Belleville’s Understanding Homelessness Task Force heard from a trio of guest speakers who shared their lived experiences with homelessness during their Thursday meeting.
Each of the guests had a different experience, both in how they became homeless and how their experience of homelessness progressed. One speaker became homeless while caring for her sick mother, being evicted when she was unable to pay for both the needed medical supplies and rent. Her mother later died while they were homeless. Despite not suffering from addictions and holding down a job, she had a difficult time securing stable housing.
Another guest speaker shared how he lost his job that he’d held for 20 years, which lead to him later losing his home and all his possessions. He’d been in and out of transitional housing ever since but was unable to find a permanent solution.
The final guest had experienced homelessness multiple times while struggling with depression. Their most recent stretch of homelessness lasted for 15 months. He shared stories of sleeping rough, as crowds in shelters and warming centres triggered anxiety attacks.
The members of the task force took turns asking the guests additional questions about their experience, seeking to understand how to prevent more people from falling into homelessness, and improve access to services designed to help people get back into stable housing.
When the time came for the task force to ask questions, Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd thanked the guests for sharing their experiences with them.
“Articulate, previously employed, engaged and independent people are in this pipeline, and their ages don’t seem to discriminate,” Said Chief Rodd. “The aggravating factor are the cumulative circumstances that there’s no intervention until it gets to this point.”
When he asked the guests what they thought was the most important step to focus on for helping people struggling with homelessness, all three agreed that expanded addictions supports are critical to treat people before placing them into housing. They shared stories where they saw people receive housing first but fail to overcome their addictions, falling back into homelessness.
Some other recommendations came from the guests, which included improving people’s access to programs that prevent homelessness, as many don’t know what support is out there before it gets that bad. They also cited a lack of housing that people can afford, pointing out rising costs of rentals as units are gobbled up by short term accommodations such as AirBNB, or landlords that evict tenants in order to do minor renovations and raise rates above what people with low income can afford.
The guests ended the discussion by urging the task force to take things slowly and think them though, rather than trying for a quick fix. They said the problem is complicated, and attempting a quick fix won’t actually solve the issues in the long run.
