2017 sees rise in number of families seeking emergency shelter: agency
Inn from the Cold saw the number of families seeking its services increase in 2017, serving a total of 1,039 family members.
Abe Brown, executive director of Inn from the Cold, said 58 per cent of guests who used the organization’s emergency shelter last year were children — a number that he called “tremendously concerning.”
“The idea is … to get these children, with their families, housed as quickly as possible, and to mitigate the long-term impact of the trauma of experiencing homelessness,” said Brown. “So that’s a real concern for us.”
The organization says while “great strides” have been achieved in addressing adult single homelessness in Calgary over the past decade, the needle “has yet to be moved for children and families in housing crisis.”
There were a total of 33,650 stays last year at Inn from the Cold’s family emergency shelter, and the facility was at or overcapacity 61 per cent of the year, up from 55 per cent in 2016. The 1,039 family members served in 2017, which includes 944 unique family members using the emergency shelter, compares to 1,004 family members in 2016.
“I think the trend line is concerning, because more families appear to be in homelessness,” said Brown.
The organization says it wants to see more supply of affordable housing appropriately sized for families.
“The most relevant data to us is the fact that only 24 per cent of the affordable housing in the city of Calgary is larger than two bedrooms,” said Brown.
“And so what that means is larger families — our average family size at Inn from the Cold is three chil- dren — effectively are trapped in homelessness.”
Brown said the economy has been a major factor affecting family homelessness. Other typical situations include families fleeing domestic violence, Indigenous families escaping poor housing conditions on reserves, and newcomers seeking assistance.
“Newcomers to Canada … come often with legal status tied to a particular sponsor, type of relationship, and then that relationship will break down, often in domestic violence,” said Brown.
Carlos Mechan, his wife and his two children came to Calgary on Sept. 20 from Venezuela, via the United States, and stayed at Inn from the Cold for two weeks while they looked for housing. He said there were other newcomer families seeking shelter at the facility at the time, and a family whose house had burned down.
“It’s really important,” he said. Brown said on the positive side, Inn from the Cold housed more families in 2017 than it did the previous year, with 49 families helped through its housing programs.
“It is such a wonderful thing to see families’ trajectories change, and families who start in poverty, and of course the instability and uncertainty that comes with that, end up in a place where now they’re stable,” he said.
Seniors and Housing Minister Lori Sigurdson said the province is investing $1.2 billion to increase the number of affordable housing units and to maintain and renovate existing spaces. She added since May 2015, $188 million has been invested for the development and major renovation of community and specialized housing, and $24 million has been pledged for the preservation and maintenance of community and specialized housing units.
“We are committed to protecting the public services families count on, like affordable housing,” Sigurdson said in a written statement.