For the first time in his adult life, Andrew Belfitt can think about getting his driver’s licence, finishing high school and helping others.
“This is the most steady I’ve been,” says the formerly homeless Belfitt, 27, outside a sweltering greenhouse and a vegetable garden he helps manage on Woodwynn Farm in Central Saanich.
The 193-acre farm is in its seventh year as a therapeutic refuge for the region’s homeless who are ready to make a life change.
The farm has faced setbacks, namely over bylaws and complaints from neighbours. But with a few years of experience behind it, executive director Richard Leblanc said it is successfully helping house and rehabilitate homeless people for a fraction of the cost of other services.
Belfitt has lived at Woodwynn Farm for about 16 months. It’s the longest he has stayed in one place since his mother left town when he was 17 and he ended up on the streets of Langford.
“I was on and off the streets for 10 years,” Belfitt said. “I’d sleep in underground parking lots … sometimes stay with family or friends.”
He dropped out of Pacific Secondary School — an alternative school in Colwood — in Grade 11, became an alcoholic and scraped by on odd jobs. He heard about Woodwynn Farm at an employment centre.
“I was a bit skeptical because I never heard of a place like this where people are kind of selfless, where they will help you,” said Belfitt, who is used to a life of fending for himself.
Since coming to Woodwynn, he has learned to cook and drive and is finishing high school. He said his personality has changed. He speaks up more, is friendlier and welcomes others to the community.
“I developed a really strong work ethic and am learning how to be a good role model for others,” Belfitt said.
Leblanc, Woodwynn’s founder, who has worked for years with homeless people in Greater Victoria, said Belfitt is an example of what can be accomplished at the farm program — which includes 6 a.m. yoga, group counselling sessions and long days of physical labour.
“We need to drive home right now there are effective methods and means to help people put homelessness behind them,” said Leblanc, noting the spotlight that maxed-out shelters and Victoria’s tent city have put on homelessness in Greater Victoria.
Leblanc said that according to his board’s calculations, the farm program can house, feed and provide programming for a participant for $16,000 a year.
“Compare that to the $60,000 it costs the public for people to be on the streets or in shelters downtown,” he said. A 2013 Simon Fraser University study estimated that street homeless people cost the public system an average of about $55,000 a year.
The City of Victoria said recently that dealing with homelessness cost taxpayers more than $1.6 million in the past year — with half attributed to issues surrounding the tent city on the courthouse grounds.
The Woodwynn program is not for everyone. Participants have to go through a week of detox and be ready to leave homelessness for good. They are asked to stay at the farm from one to three years, and most stay at least a few months.
“Our model is sobriety and self-reliance,” said Leblanc, who has not reached out to tent-city residents. Woodwynn works mostly through referral, when people are ready to get sober and leave the streets, he said.
About 40 to 50 people, mostly men, have been through the program. Six are staying at the farm and two more who are now in detox will soon arrive. Leblanc has room for about 12 participants, housed in donated campers and RVs with an outdoor shower and composting toilets built by participants. But he doesn’t have the staff to supervise that many. The farm has three paid staff with experience in social work and addictions, and a core team of four to eight volunteers.
“There’s no lack of demand,” Leblanc said. Participants hear about the farm through referrals, pamphlets at service providers such as the detox centre and sometimes through police.
Leblanc said the Saanich police bike unit has been particularly active in referring people to Woodwynn, sometimes even arranging transportation to the farm.
“We do more than move people along,” said Sgt. Andy Stuart. “We try to point people to services to help them. They’re part of our community.”
Woodwynn operates mostly on donated funds, with a small percentage of foundation grants and government assistance. Students from Royal Roads University and the University of Victoria, as well as other schools across Canada, come to do research and practicum work. There are also regular volunteers from around the world who work on the farm through the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms program.
Leblanc said he’s pleased with the growth of the farm, which provides food for the participants and produce for a summer market stand.
“We just finished a mountain of kale,” he said. Raspberries, hundreds of bulbs of garlic and rows of artichokes are among the expected fare this year. A gully of blackberry bushes was cleared to make way for apple trees purchased through a crowdfunding campaign.
Leblanc is also proud to show off the handiwork of participants such as Keith Prosser, a woodworker and recovering alcoholic who ended up on the streets of Victoria after a bad breakup and the failing health of his mother.
“Keith is an example of the level of skill some of the guys come with,” Leblanc said.
Prosser has been at Woodwynn only a few months, but he has already custom-built a wooden footbridge and elaborate door for the farm’s market building and is working on display crates.
“The work gives me purpose. I had kind of given up,” said Prosser, 48, in the wood shop. “I’m also in the best shape of my life.”
Leblanc envisioned the farm with about 100 participants, but is hoping for 40, after ongoing battles with neighbours and the District of Central Saanich.
“Our biggest hurdle has been the NIMBY thing,” said Leblanc. A sign at the entrance to the farm makes a cheeky play on the acronym, reading Welcome in My Backyard.
Over the years, neighbours have complained about everything from participants allegedly trespassing on neighbouring properties to the farm land being underused and annoyances such as a field of thistles going to seed.
Central Saanich has refused rezoning applications over the years that would allow non-farm uses of the land, and issued fines to Woodwynn for violating its permitted use. In 2014, the district went to court to close Woodwynn based on bylaw infractions and unauthorized use of agricultural land, but has since chosen to work with the farm.
Coun. Chris Graham said there have been several challenges stemming from the farm’s use of the land, “but it’s all part of the public process. We have to balance a number of interests,” he said.
Leblanc submitted his proposal for non-farm-use permits to the district in September 2015. These were returned with a request for more information in April. When the application is complete, it will be forwarded to council and the Agricultural Land Commission for approvals.
In the meantime, Leblanc plans to open Woodwynn for the summer season in July. The public can visit the market stand, an outside bistro and a peace garden built by local sculptor Deryk Houston and his family.
As for Belfitt, he has no plans to leave anytime soon and hopes to mentor new members of the farm community.
“If you’re down in the dumps and feel like you’re not going anywhere in life, this is definitely the place for you,” he said.
