HELPING THE HOMELESS
You can help make a difference in the life of one of the more than 3,000 Calgarians without a home
Help us help vulnerable Calgarians find shelter, food and safety through our Christmas Fund. Heather Morley, executive director for Inn from the Cold, stands in a space for homeless families, highlighting that homelessness can strike people of all ages.
Frank, a widower after the death of his wife of 52 years, couldn't manage on his own. Linda, a mom of two small children, lost her apartment when her ex-husband was laid off from his oilfield job and stopped sending child support payments. Then there's Kayla, a teen who was kicked out of the family home when her parents found out she was gay.
Call it couch surfing, living in shelter, sleeping “rough” or living on the streets — the face of homelessness is varied and complex.
Combine it with an economy that continues to struggle and a global pandemic, and you have a momentous challenge for both those experiencing homelessness today and the people dedicated to coming to their aid.
“Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, you find out there's quicksand,” says Carlene Donnelly, executive director of CUPS Calgary (cupscalgary.com) and a 25year veteran of the organization dedicated to helping Calgarians tackle the challenges of poverty and trauma.
“I've never seen anything as hard on our community and our clients, and our staff,” says Donnelly, who adds that when it comes to assisting with a wide variety of societal problems, helping people to access housing is the first priority. “It is an emotional tsunami.”
CUPS is just one of many Calgary agencies featured in the 2020 Christmas Fund. Over the coming weeks, Postmedia Calgary will highlight a variety of social issues in our city and show how, through the generosity of our readers, we can all make a difference in helping our city's most vulnerable. (A full list of all the agencies being helped, along with donation information, is at calgaryherald.com and on page NP5.)
It should come as no surprise that 2020 has proven to be one of the most difficult in our city's history.
We are collectively living through a storm, though we are in very different boats. Those working in industries that deal with the public or require workers to be in close quarters with one another — with many of those jobs paying not much more than minimum wage — not only face daily challenges to stay safe and healthy, but also have been the most impacted financially by pandemic restrictions.
For the more than 3,000 Calgarians currently experiencing homelessness, these are indeed the worst of times. Still, people like Donnelly are here to offer words of hope.
“I couldn't believe how resilient our clients were; I was in tears seeing it happen,” says Donnelly. “They showed the kind of resilience that we have been working so hard to instil in them.”
Those clients — everyone from single moms in search of housing to young kids needing help with
remote learning — quickly pivoted to receiving support via Zoom calls and other technology.
Still, the prospect of another six months of a pandemic is daunting, even for someone like Donnelly.
“Sustaining that calm and resilience will be our challenge going forward,” she says, noting that her agency has lost its ability to rely on its usual sources of fundraising income due the elimination of in-person events. “Many of our clients have lived through trauma, so they don't have the social and emotional reserves most of us can draw on. We are skating on thin ice.”
In such challenging times, Patricia Jones hopes it is also an opportunity for the greater society to understand and appreciate the reality around homelessness.
“People have started to understand that having shelter is not only a human right, it's a matter of life and death during a pandemic,” says Jones, executive director of the Calgary Homeless Foundation (calgaryhomeless.com), which works with local agencies to develop an integrated system of care to tackle homelessness.
Jones provided the real-life stories of homeless Calgarians described at the beginning of this article, experiences that illuminate the complexity of the issue.
“People who find themselves homeless are like you and me — it's not about making a choice, but a lack of choice,” she says.
This has become even more salient during the pandemic, as those living paycheque to paycheque find themselves increasingly vulnerable.
“Before COVID-19, more than 80,000 Calgarians were struggling to get housing,” Jones says. “It's only going to get worse.”
Still, she has high praise for those on the front lines helping them. With volunteers having to stay away because of the pandemic, staff members at local agencies have put themselves on the front lines daily as they help society's most vulnerable.
“They are putting themselves at risk in service to humanity,” says Jones, who likens their heroic efforts to those given by other first responders.
Like her colleagues in the fight against homelessness, Heather Morley emphasizes the help they can provide.
“In such extraordinary times, the work has become even more focused,” says Morley, executive director of Inn from the Cold (innfromthecold.org), which helps children and their families facing homelessness. “When the pandemic hit, we had 16 families in a communal shelter,” she says. “We were able to house 14 families in the community right away.”
Still, the numbers don't lie. “Between April 1 and October 1 of this year, we've seen a 400-percent increase in calls for help,” she says. “Emergency benefits are coming to an end for many.”
She adds that in a city with a lack of affordable housing, that is worrisome news: “We are seeing a lot of families on the brink of becoming homeless.”
Being nimble in the face of such daunting circumstances, says Sandra Clarkson, is key to survival.
“We've designed more than 100 new policies and protocols based on recommendations from public health,” since the pandemic started, says Clarkson, executive director of the Calgary Drop-in Centre (calgarydropin.ca). The DI, as it's known in the city, supports people's transition to the most independent living possible. “No one is thinking inside the box right now.”
It's not an easy task, given the pandemic restrictions required to keep clients safe.
“We've had to reduce our capacity in the main building from just over 1,000 on a nightly basis, to 380,” she says. Like other agencies, though, the DI has been able to pivot. Already, its donation centre, which takes in items that help furnish homes for clients placed into housing (3640 - 11A Street N.E., 403-264-0856), is back up and running with volunteers.
Working to help those experiencing homelessness, says Clarkson, is never easy, even in non-pandemic times. But, like other agencies on the front lines, her team isn't giving up on our city's most vulnerable.