Belleville’s Understanding Homelessness Task Force heard from a trio of guest speakers who shared their lived experiences with homelessness during the Thursday meeting.
Each guest 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 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 led to him later losing his home and all his possessions. He’s been in and out of transitional housing ever since, but has been unable to find a permanent solution.
The final guest had experienced homelessness multiple times while struggling with depression. His most recent stretch of homelessness lasted for 15 months. He shared stories of sleeping rough, and how crowds in shelters and warming centres triggered anxiety attacks.
Members of the task force took turns asking the guests additional questions about their experiences, 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 factors 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 about how they saw people receive housing first, but failed to overcome their addictions, falling back into homelessness.
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 too bad. They also cited the lack of housing that people can afford, pointing out that the rising cost of rentals, as units, is 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 incomes can afford.
The guests ended the discussion by urging the task force to take things slowly and think them through, rather than trying for a quick fix. They said the problem is complicated, and attempting a quick fix won’t actually solve issues in the long run.
