The Kenora District Services Board has received roughly $445,000 from the federal government to support local homelessness programs.
Chief Administrative Officer Henry Wall says a bulk of the money will be spent on community-based programs in Sioux Lookout.
Wall notes there are more and more people on the streets as things begin to open up from COVID-19.
“Service is beginning to resume, particularly in health and justice, that number is starting to creep up and we are starting to see more and more people on the streets who are experiencing homelessness in that community. So our response, I think, needs to be equal.”
Wall says “We need a Warming Centre. We need to find a location with the supports to have that over this winter. We need to have a Street Team, it may not be the full program as it is in Kenora, but there is a group there now that could probably use some supports.”
The Warming Centre, previously hosted by a vacant business building, is no longer operational.
Wall stresses “We’re going to be working with the Municipality and community partners through this with additional resources and we are doing all this without having to go back to our Municipality saying ‘we need to increase the levy’ in response of the challenges we face.”
Sioux Lookout Mayor Doug Lawrance says the KDSB has worked hard to address the problem.
“Last winter, the KDSB, the small amount of funding we had, you took it a long way to make the situation better but it certainly highlighted the absolute need for more.”
Lawrance stresses “Desperate need for facilities. For a Street Program that’s based not on just three or four volunteers. But the level of cooperation among agencies here and the willingness of the Municipality and the people here to do something, we need the kind of support that these dollars will bring.”
He adds the money is desperately needed and desperately welcome and believes the KDSB and the Municipality can do some real good in addressing the problem.
The KDSB says the funding explains the unique situation facing this region as most of the money went to large, urban centres in Canada.
The ‘Reaching Home’ federal initiative is a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness.
It provides direct funding to Designated Communities as well as to Indigenous and rural and remote communities across Canada to support their efforts in addressing local needs and develop local solutions to homelessness.