{"id":5360,"date":"2022-11-11T15:53:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T19:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluedoor.ca\/?p=5360"},"modified":"2023-08-03T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T20:08:05","slug":"the-need-is-higher-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluedoor.ca\/the-need-is-higher-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The need is higher than ever\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted on: November 11th, 2022. By: Vawn Himmelsbach, thestar.com, Original Article.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Greater Toronto Area is facing a housing crisis. Home prices are at record highs and rent is increasing at a pace that \u2014 combined with a steep increase in the cost of living \u2014 is making it difficult for many residents to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that type of situation that leads to an increase in precarious housing and, in some cases, homelessness.<\/p>\n

For many agencies under the United Way Greater Toronto (UWGT) umbrella, the goal of reducing homelessness is two-fold. For those experiencing homelessness, the aim is to help them get back on their feet and make their stay in the shelter system a short one. But it\u2019s also about preventing new people from becoming homelessness in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need is higher than ever,\u201d said Michael Braithwaite, chief executive officer of Blue Door, the largest provider of emergency housing in York Region for children, youth, men, women and families at risk of experiencing, or are experiencing, homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy emergency frontline team is seeing more and more people with jobs coming into the emergency shelter system. They simply can\u2019t afford the housing \u2014 it\u2019s growing faster than their income.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the GTA, you need a household income of about $90,000 to comfortably afford a one-bedroom home, but that\u2019s not feasible for those on social assistance programs, or for other groups, such as international students on a tight budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s forced us to be innovative,\u201d said Braithwaite. \u201cWe\u2019re acquiring social purpose real estate and the United Way plays a big part in that, giving organizations the resources so we can purchase homes, develop community land trusts, and they\u2019re kept affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Parks Canada has 44 vacant homes in Rouge National Urban Park, but it doesn\u2019t have the capital to invest in fixing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raised the capital through United Way and worked together to refurbish a home and turn it into a duplex for two families,\u201d said Braithwaite. \u201cParks Canada still owns that home, we\u2019ve got two homes for families for the next 30 years, and it\u2019s a training centre for the people who did that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another piece of the solution is providing deeply affordable housing with wrap-around supports. For example, in surveys with 2SLGBTQ+ youth, Blue Door found that services in emergency housing were not meeting their needs; they didn\u2019t feel safe or supported.<\/p>\n

So Blue Door opened INNclusion, where youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness in York Region can stay for up to one year while they work with a peer mentor to set and achieve their goals surrounding education, health, housing and employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the longest time our model of care in housing was to put all our money into emergencies \u2014 we were reacting. But if you do prevention and do wrap-around supports, it decreases the amount of people that are going to need emergency housing,\u201d said Braithwaite.<\/p>\n

Another example of this is the Social Medicine Initiative, a first-of-its-kind supportive housing facility in Toronto\u2019s Parkdale neighbourhood. UWGT in partnership with the City of Toronto and the University Health Network\u2019s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine is opening a four-storey modular building that houses approximately 51 individuals from historically marginalized groups who are frequent users of hospital services.<\/p>\n

What makes this facility unique, however, is that it incorporates a range of health and social services delivered on site; residents are also connected to primary care and other health services within the hospital\u2019s Parkdale campus.<\/p>\n

While housing affordability is critical, so too is culturally appropriate supports, which is often lacking. In Peel Region, for example, the South Asian community represents 33 per cent of the population. That\u2019s where Indus Community Services, a not-for-profit organization and anchor agency of UWGT, fills a void.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t have something culturally appropriate to support you, and the regular systems don\u2019t fit that well, you see lots of possibilities of problems,\u201d said Gurpreet Malhotra, chief executive officer of Indus Community Services.<\/p>\n

For example, in the South Asian community, inter-generational issues can lead to homelessness. A teenager might come into conflict with his or her parents, or a senior who has yet to be diagnosed with a mental illness is acting in a way the family can no longer tolerate. That could lead to a situation where the youth or senior is suddenly homeless.<\/p>\n

And in the South Asian community, \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t talk about conflict in your household,\u201d said Malhotra. \u201cEverything\u2019s \u2018fine\u2019 even if it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

One program he said Indus Community Services is particularly proud of is Community Mental Health Support Services \u2014 Housing and Support Peel (HASP), which advocates with landlords, hospitals and others on clients\u2019 behalf. By assisting in developing the skills to improve quality of life, it also increases independence and housing stability.<\/p>\n

This comes back to the concept of wrap-around supports. HASP, in partnership with SHIP (Supportive Housing in the Province), delivers housing support services to clients residing in those SHIP units.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have staff who support South Asians who have a mental health barrier, and that barrier means they are at risk of being evicted unless someone is there to mediate that situation,\u201d said Malhotra. \u201cThat\u2019s done in a culturally appropriate way where language is helping to keep people from becoming homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Programs and services like these are also a solid investment. \u201cPreventative measures and after-care housing not only saves lives, changes lives and prevents trauma,\u201d said Braithwaite, \u201cbut they save billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on: November 11th, 2022. By: Vawn Himmelsbach, thestar.com, Original Article.\u00a0 The Greater Toronto Area is facing a housing crisis. Home prices are at record highs and rent is increasing at a pace that \u2014 combined with a steep increase in the cost of living \u2014 is making it difficult for many residents to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t