Although homelessness isn’t as big of a problem as it once was, it’s still present in the community.
In order to get a clearer picture of what homelessness looks like locally, the Bonnyville and District FCSS reached out to organizations over the summer to see how it’s changed since a previous study was completed in 2014/15.
“Overwhelmingly, the response was that we’re not seeing anything like the problems we had in 2014,” explained FCSS director David Beale to Town of Bonnyville council during their regular meeting on Oct. 22.
The local agencies they reached out to included MD of Bonnyville peace officers, the Bonnyville Friendship Centre, and the Lakeland Lodge and Housing Foundation.
One issue that came up during their research was hidden homelessness, which is described as people couch surfing, living in vehicles, in overcrowded conditions, illegal or unfit dwellings, and those at risk of becoming homeless if they can’t pay their mortgage or rent.
“There were some agencies that really wanted to stress the fact that we still have a hidden homeless population. We don’t want to suggest that there are no people within the situation, it’s just significantly less than it was,” Beale detailed.
Youth choosing not to live at home was a topic discussed by local organizations.
“They may have very good reasons for not wanting to be there, or (not). Nevertheless, they’re out of the home and over staying their visits at other people’s homes,” stated Beale.
He continued, “Some of that is driven by youthful desires, and some of that is driven because the home that they’re in has serious problems. We’ve got young people that are fleeing violent homes, we’ve got people that are fleeing homes where the parents are both addicted to substances and it’s not a healthy place and they need to get out. We’re careful how we judge those individuals who choose to get out of their house.”
An example shared by the local women’s shelter was someone struggling to leave a violent relationship.
“For some individuals with family violence situations, they really have a hard time finding adequate housing to move out of the family home to go somewhere else, so they end up staying in a violent relationship longer than they should,” Beale expressed.
Bonnyville FCSS wasn’t successful in their Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN) grant application, however, they did join the Alberta Rural Mental Health Project, a provincial program meant to make mental health services accessible to rural communities. After attending training, Beale said FCSS staff will launch a mental health animator project in the new year, and will reach out to local groups to create a plan to support the mental health community.
“That ties into this because what we heard from most of the agencies is that much of the homelessness is related to two major problems: one is addictions, and the other is mental health issues. Sometimes both in the same person, but finding ways to address mental health is certainly something that FCSS can put effort into. Addictions is a little out of our scope of what we can directly attack, but we can support our addictions services in our community,” explained Beale.
The local study conducted found that the few individuals assisted by facilities in the area fell into the category of males from 18 to 68-years-old with addictions or mental health issues.
Coun. Chad Colbourne offered his thanks to FCSS for their hard work on the project.
“I think you’ve done a great job assessing it, and I commend the work and time you put into this.”
