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Week-long homeless survey set for May

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You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

To that end, local social services staff will spend a week in May assessing the extent of homelessness in Norfolk and Haldimand.

From Monday, May 7 through Friday, May 11 dozens of social workers and volunteers will attempt to account for everyone in the two counties whose housing arrangements are piecemeal, precarious or non-existent.

The data collected will help Haldimand-Norfolk Health and Social Services devise a strategy for putting a roof over their heads.

Overseeing the enumeration are Tricia Givens, Haldimand and Norfolk’s manager of housing services, and Louise Lovell, the counties’ housing resource co-ordinator.

This is the first enumeration of its kind in Haldimand and Norfolk.

Givens has experience in this area. She has participated in a homeless census in Brant County and Brantford. Givens told Norfolk council Tuesday that accurate information of this kind is critical to producing positive results.

“Ending homelessness is possible,” she said. “Communities in North America have succeeded in doing it. I’m optimistic we can move in that direction.”

Public health officials are interested in homelessness because homeless people are vulnerable to a host of social pathologies and ailments that impair quality of life while shortening life expectancy.

Conversely, health and social outcomes improve greatly when formerly homeless people have reliable shelter.

Dozens of people will be involved with the May enumeration.

Lending a hand will be employees of Haldimand-Norfolk Health and Social Services, the two methadone clinics in downtown Simcoe, Holmes House, the Norfolk Pregnancy Centre, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Haldimand-Norfolk REACH, the Salvation Army, local first responders, Haldimand-Norfolk Victims Services and library branches in both counties.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Simcoe Coun. Peter Black told Givens and Lovell to look for homeless people in downtown Simcoe.

Black has observed a fair amount of behaviour in the core associated with homelessness. This includes panhandling for money and food and hanging around churches looking for charity.

“I see quite a bit of it,” Black said.

Mayor Charlie Luke and Waterford Coun. Harold Sonnenberg wondered about the accuracy of measuring homelessness through enumeration.

Luke said there is a stigma to homelessness that some would rather not admit.

Sonnenberg said that – when it comes to defining homelessness – there are grey areas.

“This is going to be a difficult survey,” Sonnenberg said. “Some people you’re not going to find. Some will be enumerated twice.

“And how do you define homelessness? Someone sleeping in the street is obviously homeless. But the guy sleeping on the couch in his brother-in-law’s basement: Is he really homeless?”

The situation is further complicated by the fact that homelessness is usually associated with unemployment. In point of fact, Givens said many juggle employment with precarious housing because they can’t find an affordable place to live.

Lovell added the homeless tend to be forthcoming about their situation and appreciate it when caring people take an interest in their predicament. She is confident the pending survey will provide accurate numbers to work with.

May’s survey is part of a Ministry of Housing campaign to end chronic homelessness in Ontario by 2025. The ministry expects health and social service agencies to conduct these surveys every two years.

MSonnenberg@postmedia.com 

 

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