Peggy Revell
While there’s been a decrease in the number of households experiencing homelessness, or at imminent risk of homelessness, across the district, an increasing number of families are accessing services such as food banks, according to the most recent statistics kept by the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
“We went through the stats and whatnot, and we found the increases in service are actually to the food banks and the soup kitchens. Those are actually where the [bigger] increases are being seen,” Mildred Beck, children’s services co-ordinator for the local DSSAB, said following a recent meeting of the committee that meets for the Consolidated Homelessness Prevention Program.
There are three different classifications when it comes to the statistics the DSSAB keeps on homelessness, Beck explained, with the first being “households at imminent risk of homelessness being served.”
“That would be someone who, say, an eviction process has started for them because of non-payment of rent or non-payment of utilities, things like that,” she noted.
For 2008, the total number of households served for this was 45.
By comparison, 2007 saw 68 households fall into this category while 2006 had 93.
The second classification is “households at risk of homelessness that are stabilized.”
These, for example, would be people who although not in the eviction process or about to have their utilities cut off, don’t have enough money for groceries and living expenses and are accessing the food banks, Beck explained.
For 2008, the total number of households served that fell into this category was 1,167—an increase from 1,095 in 2007 and 1,053 in 2006.
The final classification is “households experiencing homelessness that obtain housing,” noted Beck. In other words, people who actually are homeless.
In 2008, 66 households were considered homeless in the district. Of those, 55 were served to help them achieve permanent accommodations while the other 11 were moved into temporary accommodations.
“Sometimes temporary means that they were just here for a few days and then they’ve moved on. They didn’t stay within the district,” said Beck. “So that’s why you would have 55 that actually got served and got housing, and 11 that just moved into temporary.”
Comparatively, in 2007, 56 households were served for temporary accommodations and 18 moved from temporary to permanent housing.
In 2006, 113 applications were received in all, with 86 households being served with temporary accommodations and 25 moving from temporary to permanent ones.
The local DSSAB annually puts out a call for proposals (100 percent provided by the province to municipalities) to develop and run initiatives to address homelessness.
“The fund has three really clear goals,” Beck stressed. “It’s to improve the access to, and connect households that are homeless with the system of community services, to support households experiencing homelessness to obtain and keep longer-term housing, and to assist households at risk of homelessness to retain housing.
“When we talk about retaining housing, [it’s] not just about actually putting someone physically in a building,” she explained. “A lot of the time the supports are to help them with rent arrears or with groceries or whatever to improve their overall standard of living so they don’t become homeless.
“It is truly an initiative to prevent homelessness,” Beck said of the services the DSSAB provides, adding the various agencies work very well together to ensure people have access to these services.
The local DSSAB currently funds and helps support food banks in the district, including the UNFC food bank, Salvation Army food bank, Atikokan UNFC food bank, and the New Beginnings Fellowship soup kitchen, along with housing support for emergency shelter through the UNFC or Salvation Army.
Of the submissions to the DSSAB for funding for 2009, Beck noted these organizations are asking for increased funding to coincide with a growing number of people accessing their food bank services.
“We do have a significant number of, I would say, working poor,” she said. “People are working on minimum wage, rent is high. If they’re not in RRDSSAB rent-geared-to-income housing, it’s very expensive to pay their rents and then their utilities and everything on top of it.
“The spectrum is fairly broad,” added Beck, referring to who is needing the help.
Beck said one of the biggest costs that affect families the most financially is energy.
“We do a fair amount of payments, and especially in the last year here, for fuel bills and hydro,” she noted.
“They are two of the bigger issues. And then, of course, the supports of people utilizing food banks and whatnot.”
Alongside the food banks, the local DSSAB also has contracts with Atikokan General Hospital and the La Verendrye Non-Profit Supportive Housing Corp. to help house individuals with mental illness.
Within DSSAB itself, there is its own homelessness prevention advocacy, explained Beck, including rent arrears, utilities, and emergency supports.
“The homelessness fund is truly when there’s no other support available,” she stressed, pointing out that it is a once-in-a-lifetime route.
“If they come into the office here for support, before we utilize homelessness funding, we do try to go through ‘Ontario Works,’ social housing area, before we get to actual homelessness,” said Beck. “So it is a good co-ordination of services.”
It’s these efficiencies, such as having the “Ontario Works” office and a centralized intake process, that Beck attributes the drop in district households experiencing homelessness.
“So we do co-ordinate and do the best utilization of services, as well as funding outside organizations that meet a different client base,” she remarked. “They all really do try to move quickly to have people housed, or to have their needs met before they reach a situation that could be defined as homeless.”
As well, homelessness in Rainy River District has a different face than that found in larger urban centres.
“I think there’s a lot more immigration and transient people in the larger centres, and that’s why their homelessness numbers are very high,” Beck noted. “The number of transient persons coming through this district . . . is really not that high.
“And most of them, if they are here, it’s kind of an overnight while they’re waiting to get on the bus to wherever it is they’re going.
“Kenora District does have shelters and whatnot, but because they’re on the Trans-Canada Highway,” Beck added. “Their traffic is much different, and that is a big factor.”
