Reachable Number — a phone number that follows you

Who it's for

Anyone who does not have one steady phone number. For example, you might be:

staying in a shelter, or moving between places;
using a prepaid phone that runs out, or a number that changes;
often losing a phone, or having it stolen;
borrowing other people's phones;
waiting on a doctor, a housing worker, an employer, or family, and afraid of missing the call.

What you get

A permanent local phone number. Put it on forms. Give it to your doctor, your housing worker, an employer, your family. It stays the same for years.
Calls follow you. Calls to your number ring whichever phone you have this week. Change which phone that is any time, from any phone, with your PIN. This is called "follow-me forwarding".
Voicemail that never fills a phone. If nobody answers, or if you have no phone right now, callers leave a message.
Hear your messages from any phone. Call the access line from any phone at all, enter your number and your PIN, and listen.
A web page for your messages. Log in with your number and PIN at a library or on a borrowed phone to hear your messages and change forwarding. (The web page opens when the service launches.)
Optional alerts. If you want, we send a text or an email when a new message arrives.

What it does not do

It cannot call 911, or call anyone at all. It only takes calls. It is not an emergency line. To get help in an emergency, use the phone in your hand and dial 911.
It cannot get text messages. Ask clinics and employers to phone you instead of texting.
It is not a phone plan. You still need a phone of your own, or a borrowed one, to make calls.
Nobody is sitting by it. It rings your phone or takes a message. To talk to a person, call the free Reachable Line.

What it costs

It's $12 a year for a Canadian number, or $5 a year for a US one. Most people here want a Canadian one.

If that is out of reach, say so and we will cover it. No proof, no forms.

Tell the volunteer on the phone, or write it on the form below. We will not ask what you earn, ask you to prove anything, or treat you differently. You get the same number and the same service as everyone else.

That is the whole price. You pay once a year, and nothing else: no set-up fee, no charge for calls, no charge for messages, no charge for changing which phone we ring. We do not take money out of your account on our own. About a month before your year ends we tell you, and you decide.

The people who pay are what pays for the people who cannot. That is the whole idea, and it is why we can promise the free path will still be here next year.

The number you get

We do not keep a stock of numbers. We ask our phone company for one, and you get one of the numbers they have free that day. So we cannot promise you a certain number, and we cannot always promise a certain area code.

In Victoria that matters right now. Area code 250 has no free numbers left. A Victoria number today is nearly always 778 or 236, and 778 has the most. All three are Victoria area codes, and a call to any of them costs your callers the same. If you need a 250 number, tell us and we will keep looking, but we cannot say when one will come free.

The number is yours while your account is open, and it does not change when your phone changes. Tell us the area code you want before we set it up: once a number is yours, changing it means a new number, and you would have to tell people again.

How to start

There are two ways, and they get you exactly the same thing.

Ask a person

Use the form below, call us, or ask a worker at your shelter or agency to ask for you.
A volunteer talks with you and sets up your number and a PIN, then gives them to you by phone, in person, or through your worker. No ID, no address, no email needed.
Sort out the money: pay the year, or tell the volunteer it is out of reach and we cover it. Either answer takes one sentence.
Tell us which phone to ring this week, or none. You can change it whenever you like.
Give out your new number.

Do it yourself on the web

The web sign-up is not open yet. Until it opens, ask a person — the form below, a phone call, or a worker. Nothing about the number is different.

Make an account with an email address and a password.
Search for a number by area code and pick one you like.
Hold it while you finish. A hold is not a promise: nobody can take the number from us once it is set up, but until then someone else may get it, and we will tell you and help you pick another.
Pay for the year, or tick the box that says the price is out of reach. Nobody reads the two answers differently.
We set the number up, usually within one business day, and show you your number and your PIN.

One number per person, either way.

How to use it from any phone

Call the Reachable Number access line (the number is at the bottom of this page). Then:

Press 1 to hear your messages. Enter your Reachable Number and your PIN.
Press 2 to change which phone we ring. Enter your number and PIN, then the 10-digit phone number to ring. Enter nothing to send everything to voicemail.
Press 3 for the Reachable Line, the free help line.
Press 0 to hear the choices again.

Shortcut: call your own Reachable Number and press the star key (*) while the greeting plays. Enter your PIN to get straight to your messages.

Lost your PIN? Call us or ask your worker to. We will check who you are and set a new one.

Keeping your number

Your number is yours as long as you use it. If a number has not been used for about 90 days, we try to reach you first, through every contact you gave us. We never reuse a number without giving notice.

If you pay, the year starts the day your number is set up. About a month before it ends we tell you, and you decide whether to pay for another year. We do not charge you automatically, and we do not cut a number off the day a year runs out — we try to reach you first, the same as with an unused number. If money got tight this year, tell us and we cover it. The answer is the same every time you ask.

If you are sponsored, there is nothing to renew and nothing to pay, ever.

What we will never do

Turn you away because you cannot pay. Say the price is out of reach and we cover it. No proof, no forms, no waiting list, and no difference in what you get.
Add charges you did not agree to. One price, once a year, and we tell you before it ever changes. No fee for calls, messages, or help.
Listen to your messages. Only you, with your PIN. We open a mailbox only if you ask us to fix a problem with it, and we tell you when we do.
Give your number, your messages, or your callers to anyone else, unless the law requires it.
Require ID, an address, or proof of anything. If you sign up on the web you will need an email address and a password. If you sign up with a person, you need neither, and you do not need a phone of your own.
Take your number away without trying to reach you first.

Ask for a Reachable Number

We only need a name and one way to reach you to set things up. Everything else is optional.

You do not have to say anything about money here. A volunteer will ask once, kindly, when they call: pay the year, or tell them it is out of reach and we cover it. If you would rather settle it now, write it in the last box.

Prefer to talk? Call us and say what you need. You never have to use this website to get help.