Lighthouse funding woes leave homeless on streets
Dallas Poundmaker has been staying at the Lighthouse for more than three months — but Wednesday night, for the first time, he was turned away.
The self-described starving artist and his wife slept in the entrances of two banks on 21st Street and a downtown apartment building instead.
Poundmaker said he is ineligible for social services funding to stay at the Lighthouse.
“It was good. Everything was good. Right now it’s just ... nowhere to sleep now.”
The Lighthouse started refusing people who aren’t paid for by the province Wednesday night in the face of budget pressures.
While its newly expanded 38-bed stabilization unit receives $137,800 from the Saskatoon Health Region, that doesn’t cover all the costs, executive director Don Windels says.
However, the ministries of Justice, Health and Social Services denied a request for funding to make up the difference, he says. As a result, the Lighthouse will now only accept clients it knows the ministry will reimburse them for, a judgment that takes into account income and assets from all sources.
“This is a time of great financial pressure,” said Jeff Redekop, executive director for income assistance service delivery with the Ministry of Social Services. “So government needs to make some tough decisions on where funding goes.”
The province also feels the stabilization unit has not had meaningful results, saying only five people have moved on to stable housing.
At issue is the funding model used for the Lighthouse. Rather than a core funding model taking into account the people the Lighthouse actually serves, it is reimbursed for the cost of housing eligible people through a contract with the Social Services Ministry.
The province tightened its eligibility rules last year to exclude people who already receive government assistance.
The contract, with a floor of $762,000 and a ceiling of $1.5 million, only covers the 61 dry emergency shelter beds. It’s meant to both provide a predictable revenue stream and ensure funding isn’t greater than the needs of the individuals being served, Redekop said.
Redekop said not enough eligible people would use the shelter to justify expanding the contract to cover the 61 dry beds plus the 38 beds in the stabilization unit.
“The number of eligible individuals using the emergency shelter can be accommodated within the 61 beds that are there now,” he said.
Other community services are available to address the needs of people with mental health and addictions issues, he said. Shelters set their own criteria for who they wish to serve, he said.
“And of course shelters have a variety of funding resources, that can be different levels of government, private funding, and every organization we work with across the province, the 12 different shelters, all rely heavily on fundraising as well.”
Shaun Dyck, executive director of the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership, said he was disappointed the unit won’t be paid for by the province.
“It’s a place that is really creating a safe environment for people in need of housing. Without it, we’re going to see a burden on all the other systems in Saskatoon. We’re going to see more need for police to respond to calls, more emergency room visits. This is ultimately going to cost the taxpayer.”
The unit is a place for people with addictions or mental health issues to go if they’re unable to stay at home due to issues such as intoxication, the possibility of violence, or a court order to stay away from a spouse or children, he said.
While he said he can understand the province not wanting people to receive multiple funding sources for housing, Lighthouse clients are vulnerable — with mental illness or addictions — who have nowhere else to go. It also takes a long time to establish enough trust with people to move them into stable housing, he said.