Evan Nagy has ripped containers of hand sanitizer off a wall in St. Paul's Hospital and been chased by security guards to Nelson Park where he hoped to drink the antiseptic for its heavy hit of alcohol.
Spike Harris, the project manager of the Pennsylvania Hotel where Nagy has lived and participated in an informal maintenance alcohol program since September 2010, said Nagy visited the emergency room eight times in 2011. He made one visit after a car hit him on Hastings Street and another after he was beaten for his welfare cheque.
But before he started the program that gives him doses of vodka and exchanges his Listerine for rum, according to Harris Nagy visited the hospital at least once a week, sometimes up to four times a week. Each visit costs $1,500.
The Portland Hotel Society, which runs the Pennsylvania, spends between $280 and $300 of Nagy's welfare money each month on rum.
The 52-year-old who first downed vodka at the age of six receives doses of vodka paid for by PHS each day, alongside three meals and snacks. Other participants receive movie tickets to keep them stimulated. Each day, Nagy awakens, eats breakfast, showers and drinks half a bottle of rum. He socializes in Pigeon Park.
Nagy continues to buy one or two bottles of Listerine a week. "It's only $7.50 [per bottle]. It's 40 per cent alcohol. C'mon it's pretty good," he said. "It's only that first shot that's hard. And then you start to feel better. The first one's got to be a big chug... I can drink a whole bottle, by myself, usually in about an hour."
A store near the Pennsylvania at Carrall and Hastings allows Nagy to buy Listerine on credit. He and Harris say a man with a car stocked with Listerine also trolls Downtown Eastside alleys. Nagy drank one or two bottles of Listerine each day when he lived in the Washington Hotel. "Then I'd black out and I [wouldn't] even remember coming home," Nagy said.
His powers of recall are significantly impaired. Nagy, who is shaky at 10 a.m., copes with diabetes, ulcers and problems with impulse control, has seen his health improve since he's been at the Pennsylvania. Three residents of the Pennsylvania receive doses of alcohol. Nagy says one of the participants panhandles less than he did prior to participation in the program.
PHS and Vancouver Coastal Health started the alcohol maintenance program at the Pennsylvania in April 2009. Up to six residents whose alcohol abuse racked up extensive costs to the healthcare system have participated. At least one participant has died. Nagy recently tried detox for the third time because he wanted to visit his father. But he left after a couple of days, angry he wasn't permitted Tylenol for his aching shoulder.
PHS and Vancouver Coastal Health recently started a more formal Managed Alcohol Program, or MAP, at a year-old supportive housing building that has space to hand out up to 12 drinks of beer, wine or vodka a day to eight participants.
A group of non-beverage alcohol drinkers called the Eastside Illicit Drinkers' Group for Education, or EIDGE, wants to see a space established where non-beverage drinkers who are homeless would have a place to go to receive doses of alcohol.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
