Articles and internet research by: Kim Quenneville

Pictures and articles on pages 16 - 20 are all from google.ca

Homewardtrust.com
wikipedia.org
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/multimedia/Results-of-homeless-census-being-released-today-353776701.html
https://www.google.ca/search?q=homeless+shelter+calgary&biw=1536&bih=1010&source=lnms&tbm=
isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiypazA7u3PAhXEzVQKHXuGAvoQ_AUIBygC&dpr=0.75#imgrc=
davTHz5EreU0FM%3A

Edmontons Food Bank:

Food is going out faster
than its coming in

Edmontons Food Bank:

Food is going out faster
than its coming in
Marjorie Bencz has been the voice of Edmontons Food Bank for decades and this year, her plea is particularly worrisome.
This has been the worst year that Ive seen as executive director of the organization, she said.
Ive been with it since 1989 weve never had these kinds of challenges.
Its the perfect storm. The strain on Edmontons Food Bank carried over from 2015. More people in
Alberta lost their jobs and in the spring, the food bank was helping out Syrian refugees who settled in
the city.
TIMELINE: Tracking the layoffs in Albertas oilpatch
Then May hit.
Wildfires in Fort McMurray drained a lot of the food supply. In less than a month, Edmontons Food
Bank sent more than $400,000 worth of food outside the city to help with the disaster and displaced residents.
Some of those residents have remained in Edmonton and continue to count on the food bank.
Twenty-thousand food hampers are being handed out each month. Thats 5,000 more than this time last
year.
The food is going out faster than its coming in, Bencz said.
Another problem, according to Bencz, is that there arent enough donor dollars to go around.
Individuals and businesses have told us, either because of the economy, they cant donate to us that
same level as they have in the past. Theyve already donated earlier in the year to the Red Cross.
food. Fifty-thousand kilograms of non-perishable food also had to be thrown out.
Anna Noble with the food bank said the line-ups have stabilized. There is now a two-day wait to get an
appointment for a food hamper, but there is uncertainty about the months ahead.
Insurance is running out, Noble said. Not everyone has returned home yet.

The situation is similar across the province.

I cant think of one food bank that Ive spoken to around the province that hasnt seen some kind of increase,
Stephanie Riby, of Alberta Food Banks, said.
People have worked through their savings, people have lost their positions and theyve just hit that end.
In 2015, Alberta led the country in food bank use. Alberta Food Banks expects the province to hold on to that
title when this years statistics are released on Nov. 15.
Rigby said her office took three calls just this week from people who have never before used a food bank.
Next month, the holiday campaigns for Edmontons Food Bank will begin.
Bencz believes the goodwill of others will push them through the festive season, but after that, she is worried.
It could mean difficult choices.

Calgary Homeless Foundation

Calgary Homeless Foundation

Over one hundred volunteers met at City Hall Wednesday to conduct the annual homeless count.
The count gives agencies a snapshot of the current homeless situation.
The numbers could be telling this year given the economic downturn, but not in the way you might
think.
President and CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, Diana Krecsy thinks well see a drop in the
numbers this year.
Were going to see a slight reduction in the homeless count because of the economic downturn. The
people who were the working poor dont have those jobs now so theyve moved to those cities where
they can get jobs, but they move into shelters in those other provinces.
Krecsy says homelessness province wide has dropped substantially in recent years.
Two years ago we found out that we have actually reduced homelessness in this province by 17 per cent
and we know that because we looked at all the areas. Its not just moving people between cities. So now
we want to know, where are we at today. Were really hoping to see it down. And if its not we want to
know where its up, whats the trending, whats the population, whats happening and how do we get on
top of that right now.
She says the count allows the foundation to look at the programs that are working, and those that arent
and then make changes where needed.
Preliminary results of the count will be released next month, with full details in spring.

October census finds

more than 1,700 homeless
in Winnipeg

October census finds more

than 1,700 homeless in
Winnipeg
A voluntary census shows of the more than 1,700 people homeless people in Winnipeg, more than 75 per
cent identify as indigenous and almost 50 per cent have been in foster care or group homes.
A point-in-time count conducted on Oct. 25 revealed there were at least 1,727 homeless people in Winnipeg. Of that figure, 132 were unsheltered, 343 were in emergency shelters, 361 were in transitional
housing, and 300 at friends/family/strangers. The rest were in motels, transitional housing or couch surfing. The summary of Winnipegs first-ever street census of homeless people was released Wednesday, an
initiative co-ordinated by the Winnipeg Social Planning Council as a way to not just count the homeless
in the city, but to learn why they became homeless and hear the stories behind the statistics.
Where homeless people stayed
Locations where the 1,727 homeless people stayed on the night of Oct. 25, 2015. Indigenous identity of
homeless people
Aboriginal status of homeless people surveyed on Oct. 25, 2015. 75.8 per cent of surveyed people had
some indigenous identity. An example of one of those stories is Warren Mainville and Wanda Deneve, a
couple who met and fell in love at Siloam Mission and are now engaged. Both reached the shelter from
two very separate set of circumstances.
Mainville is 50 years old and originally from the northwestern Ontario town of Fort Frances. He wound
up at Siloam Mission after coming to Winnipeg last year for a job that fell through. Without a high school
education and savings to fall back on, Mainville wasnt able to find a job and ended up at the shelter last
April. Its not having qualifications, like a Grade 12, I lost my licence so that really put a damper on me
finding another job, Mainville said Wednesday outside Siloam Mission.
Similar to 52 per cent of the respondents of the census, Mainville is from a First Nation Couchiching
First Nation in Northern Ontario. I know when I was working and I saw homeless people, I would think
they are lazy and now I am on the inside, looking out, it is not a lot different. Everyone has their own
stories to tell about it, he said.
Deneve, originally from Saskatchewan, is 45 years old and was deported from the United States after
living there for 20 years. She was dropped off at the Emerson border crossing three months ago without
any friends or family to turn to. Like 40 per cent of the respondents, Deneve experienced family violence
growing up, which played a role in her ending up on the streets this year,

Thats why I am not back in Saskatchewan. I havent talked to my family in years, she said.
Both said the key to ending homelessness in Winnipeg is through more transition housing, giving people a
chance to work at a job and not having to be at the shelter by 8 p.m. in order to get a bed for the night.
One thing I know about being homeless is you never starve theres lots of food. It is shelter that we
need, Deneve said. Its a comfort to know you have something to fall back on.
The figures in the release didnt surprise Christina Maes Nino, community animator for the Social Planning
Council of Winnipeg, who helped collect the data. Her hope is that different groups and organizations such
as Siloam Mission can use the census results when making funding proposals to governments and planning
their programs.
For people who have worked or done research into homelessness, it wasnt surprising. It just confirmed
what we were thinking or sort of knew, Maes Nino said after the report was released at Thunderbird House
on Main Street.
However, it was the events that led to people winding up on the streets that surprised Maes Nino. The survey
found that the median age when people first became homeless was 24, but the most frequent age was 18.
The majority of those facing chronic homelessness (over 10 years) first became homeless when they were
18 years or younger.
It really demonstrates if we want to stop homelessness or end it, thats the age we need to focus on, she
said. The survey also revealed close to 60 per cent of indigenous respondents had been in foster care or
group homes. Larry Wucherer, operations manager for Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, a resource centre that
supports aboriginal families, said it demonstrates the relationship between children aging out of the foster
care system and not having access to needed resources to live on their own.
That is a systemic problem. So if a policymaker or government officials was looking at this, I would a see
a direct connection between releasing someone that is 18 without giving them adequate support to transition
to a normal life and seeing that 60 per cent costs the city even more money than helping them or giving
them an extension, Wucherer said.
kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca
Read more by Kristin Annable.