In Their Shoes: Homelessness Awareness

Enumeration in Hastings County as a whole, identified 237 homeless  individuals across the county. Hastings County Community Response Team is currently assisting 13 people in Quinte West and assessing another 16 referrals. 

Hastings County is currently working on the Integrated Coordinated Access project which originated from the Federal funded agency - Reaching Home that mandated all Designated Reaching Home Communities have a Coordinated Access system in place. 

Integrated Coordinated Access (ICA) is a service coordination and systems change project centred around homelessness and complex needs. It provides an enabling infrastructure to improve access to services across diverse programs and organizations within the social service ecosystem, and promote greater service effectiveness and efficiency through coordinated service delivery. This will be accomplished through:

● Accessing services through a “wide door,”

● Navigating systems through common referral pathways,

● Information management tied to community goals, and

● Governance that progresses systems change.

This project also includes the selection of an appropriate database to support the Integrated Coordinated Access system and meet the data collection requirements of Reaching Home. Hastings County is currently training staff on a Homelessness management Information technology System called HIFIS -The Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) in the near future we will use this technology to provide a more coordinated approach to supporting this vulnerable population.

During the week of November 15, 2021 while Hastings County staff, agencies and volunteers completed enumeration, they also completed registration for our local By-Name List (BNL). A BNL has names and contact information of people experiencing homelessness who would like to receive assistance to find housing services and supports. Persons must sign a consent for service in order to be added to the BNL A By-Name List is a real-time list of all known people experiencing homelessness in your community. It includes a robust set of data points that support coordinated access and prioritization at a household level and an understanding of homeless inflow and outflow at a system level. This real-time actionable data supports triage to services, system performance evaluation and advocacy. HIFIS will be the technology that houses the BNL in Hastings County. As the ICA process is refined – the number of inflow and outflow persons on the BNL will also become refined.

Warming Centres

Warming Centres are intended to provide safe, warm spaces for our community’s most vulnerable and those experiencing homelessness. Warming Centres are not shelters and do not provide overnight sleeping accommodations but are intended to bridge the gap between overwhelmed shelter systems; ensuring there are alternate places for the homeless during the cold weather season. A warming centre is short-term and operates when a combination of precipitation, wind chill, and temperature become dangerously inclement. The paramount purpose is the prevention of death and injury from exposure to the elements. A Warming Centre is generally one open space, for people to warm up, and be observed with safety precautions in mind.

The final report, for the 2021-2022 warming centre season intends to provide information and data for the community, stakeholders and Hastings County Community and Human Services Committee and Council members regarding the operation of three warming centre locations in the City of Belleville, City of Quinte West and the Town of Bancroft. Centres were operated by Hastings County Community and Human Services and staffed by Integrity Investigative Solutions Inc. Total warming centre visits for the 2021-2022 season were: Belleville – 2,910 Bancroft – 352 Quinte West – 284

In 2022-2023 winter season the warming centres will NOT be temp based and will activate for 106 nights.

• Not surprisingly homelessness can influence health substantially.

• People experiencing homelessness are prone to challenges with both their physical and mental health.

• Physical health: More likely to get sick with infectious disease. This includes respiratory pathogens like COVID and influenza, as well as foot issues, and diabetes, injuries, hypertension, foot issues, nutrition deficiencies.

• Mental health: general mental health issues, cognitive function problems and memory.

Housing affordability was identified as a top barrier to finding permanent housing.

• Like all groups of people, there are people who experience homelessness who have mental health and substance use issues.

• Some people may become homeless due to theses issues, but it is important not to conflate the two

• Homelessness is not equal to substance misuse or mental health issues.

• According to the CMHA “It is difficult to state whether homelessness or mental illnesses occur first. Each case must be considered individually. Research tends to support both theories. The stress of being homeless may exacerbate a previous mental illness. However, the difficulties of being homeless may encourage anxiety or depressive disorders.”

While defining homelessness may seem obvious to some- what some people do not realize is that homelessness can take many shapes and occurs across a spectrum.   

• Unsheltered: Sleeping rough, in tents, under bridges (typical view of homelessness that people think of)

• Emergency sheltered: Staying at a shelter (Grace Inn Shelter)

• Provisionally accommodated:

  • Transitional housing programs that provide non-permanent, supported housing to assist people in transitioning from unsheltered or emergency sheltered homelessness to permanent housing

  • People living temporarily with others, with no guarantee they can stay there and without the immediate prospect of permanent housing (often referred to as hidden homelessness).

• At risk of homelessness: People who are not homeless but whose current economic or housing situation is precarious or does not meet public health and safety standards

• There are many causes of homelessness.

• People who experience homelessness are not distinct and separate from the rest of the population.

• Intergenerational trauma is one reason for homelessness, often described by the trauma Indigenous people face as a consequence of the residential school system in Canada

• The way people become homeless does not follow the same pathway and causality cannot be clearly identified

• Homelessness is a result of a complex interaction of factors at the individual level (e.g., education, mental health issues), as well as the societal level (e.g., high housing costs, racism, poverty)

• People become homeless for many reasons, but homelessness is generally not an active choice, rather what happens when there are no other options

• The last enumeration found that 95% of people wanted to get into permanent housing

• The primary identified barrier to housing in our community was affordability

Yes people often have their own income from private inheritances, retirement sources of income like Canada Pension Plan, social assistance like Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program, Old Age Security  etc

For those that do not have an income – Hastings County staff works with this population to help them receive an income like Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program, if applicable. Staff can also assist with applications to any other sources of income persons may potentially be eligible for.