By Stephanie Mancini
Published September 2023
History and Context of University Ave Housing
University Ave (UA) Housing emerged out of the triple emergencies of Covid, high homelessness, and a severe opioid epidemic.
- In 2017 to 2020 homeless rates were going up, shelters were full and increasingly unable to meet the needs of people experiencing drug overdose, violence, police calls, etc.
- On November 19, 2019 The Working Centre opened an unfunded emergency shelter as a severe snow storm hit our community – over 200 people came to St. Mary’s church over 3 weeks.
- Shelter spaces were mostly full and there was a need to present new ideas to serve the growing group of homeless.
- There was a growing encampment on the properties surrounding and including St. John’s Kitchen.
- House of Friendship’s shelter work was precarious and searching a new location.
- The Working Centre leaned in with the Region of Waterloo to model and demonstrate a number of innovative and highly responsive solutions.
- We visited the University Ave site for the first time on August 4, 2020, hired and trained staff by September 29, and started moving people in by October 5, 2020.
Homelessness
The reality for those facing homelessness was becoming increasingly intense. The Working Centre was witnessing these issues through our work with St. John’s Kitchen, Street Outreach, and SOS. We spent 2019 trying to draw system attention to these issues, and by 2020 and the arrival of Covid we leaned in to create and deliver practical responses. We worked constantly to help draw attention to the fact that our current frameworks were no longer meeting the needs of this growing group of people experiencing homelessness.
The Working Centre worked closely with the Region of Waterloo and other community partners to ensure the Point in Time count was reflecting the urgencies we were seeing on the ground. These numbers have grown by 2023, but in September of 2021 the Point in Time count was able to report 1085 people experiencing homelessness:
- 412 people living rough. (Living in encampments, on the street, or staying in their vehicle.)
- 335 people experiencing hidden homelessness.
- 191 people in Emergency Shelter.
- 84 people in transitional housing.
- 63 people in institutions. (Hospital, Police Custody Women’s Crisis Services.)
By November of 2021 The Working Centre worked with the Region of Waterloo to open a congregate shelter at St. Andrew’s Church, serving 60 people, and we supported extended hours at St. John’s Kitchen to support unsheltered homeless drop-in. By the fall of 2020 we had moved the shelter to Edith Mac and then to King Street Shelter, serving 100 people by December of 2022. By Spring 2023 we launched, together with the Region, 50 cabins of shelter at Erbs Road Shelter. This has led to a total of 230 people in shelter/interim housing, which does not count the 60-80 in motels.
Opioid Crisis
The opioid crisis was at an urgent peak – we saw the highest number of deaths in 2020 and 2021. Across the system we have implemented a number of responses that have helped to mitigate the overdoses and the overdose deaths in the community including:
- Bringing more people in stable shelter/transitional housing options (overdose rate goes down when people move indoors, and further when people access shelter/housing that is not congregate.)
- Training our teams to respond to overdoses; deep harm reduction, naloxone administration, ambubag training, collaboration with EMS and WRPS.
- Creating use-friendly spaces where people can use safely, observed by their peers or by staff, allowing for a less furtive use of drugs that encourages people to use smaller amounts more often without judgement.
The number of people using drugs has not gone down, and in fact grows every year. We have changed our supports and coping strategies in order to keep people alive.
The challenges we continue to face centre around the amount of theft, violence and damage to property that come along with housing people who are active drug users and who are constantly seeking money to support their drug use. As well, there is the added hoarding challenges faced by those who are active users of crystal meth; and the deep drug induced psychosis that leads to deeply erratic behaviours.
These issues continue to challenge our work as we work to build a Housing First approach that does not quickly evict people for behaviours that stem from their substance use.
The Accomplishments of UA Housing Over This Time Period
University Ave is a place where people want to live. It brings a very deep harm reduction approach that has successfully bridged people from complex and long-term encampment/homelessness and into shared living. We have been successful in:
- Building a community of trust;
- Residents do not feel at-risk of eviction at every moment because of the deep harm reduction approach;
- We have kept people who have faced chronic homelessness housed.
The focus on Recovering from Homelessness within a Housing First approach has offered us a stable platform to build on this trust and engagement and allow for a more proactive model of Transitional Housing that moves beyond emergency interim housing and moves into housing that supports next-stage housing.
What We Know About UA Housing
- Most people have stayed for close to 2 years.
- The most likely and successful next step for people is Supportive Housing.
- Half of the people leaving UA are leaving to housing.
- People are staying at UA as a viable option, the challenge is next-step housing options that work for this complex group of residents.
- We need to focus now on readiness for next-step housing in order to keep this housing as Transitional.
- We are responding to the people who are facing deep and chronic homelessness and new strategies and approaches are needed to support their next steps.
Recovery Approach
Studies have shown that the long-term effects of homelessness on individuals often fall into two categories – health and personal issues.
People experiencing homelessness encounter many health issues throughout their lives. Due to the inability to access necessities, they are more likely to live with multiple afflictions, including: cold injury/frostbite; cardio-respiratory diseases; nutritional deficiencies; sleep deprivation; mental illness; physical and sexual assault; drug dependency; HIV/AIDS.
It is challenging for anyone when they are forced to face the fact that they may become unhoused. This is often complicated by the fact that many experiencing homelessness are dealing with psychological challenges such as::
- Becoming institutionalized,
- Loss of self-esteem,
- Increase in substance misuse,
- Loss of ability and will to care for oneself,
- Increased danger of abuse and violence,
- Increased chance of entering the criminal justice system,
- Development of behavioral problems.
At University Ave Housing most of the resident have experienced chronic homelessness and we have seen the primary issues faced by residents as:
- Deeply oppositional behaviour and trust related challenges.
- Chronically feeling unsafe.
- Mental health issues combined with drug induced psychosis.
- Injuries from fights and self-harm.
- Conflict related to theft and/or drug debts.
- Challenges in moving past street justice to handle conflict; learning how to approach conflict in new ways.
- Engagement with justice system due to thefts, violence, etc.
- Inability to care for themselves and their space.
- Hoarding related to crystal meth use.
- Wound care and infections that result from injury and active drug use.
- Intense attachments to pets that add to the support needed.
- Relationship and domestic issues
- Complexity experienced through pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
- Deep trauma from past experiences as a child or living without housing.
- Brain injury and consequent self-management challenges created by overdose, injury, childhood trauma.
UA Interim Housing Supports A Housing First Approach
- Providing immediate access to interim housing, combined with flexible, community based supports embedded within, with a goal of finding next stage housing.
- Following a deep harm reduction approach designed to keep people as safe as possible as they respond to the multiple challenges of homelessness, addiction, dislocation, lack of access to services, etc.
- Following an approach of recovery from homelessness – building opportunity for engagement, inclusion, working toward a feeling of safety, and supporting choice in living arrangements
- Focusing on activities that support a strength-based approach, including skills-building, improved health outcomes, reduced engagement with police, and increased community connections.
- A preson-centred approach guides the work as achievements are individualized and achievable and recognize the challenges of people facing long-term homelessness, substance use, brain injury, and mental health.
Now post-Covid we hope to build on these learnings, refresh the space, intensify our one-on-one supports, and connect people with emerging housing opportunities.
Core Principles of Housing First
- Immediate access to permanent housing with no preconditions.
- Consumer choice and self-determination.
- Individualized, recovery-oriented, & client-driven supports
- Harm reduction.
- Social & community integration.
UA: By the Numbers
130 Total residents
80 Current residents
70 People listed as chronically homeless
53 People who are housing ready
25 People moved to supportive housing
564 Average days stay of UA residents
UA staff supported off-site appointments
306 Medical appointments
111 Dental appointments
222 Legal appointments
35 Job Search appointments
81 Addiction and Mental Health appointments
63 Work, pets, Family & Children Services, family connections
