Renewed efforts will be made to accommodate Powell River’s homeless people.
At the Tuesday, September 1, City of Powell River committee of the whole meeting, Kathleen O’Neil, contract supervisor with Powell River Educational Services Society (PRESS), provided details about the homelessness program, funded through Canada’s Homeless Partnership Strategy. PRESS is an organization that is dedicated to removing barriers to economic and social inclusion for at-risk groups.
“The homelessness program is built on a pilot program we did for about five months in late 2014 to the spring of 2015,” O’Neil said. “Initially, we housed 23 youth with varying degrees of stability, but with a really high success rate in the view of our funders, so they have funded us again for two years.
“We’ve been able to expand our mandate to include people of all ages. The program is there to provide a boost to people who are at risk of homelessness.”
Available supports include housing search support, first month rent and damage deposit, community service connections, employment search support and basic needs.
The program launches Thursday, October 1, although a number of local agencies have been contacted to advise them about the new and expanded program. O’Neil said Housing Hope is a self-referral agency so people in the community can make direct contact.
What the organizers of the program discovered in its first phase was that provincial social assistance criteria had changed and some people in need do not qualify.
“If you haven’t been in school or you haven’t been working within the past two years, you don’t qualify,” O’Neil said.
In the program’s first iteration, program support was provided to assist anyone wanting a job to find one. The placements were usually minimum-wage positions. In some of these cases strategizing was required to help participants manage their finances. It did put them in a position, however, where program participants could potentially receive some assistance and supports.
O’Neil said rural homelessness is very different from urban homelessness. In applying for the initial grant, the scope of the problem here was unknown.
“I think we saw the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “I think we are going to find a lot more people.
“Part of the rural phenomenon of homelessness is that it is very hidden. Everyone...knows everybody in a small town so people don’t want to expose themselves and appear vulnerable in that way. There’s a lot of couch surfing and a lot of ad hoc, made-up arrangements.”
O’Neil said part of her mandate is to get the community to look at the issues surrounding homelessness and come up with a plan. She said anywhere in Canada where there has been a solution, the city has been involved.
She added that her group would like to have a city councillor or councillors attached so there can be dialogue and a search for higher-level solutions.
O’Neil said rental vacancy rates in Powell River are around 0.5 per cent, “so how do we house the people in our community?”
Mayor Dave Formosa said the program’s renewal was great news and he was pleased to hear about it. He said he would be happy to plug into any of the program meetings. Councillor Maggie Hathaway said council would have to examine whether it wants homelessness to be a committee of council or a community organization.
O’Neil said part of the grant process is mobilizing this community around the matter of housing.
Councillor Rob Southcott said it had been very interesting for him to be looking into a number of social planning issues in town and finding that housing is the biggest.
“I’m most encouraged by the paradigm change from homelessness to housing because that opens the door,” Southcott said. “It changes from being an obstacle to an opportunity, which is the first step.”
Councillor Jim Palm, chairing the committee of the whole meeting, said that as a PRESS board member, he is well aware of the fine work being done on many fronts for the community by the organization and thanked O’Neil for that.
