Thunder Bay homeless shelters operating beyond capacity

The board chair at Shelter House says a new report on homelessness in Canada shows why the Thunder Bay facility needs more money to run its services.

The report yesterday from the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness called the problem a national crisis, and recommended more federal support.

Shelter House spokesperson Jim Restall said he agrees with the authors, who note Ottawa's looming federal budget surplus should free up cash for affordable housing.

“Just the ethics of the federal government projecting a surplus while basic need of our community members aren’t being met,” he said.

Shelter House typically looks after 62 people a night, when it's designed capacity is 42, Restall noted.

"At Shelter House we see the results of homelessness every day, and the impact it has on our community. I think what the report has really highlighted is the direct relationship between the reduction in the federal investment in affordable housing stock and the increase in homelessness across Canada."

A special outreach program that Shelter House ran last winter showed there are more homeless in Thunder Bay than might be visible to the public on a daily basis, Restall said.

"We ran the winter outreach program for four months last year. If Shelter House had a robust budget we could look at doing these kind of innovative projects and it's just not possible when we have unstable funding.”

Restall added there is a direct link between cuts in federal support for affordable housing and the growing number of people living on the street.

Homelessness ‘on the rise’

At the Salvation Army, executive director Major Rob Kerr said a lack of shelter is a growing problem in Thunder Bay.

“We see homelessness is on the rise. We see that we're more crowded than we have been. We see that men are having a hard time finding a place to live that's reasonable, that they can afford, that's livable,” he said.

"Our official funded capacity is for 17 beds, but we are currently sleeping about 42 people per night. We have men sleeping on mats on the floor in various rooms right now."

The Salvation Army is currently reviewing its position on a national strategy for homelessness, Kerr added.

The report released yesterday says spending an extra $46 per Canadian a year on affordable housing could dramatically reduce homelessness.