Homelessness survey sees 150 respondents
Expert suggests city has larger scale issue than most Canadian cities
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Early results from a voluntary count of the city's homeless suggests the issue is worse than in most other Canadian cities, a visiting professor told an audience in council chambers Thursday.
Melanie Redman, left, and Stephen Gaetz gave a presentation on addressing homelessness in city council chambers Thursday. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo
|
A preliminary look shows 150 surveys were completed during a point-in-time count carried out last Wednesday at the 50/50 lot downtown and across Old Airport Road from the Co-op.
Stephen Gaetz, a professor at York University in Toronto who studies issues around homelessness, said the 150 figure is likely a conservative number and may not capture the true scope of the issue.
"I think you have a homeless problem that's bigger than most cities in Canada," Gaetz said. He suggested the city may have more homeless than Toronto on a per capita basis.
The figure is lower than one from a 2009 report which showed more than 900 unique individuals were accessing shelters in Yellowknife.
A full picture of the information gathered last week won't be available until this fall when a city report, which Gaetz will help write, is expected to be released.
The count was carried out as part of the city's five year plan to develop a Housing First program, which aims to give people a place to live before addressing other challenges such as addictions and mental health.
"The stats are a little bit frightening for us," Linda Bussey, the city's deputy mayor, said following Gaetz's presentation. The information gleaned is enough to get started on moves to take the issue more seriously, she said.
"It's time that we act and time that we engage the territorial government and start looking for funding," Bussey said. She expects to see a pilot project to address homeless issues come together within the next year. The details of that are still in the works.
The NWT Disabilities Council runs the city's day shelter at the corner of 51 Avenue and 49 Street. Denise McKee, the council's executive director, said the number of people who took the survey was higher than the approximately 50 to 60 people using its services.
That's likely because the survey was also seeking out people couch surfing or staying with family she said.
"I think (the count) was a good starting point for sure," said McKee, who also serves on the city's Community Advisory Board on Homelessness.
The city used what they described as a "magnet" approach, offering food to the general public and then surveying those who identified as homeless.
Questions asked to those who agreed to be surveyed included where they are originally from, how long they've lived in the city, when they first became homeless and whether they've served in the military. Demographic information was also collected such as the person's age and whether they identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit.
Gaetz told about 20 people who gathered at city hall that point in time counts are an increasingly popular tool for getting a better sense of the homeless population and some of the factors that contribute to homelessness.
"Don't let anyone tell you that was a waste of money and a waste of time," Gaetz said about the city's count.
The federal government, McKee and Gaetz said, is expected to carry out such a count in 2016 to get a broad sense of the scale of the issue in the county.
