By Stephanie Mancini
Published March 2022
Every night this winter I have gone to sleep noticing the weather; thinking deeply of the growing number of people who are living without housing, living without shelter, alongside of those who are living without housing security.
The numbers of people make this reality palpable and urgent. The September 2021 Point in Time count documented 1085 people without access to housing. These numbers have names, and are people we see every day.
For The Working Centre this has been an unprecedented winter providing different kinds of shelter for up to 230 people each night beyond the daily work of St. John’s Kitchen:
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80 people at University Avenue Interim housing
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60 people per night at our shelter at St. Andrew’s church
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10-20 people a night who gather in the entrance way at St. Andrew’s shelter to get warm, to access a hot drink or meal
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70-80+ people in motels supported through The Working Centre
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Many more people camping through the winter months, or crashing the with others as people focus on survival in the cold months
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Providing 600 meals per day
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At St. John’s Kitchen we see 250 people a day inside, and share meals with 200 people through the Garage; in a month we see over 1,100 different people coming for resources, food, showers, laundry, harm reduction supplies, community connections.
Just the effort of providing shelter each night at St. Andrew’s could fill this newspaper with stories of the challenges of an environment of high drug use, along with the frustration of coping with sub-zero weather and overwhelming mental health issues. Yet we are so thankful that St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church has opened their space to provide a warm sanctuary for those without housing.
In all our spaces we are seeing the effects of a substantially changed drug supply that overproduces manufactured synthetic drugs and distributes these drugs widely. Sam Quinones, in The Synthetic Drug Era is Here, (see page 6) describes a growing phenomenon where, “people came to the shelter hallucinating, in full psychosis, terrified by unseen demons and stripped of personality that does not seem to return with sobriety.” This correlates to our experience this winter, as we have seen a growing number of people desperate to find drugs each day. We have seen overdoses that sap oxygen from the brain, experienced over and over again. We have seen psychosis that is drug-induced and layers on top of trauma-induced mental health issues; growing theft between community members, fights, violence. Harsh realities experienced every day.
“Eyes wide open” is a phrase we use regularly – look at this reality and face it with eyes wide open. Fifteen people registered for a shower by 9am; access to laundry wait lists that run until closing and then start again the next day; requests for socks, dry clothes, snacks; connections to the housing system; supports to get ID after it has been stolen or lost repeatedly; getting on lists that only sometimes lead to housing opportunities. People carry their belongings with them from the Kitchen to the shelters, all day long.
Eyes wide open also means being open to the beauty that happens every day. The great humour; the ways people look after one another; the ways hope unfolds as someone accesses dental care to relieve pain; the sharing of a meal together; the ways we sit in the moment and talk together with really resilient and beautiful people who are facing incredible challenges; the solidarity between us as we stand together to help build access to resources and supports that make the journey a bit better. So many amazing stories of humour, mutual support, community connectedness, over and over again in the small rituals that bind a community of people together. The work is hard and beautiful.
The most stable environment we have seen this year is University Avenue Housing – the interim housing ideas being developed are responsive, dynamic and practical – embedding interim housing, access to health care, access to harm reduction supports, and connection to wider mental health/addictions supports. Here are some comments from the UA team providing daily supports, describing the work we are doing:
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Be present with people and allow them to start fresh each day
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Live in the moment; support movement when it emerges
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People need to feel safe before they can change
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Build relationship and invite people into community
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Get through the day; help people to get through their day
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Step into relationship with people; and show up the next day again regardless
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Offer a place of acceptance and solid ground; transition is slow
What we see at University Ave Housing is that people need sleep, privacy, a door to their room. A feeling of stability, regular food, and a staff team around to support people through the risk of overdose, drug-induced psychosis, access to services and supports.
Housing First is important – people need to be welcomed into a stable housing situation. Isolated units of market rent housing are challenging for people who are moving from volatile and unsafe survival-based sheltering options. It takes time to build a feeling of safety, of trust. The interim housing ideas we have been modelling are an important and practical component of building housing security for people who are ravaged by the dislocation and unsafe realities of being homeless.
It is clear that there is a growing need for long-term supportive housing units, and these are progressively being built. Can we welcome these housing options into our neighbourhoods, living into the importance of recognizing the virtue of housing for everyone? We can build on the vision that inclusion creates the kind of community we all want to live in.
When the only answer is more housing, access to resources and supports are not enough. We need continuous strategic action to create more affordable and supportive housing. In the short term we need more interim housing units similar to the University Ave housing model, or like A Better Tent City. We need to act into the current realities while also building forward on a long-term vision.
