The emergence of a tent encampment in Kitimat behind the City Council Chambers has sparked more conversations about homelessness in the District.
While the District does have a temporary shelter available during the winter between November 1st and March 31st, that leaves unhoused people in the area mostly on their own the rest of the year.
But as the Kitimat Community Development Centre’s Executive Director Brittney Santos pointed out, there still are some means for people struggling to find a place to get a bit of a reprieve;
“The Kitimat Community Development Centre and Tamitik Status of Women both offer homeless prevention programs. The program is aimed at stopping homelessness before someone becomes homeless. We offer a rent subsidy program, the program also offers different funding for individuals so that program can subsidize the cost of a calling card or it can pay for transportation. We also offer support in finding landlords in the community that are offering rent at affordable costs. Then we look at coaching and supporting individuals to look at their budget and make different decisions that will prevent them from becoming homeless.”
Jordana Velho, the Tamitik Status of Women’s own Executive Director then specified the difference between their homeless prevention program and the KCDC’s;
“The main difference between TSW and KCDC’s homeless prevention programs is that TSW is mandated to serve a majority of women and children.”
Both organizations have some other means of fighting homelessness like housing supports, their own seasonal/extreme weather shelters and a new building project that TSW is currently working on.
Despite their efforts, the existence of the encampment shows that those measures still aren’t enough and Velho spoke on how the organizations have teamed up to try and find other means of homelessness prevention;
“Both TSW and KCDC have spoken to council on their own as well as together. We did a joint presentation at a council meeting. We’ve had discussions with district staff about different resolutions we can think of. Council has been advocating for a year round shelter publicly for a few years. We’ve both sent support letters to the District of Kitimat just highlighting the need we presented at council. and we’ve also sent letters to the housing minister.”
Both Santos and Velho believe that the shortage of affordable housing and rising rental costs were some of the biggest reasons that Kitimat’s homelessness situation is the way it is.
And the next closest municipality with a year round shelter and similar supportive housing options is Terrace, a place that’s around 45 minutes away from Kitimat by vehicle and it’s not always easy to get there via public transit either.
But the organizations aren’t giving up on trying to secure a year round shelter that is both accessible for people with mobility issues and able to accommodate everyone.