The Federal government is now a formal partner with our communities when it comes to ending homelessness.
Kenora District Services Board Chief Administrative Officer Henry Wall says after 22 years of trying, their district has been identified as a “Reaching Home Designated Community”.
This will allow them to access funding to address homelessness.
“More symbolically it’s letting our communities know that we have a Federal government that has finally come to the table as a meaningful partner. Our municipalities are not in this alone and that help is coming. Now we need a framework that allows for all the partners to work together.”
Wall notes the designation means our municipalities and First Nations will now be in the drivers seat in terms of setting a strategy moving forward.
He stresses this support has been missing for a very long time and they definitely need the governments help.
Wall says in their last study in 2018, close to 400 people were considered homeless in our nine municipalities.
In comparison, the region of Halton, Ontario, which has a population of more than 580,000, had about 260 people living on the streets.
Wall says the City of Kenora alone had 233.
Wall adds there’s a major gap in funding compared to an area like Halton as “they get three to four times the resource allocation from the province and federal government than our region does. And that’s why it’s such a pressing issue for our region.”
He stresses when you look at it in terms of magnitude our region is “completely off the charts.”
The KDSB has received $1.3-million over four years to carry out its work and develop a homelessness plan.
Funding has also been provided to the Red Lake Area Emergency Shelter in the amount of $144,099 from 2020-2021, while the Women’s Shelter, Saakaate House Inc. in Kenora is getting $85,801 in 2020-2021.
Through the Designated Community expansion, the opportunity existed to apply as a District as historically only Urban communities with a population of 30,000 or greater could apply.
The District of Kenora was one of six to be selected in the Canada-wide program.
Wall says “This included getting support from our municipalities and also getting support from our Indigenous partners and First Nation communities. That’s what was really neat about this time around.”
To hear more from Henry Wall, visit the Audio link below.
