Scared to Live, Not Scared to Die: Shayla Day on Addiction and Recovery

Shayla Day was homeless from age 11 to 21, addicted to narcotics by 16, and overdosed 44 times. Today she's helping to lead a regional response to homelessness. In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Shayla Day, founder and CEO of Day Homes Society, a nonprofit serving the Oceanside region with outreach, food support, housing navigation, and community coordination. Day also chairs the Oceanside Homeless Task Force and co-chairs the Oceanside Community Action Team. Day walks Joel and Sean through how she went from the street to running frontline social services, what "Housing First" actually means (it's not what most people assume), and how a coordinated regional network of shelters operates across Vancouver Island. Listen in for: How Shayla went from living on the street to helping run Oceanside's homelessness response Why "Housing First" doesn't mean what most people think it means How SROs, detox, and treatment centres fit into a proper continuum of care What a CAR 87 program is How a region-wide network of shelters trades and tracks clients so people don't fall through the cracks Why accountability, not just compassion, determines whether social services actually work 👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.