Thursday, December 8, 2022

“Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Loonie?”

On any given night, 35,000 fellow Canadians are “sleeping rough,” unable to afford housing. The CLAC Foundation is playing a small but important role in helping them. You can help too

By Dan VanKeeken, CLAC Foundation Program Manager

Yesterday, the temperature at dawn in Edmonton was -35 degrees. It later warmed up to a balmy -25 degrees.

I didn’t leave my house all day, working from home, grateful to have a warm, dry, insulated home with a good furnace, my own bed, and enough food in the house to last for weeks, if not months.

Consider the homeless who hang around my favourite Timmie’s, just blocks away, begging for a few bucks or a hot cup of coffee. Where did they sleep last night? In a shelter downtown? In the subway stations underground? On a warm grate or in a doorway? In a tent?

On any given night, 35,000 fellow Canadians are “sleeping rough,” unable to afford housing.

There are many sides to the homeless issue in Canada, and many possible solutions, as I learned recently attending the national conference of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

• It’s so much more than addictions or mental health issues: veterans, women and their children escaping abuse, people who have lost their jobs and have no savings, those who just cannot afford the high cost of housing and cannot find cheaper solutions.

• The fundamental issues are affordability and access to housing. There are fewer low-rent units available now than there were 30 years ago, although that is starting to improve.

• Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, says the rising cost of living is hitting low-income people the hardest, putting them at risk of losing their housing. “We’re working with about 70 communities around the country right now,” he says. “And we’re seeing a wave of new homelessness. It seemed to begin during the pandemic but has really accelerated with the cost-of-living crisis.”

• There are bright spots: London, Ontario, is Canada’s first community to achieve functional zero veteran homelessness. It has worked hard to not only sustain this milestone but also make progress toward reaching absolute zero. Medicine Hat, Alberta, reached a similar milestone, reducing functional homelessness to almost zero.

• Many cities in Canada are actively adding social housing year by year and improving services.

• There are dozens if not hundreds of nonprofits that provide food, clothing, a place to sleep and other social programs, training, and support to those experiencing homelessness.

• After decades of neglect by the federal government, there is now a Federal Housing Advocate and a minister responsible for housing, with a 10-year national strategy with $72 billion in funding.

• More research and action than ever is being focused on homelessness across the country.

Besides housing stability—“housing first”—those experiencing poverty and homelessness need education, employment, healthcare, mental health needs met, and childcare. The list is long and the agencies and organizations providing these things is similarly long.

The CLAC Foundation plays a small but important role in all of this. In the last three years alone, we have paid for the training of at least 1,000 people experiencing poverty and homelessness, as well as new immigrants and refugees, easing their return or entry into the workforce. We now have more than a dozen partners in four provinces. Our impact is growing.

Seventy-five percent of the people who need housing in Canada just can’t afford it, Richter says, calling for income supports. “And 85 percent of people who experience homelessness, they’re in and out really quickly—it’s just down to money.”

You too can help by donating to a homeless shelter or food bank in your community; donating to the CLAC Foundation; volunteering at a local shelter, and urging your municipal, provincial, and federal leaders to focus more time and resources on the issue.

And yes, give that homeless person at your local Timmie’s a few dollars, or buy them a coffee and sandwich.

“Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Loonie?”

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