Calgary bottle picker gets fresh start with help of former homeless man

For nearly a decade, the woods that pepper a little park in northwest Calgary were Bruce Jasson's shelter.

"Pine trees are very good to go underneath because if it does rain lightly, you won't get wet."

Jasson came to Calgary to escape a broken marriage in Winnipeg. But alcohol addiction followed him across the Prairies and the steady job he had hoped for never materialized.

He picked bottles to survive and treated the green space next to the historic Hextall pedestrian bridge like home.

"I used to sweep up, clean up everybody's cigarette butts here, 'cause I coudn't stand looking at them, even though I'm a smoker too, but, you know, they're all over the place... I swept this, I swept the bike path."

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And while living rough was never easy, Jasson says the community of Bowness made it much easier.

"I've had ladies come up, give me food."

People would also leave him bags of chips and chocolate bars near his favourite park bench, the one he often slept on.

But the greatest act of kindness happened the day Jasson meet Collin Spires in front of a 7-Eleven.

"I asked Bruce if he wanted a couple smokes and he said, 'Yes'. And I said, 'I've got a steeped tea in the vehicle'," said Spires.

Jasson graciously accepted the hot beverage and immediately returned the favour.

"He reached into his wallet and he grabbed me two free coffee vouchers from McDonalds and said, 'I want you to have these,'" said Spires.

The friendship grew from there, with barbecues at Hexall Park.

While the steaks grilled, the conversation got going. And the pair realized they had a lot in common.

"I was homeless... for two and a half years," said Spires. "I was eating half a Big Mac out of the garbage at 13 years old."

Spires bounced back from his own experience with homelessness and now runs his own business, called GetMy3Quotes, which connects clients with trusted contractors.

Shortly after meeting Jasson, he brought him on the payroll.

"I just saw in Bruce... a heart of gold and... way too smart to be doing what he was doing."

Spires initially had Jasson handing out flyers and eventually, scored him a job in the trades. Then — he got him off the streets.

"Nice to come home. Especially the bed part," said Jasson.

His new two-bedroom basement suite is just down the block from Spire's home.

Spires actually let Jasson crash with him for two weeks in September. The arrangement was made so that Jasson had a fixed address. Without one, he wouldn't have been able to rent a place.

"What Collin did, he blew the government away for getting me a place so fast. And he's a hell of a super-nice guy."

With files from Lisa Robinson and the Calgary Eyeopener