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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
To address needs of the homeless
There is a cogent message in the latest report on homelessness by the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg in its description of how tough it can be for some people to find a place to sleep at night, or to find a permanent address to call their own. The number of people looking for nightly shelter is rising, the report asserts. That is largely anecdotal, but no doubt has some truth to it.
It is difficult to count the number of individuals who are using shelters each night, because only some emergency housing agencies have switched to a new system to track users. But shelters themselves note there is a rise, certainly in the number of people who are turning up daily for meals that are served.
The planning council talks about the pressure felt by various shelters and agencies attending to those on the streets who are either recently or chronically homeless. A survey indicated 62 per cent of respondents were homeless between six months and five years, and 23 per cent were homeless for more than 10 years. Shelters are feeling acutely the strain of a tighter housing market.
Winnipeg's apartment vacancy rate is about one per cent. As more apartments are converted to condominiums, the market gets smaller. That makes it hard for shelters and agencies that struggle to move people out of semi-permanent housing into apartments, as each year there will be new people on the streets looking for a place to stay.
The planning council's alarming assertion that many people are turned away from shelters is less convincing. Some shelters turn away those who are intoxicated, referring them to the Main Street Project, but the Salvation Army's Booth Centre, Winnipeg's largest shelter, does not do this when the weather turns very cold, unless absolutely necessary. The shelters have worked diligently together to ensure no one sleeps on the street, especially when it is cold.
Sadly, anecdotes indicate how easy it is for someone to be homeless because welfare benefits are cut off -- a woman who spends her child-benefit tax return on her kids is told after the fact that the rules demand she use it for rent.
The planning council recommends the welfare rate for rent be raised to 75 per cent of the median market rent, but that might simply cause rents to rise. Perhaps the better answer lies in public spending on affordable housing, with a focus on those suffering mental illnesses. As anyone in the shelter industry will attest, mental health can hugely influence a person's ability to find a home to call their own.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 18, 2012 A12
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