Homeless shelters prepare for winter

A survey conducted last March, determined addiction to be the number one reason given by the 25 homeless people found living on the street.

Low income, addiction, mental health issues and family breakdown were listed as the main reasons from the 96 homeless individuals staying at shelters.

The YWCA’s Homeward Bound program, which began in November 2014, seeks to eliminate the underlying homelessness issues, and connects clients living in the Homeward Bound houses to addictions and mental health support.

Fifty-nine of Prince Albert’s most chronically homeless individuals are now in permanent homes. Brooks said the program has been “phenomenally received.”

The next step in combating homelessness in Prince Albert hasn’t been decided yet.

Brian Howell from the River Bank Development Corporation, which is responsible for developing a strategy on homelessness and implementing programs, said they’re looking at creating a community plan on homelessness, or building better partnerships to assist the Homeward Bound houses.

Achieving both goals with the same program is the main hope.

“Homeward Bound is a much more daunting task than building a traditional housing unit or upgrading an office somewhere,” said Howell. “There’s a lot of thought and planning that needs to go into it.”

Bill Bray, the health promotion coordinator at the Parkland Health Region, said Prince Albert has a unique geography that lends itself to a housing shortage in the winter.

He said individuals coming from smaller northern communities expecting to find work or an improved standard of living in Prince Albert have created an overwhelming demand for housing.

“We’re unable to keep up with the demand for it as the city expands,” Bray said. “We have very limited resources that we can assist with.”

Of the 25 homeless individuals detailed in last March’s survey, 23 were from First Nations and two were Metis.

Bray could only speak anecdotally, since he did not have hard data on hand, but he said that Prince Albert is a “kind of secondary resource for housing shortages that occur in First Nations communities.”

“Many of the people who come here without adequate housing resources for themselves, or family connections in the city, are coming here because the reserve communities they’re coming from cannot adequately house them either. That becomes a larger issue.”

The state and quality of reserves is a federal issue, and is out of Bray’s hands.

Funding to combat homelessness in Prince Albert also comes from the federal government.

The newly named Ministry of Indigenous and Northern Affairs has a new minister after the Oct. 19 federal election.

Bray said it’s impossible to predict what the government will do with their ministries, and was going to wait to start lobbying the federal government until their priorities had been established.

A second homelessness survey is planned for January, and will hopefully detail why people find themselves homeless in the difficult winter months.

“The goal is to develop affordable housing within the community that is going to meet the demands of the growth we’re expecting over the next few years,” Bray said.

“It’s a community issue and we hope to engage the entire community to deal with it.”

ssterritt@panow.com

On Twitter: @Spencer_Sterritt

by Spencer Sterritt

Homeless shelters prepare for winter

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