Sal Niro

The sub-foreman is directing a paving crew as it dumps asphalt on the prepared section of 73rd Avenue in Vancouver. A few minutes later, he consults with another City staffer, as they coordinate tasks being carried out by the crews working on three separate paving projects within the four-block area.

Then he turns back to a visitor to explain a little more about his journey from years of drug use and criminal behaviour to a stage in his life where he holds down a responsible job, carries a mortgage, has a loving relationship with his girlfriend and is helping to raise their infant daughter.

“You’ve got to be squeaky clean,” he says, “not sneaky clean.”

When Sal Niro heard about the City of Vancouver’s Supported Work Pilot Project --offering supported positions with the City for a six-month term-- he immediately offered to help as a mentor. A City employee in the Engineering Department’s Street Operations Branch --elevated temporarily to sub-foreman-- Niro is also a recovering drug user.

He said helping others reminds him that every day he’s alive is a gift. “It’s a process and a journey.”

Grateful for the opportunity the City job has given him (this is his first real job in 16 years, he says) and eager to help others achieve the same kind of gains he’s made, he thought that serving as mentor to other recovering drug users might offer them a boost. He’s clear, though, that he gets as much by helping others as they get from him. “It not only helps them, it helps me” he says earnestly.

He said helping others reminds him that every day he’s alive is a gift. “It’s a process and a journey.”

Niro’s journey started in Toronto where, as a child, his exasperated parents sent him as a 10-year-old from their inner-city home to grandparents in Italy, hoping that their influence would calm his delinquent behaviour. It didn’t work out as planned. “I started drinking there. I was only 10 and I had my first drink there at 10.”

He returned home three years later. “I came back and had to fit in any way possible. I made my way through crime and drugs.” By 14 he was smoking marijuana, involved with gangs and selling drugs. By 18 he was involved in cigarette heists and selling and using drugs. After narrowly missing getting caught in a robbery, he returned to Italy, joined and left the military and then returned to Canada. “My job revolved around crime.”

“I tried every method to stay clean on my own,” he said. He said he changed girlfriends, drugs, cars and jobs. Nothing worked.

Around this time, he started using cocaine. The criminal activity continued and arrests led to jail time. “I pled guilty, went in to do my time and came out a heroin addict.” Niro is clear that his lifestyle was completely unhealthy and revolved around crime and drugs. “It’s a progressive disease, it gets worse and worse.” The criminal behaviour and addictions continued throughout his 20s. “I was right fully into my addictions. I just dug a hole deeper and deeper.”

Around this time, Niro got to know a detective who took an interest in his recovery. He talked regularly to Niro, trying to encourage him to clean up his life. When Niro narrowly escaped being shot, the detective suggested he leave Toronto, move to Vancouver, re-connect with his sister and try to quit drugs. Niro followed his advice.

He tried to avoid drugs, but struggled. “I tried every method to stay clean on my own,” he said. He said he changed girlfriends, drugs, cars and jobs. Nothing worked.

Finally, he decided to enter a three-month treatment program. That’s when the City got in touch about the job application he’d filled out months earlier. He was being offered work with the Street Operations Branch and started work January 9 of last year.

He said he trained on the job and worked hard to learn how to do the work. With a regular position, he qualified for a mortgage and bought a condominium in Maple Ridge. Then his girlfriend, also a recovering drug user, got pregnant. They decided that as they were both still learning to live clean, they would continue to live separately, until they felt stable enough in their own lives to start living together.

Then, just before the baby was born, Niro’s father died while in Italy. Niro and his mother kept their promise to him and returned to Italy to collect his body and fly it back to Canada for burial. While his plane was in the air returning to Canada on New Year’s Eve, Sal’s girlfriend gave birth to their daughter, Kayla. Niro went from the airport to BC’s Women’s Hospital, to cradle his daughter in his arms.

At 33, Niro looks back on his life and celebrates the fact that he has survived, put his criminal behaviour behind him and stopped using drugs. Now, he’s hoping to help others turn their lives around. “I never thought I’d be here to talk about it,” he said.