Homeless join in search for solutions
Workshop brings together homeless people and those who help them to examine crisis
Amanda Fiegehen has been off crystal meth for 20 days now. “I know that’s not a long time and I have a whole lifetime of sobriety in front of me, but it’s a start,” said the 30-yearold.
“I’d been shooting up every day for two years, so this is taking a lot of willpower. But, it’s what I need to do to get housed, find a job and get my kids back.”
Fiegehen was at Tuesday’s workshop led by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and Kelowna’s Journey Home Strategy at Trinity Church.
The all-day session brought together some homeless and formerly homeless people and those who help them to discuss the crisis in Kelowna and come up with solutions.
“Homelessness costs a lot more than housing the homeless,” said Kaite Burkholder Harris of the Toronto-based Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
“There has to be more subsidized housing and deeply affordable housing. All our work is driven to help provide safe housing for the homeless. There also has to be a framework for prevention.”
The observatory decided to make Kelowna one of its five stops on a cross-country tour because the city is already working on a strategy to end homelessness.
“Kelowna is ahead of the game because ending homelessness is already part of its community plan,” said Burkholder Harris.
“When the objective is to always keep people housed, government and agencies have to operate on a human level and not deny people housing because paperwork isn’t done, identification has been lost or people don’t have the money.”
However, Burkholder Harris did admit money, or lack of it, is the biggest barrier.
“People on income assistance get $375 a month for housing, which doesn’t go far in Kelowna,” she said.
“That’s why there’s a need for more subsidized housing and deeply affordable housing.” Fiegehen concurs. “As a couple, me and my fiance get $977 a month on income assistance, which doesn’t leave a lot for rent and everything else,” she said.
“In fact, we haven’t been able to find a place we can afford and we’ve been looking. The landlord of the first place we tried to rent turned us down.”
Fiegehen and her fiance, who is also a recovering drug addict, have been staying at the Inn From the Cold shelter on Sutherland Avenue since Oct. 2.
It was Inn From the Cold that helped the couple make the decision to give up crystal methamphetamine and get their lives back on track.
For two years before that, Fiegehen and her finance lived in a tent or couch-surfed.
Inn From the Cold has also enrolled the couple in the Kelowna Community Resources’ sevenweek Essential Skills Program, which helps people with counselling, bus passes, applying for identification and navigating government and community systems to access help.
When Fiegehen and her fiance get a home, they both hope to get jobs giving back and helping people fight addiction and homelessness.
With their lives back on track, Fiegehen hopes to regain custody of two of her three children, a 12year-old girl who is in foster care in Ontario and a seven-year-old boy who is staying with family in Logan Lake.
A second daughter is living permanently with her dad.
“We know we can do better,” said Fiegehen.
“We want to be sober and be part of the solution.”