Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 21/99) - A grassroots organization helping street people and others who have fallen through the cracks is in danger of falling through the cracks itself.

"We've been putting our paychecks into this and we don't have any money left," Ernie Glowach, chairman of the Peacemakers Society told the city's works and public safety committee Monday.

Glowach, along with vice-chairman Conrad Dow and executive director Bill Reid, asked the city to help it make up two months of rent owed for a space next to the Gold Range Hotel it has been renting for the last three and a half months.

"I've seen people's hearts and minds being changed by these two people," Reid told the committee, referring to Glowach and Dow. The organization offers a sympathetic ear, advice on where to get help and fellowship to those who need help. Most of their clients are aboriginal and many have substance abuse problems.

Though the committee showed an interest in the society's work, it regretfully informed them the city had no money to give.

Apart from donations of furniture and equipment from the territorial department of Public Works, the society has received no public funding.

It has received financial donations from the Bromley family, Diavik, and Weaver and Devore, plus a month and a half free rent from their landlord.

Mayor Dave Lovell noted that for a long time the lines of responsibility for social issues were very clear between the different levels of government, but not so any more.

Though he thanked the city for their time, Glowach later said he was disappointed with their answer.

"I thought they would help us," he said. "It's an embarrassment to the government and the city, because we're doing something they should be doing. That's just my opinion and I could be wrong."

Dow and Glowach tell stories of the successes they've had during the group's short time -- the 17-year-old girl who said she's smiled for the first time in months after an evening sing along, a teen male who said the fellowship was better than any drug -- but the most impressive thing about the society is the commitment of the volunteers running it.

Glowach and Dow work full-time at a home for the homeless, a pilot project of the NWT Housing Corporation. Their time off is spent, together with Reid, running the Peacemakers.

"They're different, but they're part of the same thing," said Dow.

"I've been doing this off and on since I was 16," said Glowach. "I've always been a sucker -- I don't know of 'sucker' is the right word -- but I've always been there for people who are stranded."

Unless the group receives more financial support soon, their survival depends on the patience of their landlord. That patience has already been stretched to the tune of more than $5,000.