Green Wood Coalition
  • Home
  • Contact
  • About
    • Making a Difference Series
    • What We Do
    • Annual Report
    • Mission and Values
    • History
    • Videos
    • Photos
    • Media
    • Board of Directors
  • Get Involved
    • Member Opportunities
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Summer Employment
  • NEWSLETTER
  • IMAGINATE 2019
  • Donate
    • Our Supporters
GREEN WOOD COALITION
​
is a radically inclusive, street-level organization
that uses a community model of caring to walk alongside people
who are hungry, homeless and hurting in Northumberland County, Ontario
Donate Now

Green Wood Coalition is supported by
​Generous Donors, Northumberland United Way, and the Municipality of Port Hope
Registered Canadian Charity: 835935263RR0001

Homelessness Exists in Northumberland Part 1

3/4/2014

 
Picture
From Northumberland Today, Monday March 3, 2014:

In many forms, homelessness exists in Northumberland. This three-part series will explore several aspects. Today's instalment offers a look at the big picture of local homelessness.

NORTHUMBERLAND — David Sheffield, community outreach worker with Green Wood Coalition in Port Hope, was feeling concern following a discussion on the need for emergency housing at a recent meeting of the county Affordable Housing Committee (of which Sheffield is a member).

"They were saying there's no need, there's no data to support that. Then, during the course of the week, I'm working with three people who are homeless," Sheffield said in a recent interview.

"That invisibility, the sense that it's being taken care of — that's part of the difficulty."

Homelessness is not a primary part of the coalition's mandate, Sheffield said, so much as working with people who fall through the cracks. Part of that work is collaborating with services currently in place to find a positive solution.

The best way to do that, he added, is to help create an infrastructure that recognizes the realities. Lacking that, any solution would involve a patchwork approach.

The three cases of homelessness Sheffield encountered in a single February week included two teenagers whose parents are in unstable situations, who wanted to leave and make their own way.

"They are currently couch-surfing, and that's a typical pattern if you have a network in a small town," Sheffield reported.

"At this point, they have no support of any kind, but that's not unusual.

"During the warmer months, some of those people would be living outside or in situations that aren't meant for human habitation. In the winter, it really becomes difficult. They move from couch to couch, often in overcrowded and dangerous situations."

Then there's a young man we'll call Sam, whose situation is a step down even from that.

"Sam, without housing in the winter time and having no other recourse, is the more extreme example, and that's less frequent.

"Over the course of this year, there have been probably half a dozen crisis situations that came to us. And I know there are other crisis situations coming to other front-line workers," Sheffield said.

"In our work, we are connected to a community of people, and in that community there would be a number of people who are constantly in some state of homelessness."

The definition of homelessness can be as narrow or as broad as one wishes to make it. In Sheffield's work, he tends to subscribe to the Canadian Homelessness Research Network's definition that is in use at the York University Homeless Hub. It has four main categories and 12 sub-categories.

"Sam would be in the number-one category. At any given time in Northumberland County, you can find people in all 11 other categories," he said.

"Absolute homelessness or street homelessness is somewhat rare. But if that is the only way you define homelessness, you miss the rest of the definition. On the farthest end of the scale, that includes people who are one pay cheque away from losing their place. What they all have in common is anxiety around retaining housing and the inability to do anything about it.

"In those 12 categories, people move around among them — people who are currently living free on someone's couch or making some kind of arrangement, people living in motels, people who over the course of a year live at four different addresses because they are not able to maintain housing for a variety of reasons.

"And if you had four addresses in a year, that probably means you have gone through four landlords," Sheffield pointed out.

"In a small community, it will become increasingly difficult to find a place to rent — and there's a shortage of housing here, with a very low vacancy rate and relatively high rent rates. A single person on Ontario Works will get $600 a month. The average in the Cobourg-Port Hope area is $800 to $850 for a one-bedroom apartment."

Since the accepted definition of affordable housing is that it costs no more than one-third of your income, Sheffield said, affordable housing for someone on Ontario Works would be $200 a month.

"There are rare situations of shared accommodations, rooming situations that can get lower. But when those exist, they tend to be $300 to $400 a month," he said.

"That might the best situation for a single person getting welfare. Otherwise, people end up paying their whole cheque for rent somewhere, or go into a situation with other people that is unsafe and leads to other social challenges."

Part 2: The next installment offers a look at how life's sudden turns can leave someone vulnerable and in need of emergency shelter. Click here.

[email protected]
twitter.com/NT_cnasmith



Comments are closed.

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Author

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Cobourg
    Community
    Food
    Fundraising
    Garden
    Healthcare
    Housing
    IMAGINATE
    Johnny Cash
    Media
    Music
    Partners
    Port Hope

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Contact
  • About
    • Making a Difference Series
    • What We Do
    • Annual Report
    • Mission and Values
    • History
    • Videos
    • Photos
    • Media
    • Board of Directors
  • Get Involved
    • Member Opportunities
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Summer Employment
  • NEWSLETTER
  • IMAGINATE 2019
  • Donate
    • Our Supporters