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Rising energy costs putting families at risk for homelessness

Posted on March 22 2010 under Poverty in the Media

Rising energy costs putting families at risk for homelessness

Peggy Revell, Staff writer
March 17, 2010

Rising energy costs are one of the biggest reasons households across Rainy River District are being put at risk for homelessness, local agencies say.

“The biggest issue in this district which we see around homelessness has to do with the cost of utilities,” said Trudy McCormick, executive director of the Northwest Community Legal Clinic.

“That, for us, is the most common thing we see. That people can no longer afford utility costs for their residence and are forced to move out, that they’re disconnected,” she noted.

“I’d say there’s been a steady increase in that issue in the 10 years I’ve been here,” McCormick added, referring to the number of people struggling with energy costs.

“Homelessness has a different face here than it does in other communities,” she explained. “Here, it’s not that we have a lot of street people [like what is seen in Toronto]—it’s that we have a lot of people whose housing is really vulnerable.

“Here, homelessness can mean your neighbour being unable to pay their utilities and you may not realize it.”

With social assistance not usually enough to cover rental amounts if people are with a private landlord, McCormick said that means people can be left with a hard choice: pay their rent or have money to feed their kids.

“Sometimes there are very large connection fees required, and often if you end up with your heat, gas disconnected so you have no heat source, technically you’re in breach of your lease, so people get evicted for that,” she remarked, noting that getting another rental then is difficult because these people won’t have money for first and last month’s rent—or the money needed to hook up utilities in this new location.

Once evicted, these people will “float,” she said.

“They’ll stay with friends [and] they’ll have to move because there comes a point where people wear out their welcome,” McCormick noted.

“So I find that people will move around from friend to friend, from family member to family member, and a lot of times the impact is on their extended family because that’s where they look to help pick up the slack.”

In some cases, McCormick has seen people live in “some really precarious situations,” such as living without running water or electricity throughout the summer in the district, then going to Thunder Bay for shelter during the winter months.

Another thing that’s causing a “real crisis” are people who have signed up with energy re-sellers.

“We [just] had someone in . . . whose utility bill had tripled because of signing up with the re-seller, so they then couldn’t afford to pay the heat,” she said.

Rising energy costs is one of the main reasons households in the district have had to seek assistance through the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board’s homelessness program, noted Mildred Beck, who oversees the program.

“Energy costs—the cost of heating your home—have increased dramatically,” she remarked. “And unfortunately, people’s income have not been able to keep pace with that.

“Families end up getting behind and eventually they have a cut-off notice.

“To stay in their home, they have to have heat and utilities so they come to us and apply for assistance,” Beck explained, noting those seeking help are lower-income families and individuals.

Last year, for instance, the DSSAB saw the number of households which it helped stabilize, who were considered at risk for homelessness, jump by more than 100 from 2008—up to 1,286 from 1,167.

Beck noted the DSSAB uses the province’s definition of homelessness whereas other agencies may use different ones.

This increase comes as a growing number of households access the various food banks locally, such as the Salvation Army, West End Food Bank, Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, and the United Native Friendship Centre, which part of DSSAB’s homelessness funding goes towards supporting.

“It’s the global number of what they’re serving and what we’re contributing to, and that’s continued to rise every quarter,” said Beck.

“Those [numbers] have been on the rise mostly due to job loss and persons needing emergency assistance for food supplies, essentially.”

But when it comes to assisting people at risk for homelessness, one challenge the local DSSAB faces is its funding running out mid-year.

“The Emergency Energy Fund that’s here at the DSSAB, which is specifically for utilities and gas, those dollars were fully expended by the end of June,” Beck said, referring to this past year, while the homelessness funds that weren’t allocated to outside agencies all were utilized by mid-October.

“So we could have served more clients if we had more funds, but we actually have utilized everything before we even get to the end of the year,” she stressed, adding this situation occurs every year.

A two percent increase in funding annually from the province on a $66,000 budget amounts to “maybe one gas bill,” Beck noted, but not necessarily enough to serve more clients.

DSSAB refers people to other programs which they may qualify for, such as the Rent Bank Fund, to try and stretch the dollars to serve more clients, she added.

There have been improvements in certain categories which the homelessness funds go towards. For example, the agency saw the number of persons experiencing homelessness drop to 59 in 2009 from 66 in 2008.

“I think we’ve been able to place more people in our housing units as they become ready, and that has been a benefit,” said Beck, adding this decrease also has come from the “very good co-ordinated efforts” of the Salvation Army, the UNFC, and DSSAB.

“They all really do all they can to aid those in need,” she stressed, saying that as people become more stabilized, they access the different available services, such as “Ontario Works” and the Rent Bank Fund, which also contributes to the drop in these numbers.

DSSAB also has seen a small decrease in the number of households experiencing living on the street, said Beck—eight reported this year, down from 12 in 2008.
As well, the number of transient homeless people within the district remains relatively low, Beck noted, mainly due to the district not being on the Trans-Canada Highway—unlike Kenora and Dryden—and a decrease in bus service to the area.

“It’s relatively low, and, of course, we keep working because we’d like to see a big zero there,” she remarked.

“I don’t even know how people can survive on some of the money that they’re making,” said Brent Chapman of the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, who is co-ordinator of the STEP Centre program here.

“It’s just unbelievable some of the poverty that we have in the area.
“To work out there, you just see what people struggle through on limited incomes,” he stressed. “And there’s a lot of poor people out there who are really struggling and there’s just not enough money to go around.”

When it comes to managing mental health issues, Chapman said housing is one of the most important things—one of the reasons why the CMHA has worked to create its own rent subsidization program for its clients.

“I think that this homelessness fund was in response to what is fairly obvious,” he remarked. “There are a lot of people out there living in substandard housing, and have a very difficult time making ends meet, particularly with the rising cost of electricity and gas and rents, of course.

“It really puts a lot of people at risk,” he warned.

“So this is the one way that we’re able to help some of our clients, anyways.”

The CMHA’s program currently is able to help subsidize rent for about 10 clients—and there is a waiting list.

And as part of the program, the agency offers support to its clients through helping to maintain the units, holding emergency keys and, in some cases, having a direct rent payment to the landlords—things which make landlords like renting to CMHA’s clients, Chapman noted.

“Going back over the years, none of that was available at all, so it is catching up to some of the need that was,” he said, referring to the funding that helps people avoid homelessness.

“But there’s never enough, that’s the problem,” he admitted, noting they keep lobbying the government for more money so they can offer more units—something he believes the ministry is receptive to.

As well, Chapman said the Salvation Army and UNFC “have been great” in assisting those in need, encouraging district residents who want to help out to contribute to these programs.

“They do a very good job—and I think that’s maybe not known as much in our community—but they’re really reaching out there and doing a lot of work,” he lauded.
“I think that’s where we have to start right there.”

But action at the provincial and federal level also is needed in the fight against homelessness in the district, stressed McCormick.

“[What’s needed is] for the federal and provincial governments to increase the stable and dedicated funding for homelessness,” she argued. “To look at rent supplement programs so that people whose income is below a certain level might get some assistance with their rent to be able to maintain their housing.

“And to look at a similar kind of program for utility payments where if a person’s income is under a certain amount, they’re eligible for some assistance with it,” she added.

 

POVERTY IN THE MEDIA