Homelessness is on the rise in Norfolk County.

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Homelessness is on the rise in Norfolk County. But while a tent encampment in Simcoe made headlines over the summer, advocates say there is still hope of a turnaround.

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“It is a crisis, but in Norfolk County we have an opportunity to try and solve this  while it’s still relatively small,” said Virginia Lucas of Church Out Serving, a Christian charity that runs an overnight warming centre out of a downtown Simcoe church.

“Yes, it’s growing,” Lucas said of the number of residents pushed onto the  streets by rising food and fuel costs, limited access to mental health and addiction treatment, and a scarcity of affordable housing.

“But I think we have a unique opportunity to nip this before it gets beyond the ability to solve.”

The 20-bed shelter run by Church Out Serving opened on Nov. 5 and will welcome visitors until the spring. The seasonal shelter is open daily from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., with trained volunteers, staff, and security on-site.

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“We see people from 18 to 75,” Lucas told The Spectator. “It’s an older demographic than you might expect to see in a larger urban centre.”

Based on surveys of past clients, Lucas said two-thirds of people using the shelter report having spent more than half their life in Norfolk — rather than coming in from the city to get an overnight bed — and over 80 per cent are on social assistance, usually for disability support.

With rents in Haldimand-Norfolk shooting up nearly 25 per cent in the past year, a 0.4 per cent vacancy rate, and hundreds of households waiting years for an affordable housing spot, “something’s got to give,” Lucas said.

“And once people find themselves homeless, they can’t get back into the system easily, because there are some serious barriers.”

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At Norfolk County council on Tuesday, Mayor Amy Martin tabled a notice of motion supporting “Solve the Crisis,”  a campaign led by Ontario’s Big City Mayors asking Queen’s Park and  Ottawa to “commit to immediate action to solve the humanitarian crisis  that Ontario is facing” due to the “exponential” growth of homelessness,  addiction and mental health issues.

“The  time for words is over,” Martin’s motion read. “We need immediate  action at all levels of government, starting with the province.”

The campaign says municipalities are underfunded and unequipped to handle these sprawling challenges. Organizers want the province to create a dedicated ministry to oversee a co-ordinated approach backed by a multi-sector task force that includes politicians, health and social services, and business.

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“This is primarily a health issue that falls under provincial jurisdiction, and municipalities and regions should not be using the property tax base to fund these programs,” the mayor said in her motion.

Hamilton’s city council and chamber of commerce endorsed the campaign earlier this fall. The public can join the chorus by visiting SolveTheCrisis.ca.

Lucas said her group would “absolutely” welcome more investment from senior levels of government, especially if it would allow for a year-round homeless shelter to open in Norfolk.

“The  homelessness problem is here,” she said. “So by providing food and a warm place to sleep, we’re actually making a dent in improving lives an improving the safety of our community.”

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The centre is not only a place to spend a few hours out of the cold, but can be a springboard to lasting change, she added.

Two former shelter regulars “are actually now free from their addictions”  and have found permanent housing while re-establishing familial bonds,  Lucas said.

“They have told me it’s in large part due to the stability, the supports (and) the encouragement  that the warming centre has provided them,” she said.

“It’s given them a place to start back from, and they felt that people cared.”

J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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