Angie Reid was popular, said Staff at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC)

An Ottawa shelter was holding a memorial service Thursday afternoon for the first of two former shelter users who died of a drug overdose in less than two weeks — something the shelter staff say is very unusual among those who stay there.

Angie Reid, 28, died on Nov. 8 and was being remembered at the 1:30 p.m. service by those who knew her through Shepherds of Good Hope shelter as well as her friends on the street.

Paul Soucie, who runs the shelter, said staff had taken Reid back in after her release from jail and were trying to find her some supportive housing, but she died before they succeeded.

Angela Campbell, director of fundraising for the Shepherds of Good Hope, said Reid was popular.

Reid's friend, Josh Pariard, said her boyfriend, Johnny, is taking her death hard.

"The poor man, I saw him come completely unglued — it was the love of his life," he said.

Paul Roseheart, who volunteers at the Shepherds of Good Hope, said he last saw Reid the day before she died.

"I noticed she had some sore feet, some short shoes on her," he recalled as he stood before a memorial cluster of flowers and stuffed animals woven into the shelter's gate. "I asked her if she wanted to come downstairs and get a pair of boots or some shoes that fit her feet.… She said, 'Sure, Paul! I'll be right down.'"

He never saw her again.

Nunavut man died just outside shelter

Just a day before Reid's memorial, a Nunavut man who stayed at the shelter also died of an overdose nearby.

Basil Aqatsiaq, 27, was found just outside the shelter building early Wednesday morning. Ottawa police said foul play is not supsected in Aqatsiaq's death.

Soucie said he saw the young man's friends crying afterward, devastated by the loss.

"They knew he was in trouble … and they just couldn't help him and he just went too far and he's gone," he said.

Campbell said the shelter holds a memorial service for every person who dies while staying there — about four a year. The usual causes are things like heart attacks, head injuries from falls, aneurysms or complications related to diabetes, she said.

"It's hard, you know, life on the street. Your body wears out pretty quickly."

Deaths from drug overdoses happen "not often at all," she added.

Soucie thinks the current low price of crack cocaine is partly to blame for the apparent cluster of fatal overdoses. He said a hit is just $2 or $3 now and that makes it easier to become an addict.

Meanwhile, he said, there are few places addicts can turn to for help.