Ray Tufford is only half joking when he says all he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth.
The Niagara Falls, Ont.-born labourer has hepatitis C and was left with no teeth after years of drug addiction. Now he’s on a natural high after receiving a monthly disability allowance from social services, with long-awaited dentures due by Christmas.
“Yeah, that’s what I want,” said Tufford, 43, who is thankful to Victoria Cool Aid Society that he finally has a place he can call home after 10 years on the streets.
“It makes a big difference. You can have a life. I have a high-protein diet, and I’m covered for my dental work.”
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The recovering addict lives at Queen’s Manor, the supportive-housing project in a former Traveller’s Inn that was purchased by the City of Victoria in 2010 and is operated by Cool Aid.
Tufford once “hid in the pipe” when he was on the street, but now cycles to the pharmacy to receive methadone, “which keeps me off the opiates,” as part of his vow to stay clean and sober and start fresh.
“You can’t believe how it feels when you come home and close that door behind you and lock it. Before that, it was a pipe dream,” said Tufford, who slept in local shelters after breaking up with a caregiver with whom he moved to Victoria from Calgary 15 years ago.
He met her while working for a moving company, and lost her after he “found drugs and the wrong people” here, he said.
Tufford said the people of B.C., and Victoria in particular, deserve a pat on the back for increasingly stepping up to the plate to help the less fortunate with programs and services he could only have dreamed of accessing three years ago.
“They don’t patronize you,” he said, tipping his hat to Cool Aid. “They talk to you man to man.”
While many like himself who have struggled with addiction or fallen on hard times are grateful for access to agencies like the Times Colonist Christmas Fund, Tufford said most aren’t looking for a free ride.
“Some people want a silver platter, but I’m cool with a paper plate,” said Tufford, who hopes he can visit his family in Ontario for the first time in two decades with a small income he earns doing maintenance on his building.
“Before, all I had to give them was negative news,” said Tufford, whose goals include becoming computer-literate and independent.
“I threw away a lot of things. Money was the least of it. You lose people’s trust and faith.”
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