Ex customer at Aurora Village healing camp struggles after returning to Yellowknife

Key takeaways: 

• One ex-customer defined the camp as ‘a piece of serenity… in a homeless individual’s life.’ 
• The famous tourist draws outside Yellowknife; Aurora Village performed as a healing camp to watch the under-housed population from COVID-19.
• It had a federal budget that ran out in April. 

An ex-client of the Aurora Village healing camp says it has been challenging to readjust to life in Yellowknife after undergoing on-the-land healing, personal counseling, and a teepee that he named home.

The man who followed the healing camp said he was making improvements, and if it reopened tomorrow, he would be around in “a heartbeat.”

“It was a bit of peace … in a homeless individual’s life,” he stated. 

“I miss everything from out there … I’m thrown back in the entrances of hell here.”

He is now remaining at the overnight shelters in Yellowknife. CBC has given obscurity to the man due to potential repercussions in future job opportunities.   

The man said he’d been stray on and off for almost three years. He said he struggles with addiction, which has taken over his household problems. 

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He holds interim employment stints but usually is back on the road once it ends. He stated he is on a waiting list for public accommodation but added he hopes to be on there for a while. 

“You know how accommodation is in the North; it sucks,” he told.

The healing camp operated for four months

“It was an amazing experience,” the man spoke of the Aurora Village healing camp. 

The famous tourist destination outside Yellowknife was turned into a healing camp that operated for four months, from December till April 8. 

He said in Yellowknife that there are several resources, including his case manager, who he named “awesome.”

Source – cbc.ca