CONCORD — On a cold, near-freezing morning the day after Christmas last year, Mike O’Reilly walked toward the Salvation Army pantry and found a man passed out in a sleeping bag under the building’s covered walkway.
He woke up Waik Gan and told him he couldn’t sleep there, and the man politely shuffled away. The next day, O’Reilly returned to work and found the same man asleep in the same place.
“I asked him how he’s doing and has he ever thought about entering a drug program and he said, ‘Yeah, I might need that,’ ” O’Reilly recalled during an interview at the Salvation Army Concord Corps, located along Clayton Road.
It was that morning that Gan got sober and started to rebuild his life with the help of the same nonprofit where he sought shelter.
“I felt like it was totally my calling and God had a plan for me to correct myself,” the 51-year-old Gan said. “I needed to take that chance and I’ve been very serious.”
The organization has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign that serves needy residents in the East Bay. Donations support programs of more than 50 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The nonprofit plans to use the grant to fund part of its Christmas Assistance Program which helps at least 600 families with food, toys and clothing.
After Gan reached out for help late last year, O’Reilly had him tested for drugs and confirmed his suspicion. Gan had been addicted to meth, but O’Reilly said he felt a sense of decency and kindness in Gan and invited him into his Concord home to get clean. He said Gan bonded with O’Reilly’s German shepherd Dusty.
“That was a good sign,” laughed O’Reilly, the Concord facility’s director of social services and recovery ministries.
Once Gan sobered up, O’Reilly found him a bed at the Adult Rehabilitation Center in Oakland. He began attending 12-step programs and following strict rules. His life was changing.
Born in Malaysia, Gan moved to the Los Angeles area at about age 8 and eventually wound up in Concord in the early 1980s as a young adult. In those years, he said he experimented with cocaine, marijuana and PCP but “nothing stuck.” As he grew older, he was employed as an IT consultant in computer tech support and was married for 11 years.
Then he became addicted to cocaine. He got divorced around 2001 and his life swirled out of control. He had multiple evictions, his job became unstable and he began living out of his car and hotel rooms. By this time, his drug of choice was methamphetamine. Eventually, his car was impounded and he didn’t have the money to get it back.
He had a girlfriend and stayed in her car near the Todos Santos Plaza in downtown Concord, but eventually wound up on the street. He was not well-equipped and struggled to keep warm and safe.
“I never tried to learn to live like that,” he recalled. “I didn’t think I’d be in this predicament … It was very depressing.”
He slept in elevator alcoves and a used car lot that left cars unlocked, while spending days in Starbucks. On really cold nights, he would visit warming centers, and to eat, he’d get handouts from food banks and food stamps.
Shortly after Christmas last year, with temperatures dropping to 35 overnight, Gan wandered onto the Salvation Army property to use some of the blankets left beside a large donation storage trailer in the parking lot.
The next morning, he met O’Reilly.
Gan thrived at the Oakland rehab center and graduated after a few months into the one-year transitional housing program in Concord, where he stayed with other men in a home a few blocks away from the Salvation Army.
“It’s been a complete change. Night and day,” O’Reilly said. “I think he’s on the right track. I think he’s seen his last days underneath freeways and on church doorsteps.”
Gan spoke calmly about his life last month, after finishing a shift at his new job working at the Pleasant Hill Salvation Army thrift shop. He wakes up at 6 a.m. each morning to ride his bike and take a bus to work. He’s close to getting back his driver’s license, which had been suspended.
Gan said he’s returned to church as well. Previously a born-again Christian, he has been attending church every Sunday and Bible study on Tuesdays.
“I seek God for everything I do now and I love it,” he said.
Gan has about six months left in his transitional housing program and he’s saving money to prepare to find a place of his own.
“I was homeless and thinking my life is not going to amount to anything and it was really hard to get out of that situation,” he said. “But now it’s going great. I’m very happy.”
SHARE THE SPIRIT
The Share the Spirit holiday campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, serves needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by funding nonprofit holiday and outreach programs.
To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate. Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Share the Spirit program at 925-472-5760 or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.