Carmichael Outreach so full it’s asking for tents
Carmichael Outreach is calling for tent donations as more people are coming through its doors seeking shelter than the organization can handle.
Since Wednesday, six tents have been handed out, said Cora Sellers, Carmichael’s executive director. She said staff could have given out more, but they only had six tents to give.
“We’ve given them to people that have nowhere to go at the end of the day because the shelters are full and they can’t get help from anywhere else like Mobile Crisis. And it’s kind of like a last resort thing so that they have some privacy and some form of (shelter),” she said.
Carmichael doesn’t have a set location for people to go, and usually doesn’t tell them where to set up, but Sellers said Thursday night they sent a young woman to the Justice For Our Stolen Children camp.
“Because she was so vulnerable, we felt that that was the only place in the city that she would be safe,” she said.
Sellers attributes this rise of people needing shelter to the provincial government ending its rental supplement program on July 1. The rental supplement provided between $61 and $364 a month to eligible individuals or families, on top of regular social assistance.
“We’ve always had the case where a lot of the vacancies that are available are not affordable or accessible for our people. That hasn’t changed, despite the fact that vacancy rates have gone up, but in the past they’ve been able to access this rental supplement,” she said.
Now when people fall behind on rent and get evicted, they can no longer rely on rental supplements to help them get a new place, and social assistance only provides $459 for housing for a single person, said Sellers.
“There’s no such thing as a place in the city for $459. We’ve produced a housing list for the last eight years and we don’t see that very often. When we do see a place for $459, it’s generally somewhere that you don’t want anyone to live.”
The Regina Police Service was in touch with the organization Friday morning to “get a sense of what’s going on and how to help,” said Sellers, and is aware that more tents might be seen popping up around the city.
Carmichael is receiving donations of tents, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets and other items needed to get people through the night at 1170 6th Ave. at their loading centre.
Donations can be dropped off Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The tents are distributed to those in need who ask for them.