritize housing for individuals who want it most. Howland mentioned he didn’t see himself as weak.
However after three years, a studio residence in Vancouver Housing Authority’s Meriwether Place (backed everlasting supportive housing) opened up. Lastly, he may transfer ahead.
As Howland admired his new wooden furnishings because it was loaded into his personal area, he whooped a number of occasions with pleasure and kicking again in his wheelchair. (He tried to assist unload the furnishings himself, however the movers refused in unison.)
After every thing was in its proper place, Howland sat with Muehe, who came over, on Howland’s new sofa below an image of a lion.
“I’m really proud of you,” Muehe mentioned as she turned to Howland. “We started this journey together.”
Howland hopes to grow to be a locksmith once more and have his youngsters go to quickly.
“I did not know what I was so freaking capable of. I didn’t know I was Superman — and that’s what Hope Village got through to me,” Howland mentioned. “Holy crap, if I knew then what I know now I’d be like, ‘Take that leg. I gotta go!’”
