A night searching for Ottawa's hardest-to-reach homeless

Night has fallen over the woods by Hurdman station, and Mikyla Tacilauskas and Jade Fowler are lost.

They're searching for the people who sleep in the clearings. They've been here often as part of their outreach work with the Salvation Army.

The forest is so big and dense it can take hours to search. They've divided it into quadrants — "bite-sized chunks" — with digital pins marking the spots where people have pitched their tents.

But this is the first time they've been here in the dark. It feels different. Tacilauskas calls it "a little spooky."

"Every other time we've gone, it's been during the day, so we might find people we've never engaged with before," she says.

Their mission is to count every person sleeping outside in Ottawa, as part of a one-day survey of the city's homeless population on Oct. 23. Tacilauskas figures there are at least 300.

The two outreach workers turn back to the main path and check the map on their phone screens. Then they head back into the thick brush, until a wall of branches and coloured tarps comes into view.

"This is one of the most unique encampments I have seen in a very long time," says Tacilauskas.

Julie Voltolina lives here. The outreach team calls out her name before crossing the barrier.

"We don't pass this area unless we get permission to do so," Tacilauskas says. "You wouldn't enter someone's home without knocking first."

Voltolina takes some time to sweep up. Then she agrees to a tour of the space she calls "a sanctuary" and "Camp Nirvana." She's alone tonight, but sometimes welcomes others to stay.

"That's my guest tent. I have a friend I just took in," she explains. "Everything's lined with duvets so you don't get cold at night. It keeps you warm and then it's tarped, so we could have a full-out rain storm — you're not getting rained on."

There's a kitchen tent, a bedroom tent and a fire pit. It's almost Halloween, and Voltolina has put up decorations. The front door has a "Welcome Home" mat. She's been here, off and on, for six months.

"It's comfortable. It's homey," she says. "It doesn't feel like you're homeless. I like it here. No one bothers me."