A pregnant unhoused Prince George woman now feels safer after moving into supportive housing at the Knight’s Inn.
Candice Prince, 36, and her partner secured housing after local advocate Philip Fredriksson helped the couple connect with social service agencies.
Prince had been unhoused for the past three years, living at Millennium Park on First Avenue and moving to Moccasin Flats after it was removed in September.
“It’s scary. I’m glad we got out of there when we did,” said Prince.
She said when the couple was living at Millennium Park they weren’t having their things stolen and no one was bothering them but things changed when they moved to the Moccasin Flats encampment.
“As soon as we move down there, it wasn’t even like a week later, that our stuff was being taken and our tent was getting cut up and it’s just scary,” she said.
Prince says she doesn’t know how far along she is yet because she hasn’t been able to see her doctor, but she was really worried about being pregnant and unhoused, especially because of her health conditions.
“I didn’t know what we were going to do. We had no money and no connections or anything. We didn’t know anybody. We were kind of lost,” she said.
“I am still nervous because of my health and my blood clots, and my legs and lungs, and it will cause health problems with the baby.”
The couple said that having housing at the Knight’s Inn “brings down the worry” and Prince added that “it just feels more safe”.
She said that living without housing has been really hard especially because of the way they were treated by the public.
“We dealt with a lot of rejection fighting for what we needed. Just trying to get a place to stay. We would go to hotels, and we would have money, but they wouldn’t let us stay there and then when we did get a hotel they would have the manager – you could just tell they didn’t want us there,” she said.
“I try not to let all of that get to me. It was really hard to keep calm and try not to get all angry with everybody that made us feel like we weren’t good enough.”
Prince said she has been struggling with chronic pain since she had her first child and was taking prescription pain killers prescribed by her doctor, but really began to struggle when she lost custody of her son.
“It all started when they took my son away from me. I wasn’t doing any other drugs then, I was taking prescription and that was it, and after I lost my son, I just… I don’t know, it started the problem.”
She said her son is safe and in good hands, but she hasn’t been able to see him since last Christmas.
Prince said she feels like having a safe place to stay is the first step for the couple.
“We need to try and get a bigger home and work on that. What we have now is great. I would just like to be settled in an actual home and try and get my son back and get everything done before baby is born,” she said.
Milton added that now that he has housing he wants to try and get into detox and then treatment.
“It’s a long ways but we will get there,” said Prince. “I just have to deal with my health and baby right now, but now that we have a place, we should be fine. It is fine, but I’m dealing with a lot right now.”
This is another instalment in a series of features the Prince George Citizen will be doing to chronicle the stories of unhoused individuals within the city. If you know someone who would like to share their story please contact [email protected].
