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Delancey’s non-profit facilities are in well-heeled communities, as Silbert believes residents need to “rub shoulders” with upstanding citizens to learn to emulate them.

As a result, they have faced protests from angry neighbours who don’t believe a bunch of criminals and junkies can change: In New Mexico, opponents came to Delancey’s gates with guns, and in New York protesters picketed the facility, the office of the realtor who sold Silbert the land, and the bank involved in the sale.

But at each site, Silbert and her team have slowly won over most local residents simply by being good neighbours, such as by walking the local streets to watch for problems.

“Nobody is really happy to have dope-befuddled ex-cons come, but then we patrol the neighbourhood and they are happy.We’ve been in six cities, and we have every police chief and every mayor saying the areas they live in are the safest and have no violence,” said Silbert, who has a PhD in psychology and criminology from University of California, Berkeley.

“I’ve spent 40 years with the most horrible, violent, use-every-drug people, and they have changed.”

AN EXTENDED FAMILY

Those once “horrible” people are now as close to Silbert as her own children and grandchildren. She travelled to Vancouver with four Delancey residents, and their relationship is clearly one of acceptance, love and gratitude.

Wearing suits and ties, their hair cut short and their tattoos covered by dapper clothes, the four men all work in the popular restaurant at the Delancey facility in San Francisco, where each has been for about three years.