Cities across Greater Vancouver have struggled for years to solve homelessness, and Port Coquitlam is no exception. It has one of the fastest growing homeless populations in the Lower Mainland.
But PoCo's new mayor wants to change that with the help of Adele Garofano, a woman who has lived on the streets.
"We are shunned, looked down upon that we're almost nothing and it's very degrading," said Garofano.
Last autumn, Garofano was struggling to overcome a drug addiction while living in the bushes of Port Coquitlam.
She cleaned up her act, kicked her drug habit, and found a home just in time for Christmas. Now she's helping other people faced with homelessness as part of the Mayor's Action Team on Homelessness.
"I want to help my friends, I can't walk away from there anymore at -6 degrees, there has to be something out there that can be done," Garofano said.
Council recently proposed spending money on fences to keep homeless people out of parks and under bridges. Now Mayor Greg Moore wants homeless people at the table.
"They bring the knowledge of what it's like to be on the streets, what the challenges they go through on a day-to-day basis," Moore said.
"They also put a face to homelessness... I don't think a lot of people in the community understand who are the homeless," he added.
Now that Garofano has a roof over her head, all she wants to do is help people.
"I was indoors at Christmas time and cooked for my landlord's family," Garofano said. "I want that oven now to cook for all of these people."
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Carrie Stefanson.
