United Way receives cash to address homelessness

The United Way of Northern B.C. will get about $2.2 million from the government of Canada to support local projects to prevent and reduce homelessness, it was announced Friday.

The local United Way is responsible for the project management and administering of funds through the Homelessness Partnering Strategy’s Designated Communities stream.

“There were 205 absolute homeless people counted in the April 2016 Point-inTime (PiT) count,” Roberta Squire, chief executive officer United Way of Northern BC, said. “We know that there is a high number of hidden homelessness, which was exempted from the PiT Count. Moving forward, we plan to work towards capturing the number of hidden homeless and couch surfers.”

Through projects like the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, vulnerable people facing homelessness will be connected to support programs and services they need, said Pam Goldsmiwth-Jones, parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, who was on hand during the announcement. “I’m pleased that we are helping the United Way of Northern British Columbia to provide support to the community to address their local homelessness needs.”

The funding will prevent and reduce homelessness in Prince George, she added.

This funding is part of the governement’s National Housing Strategy. It is expected that this strategy will help thousands of Canadian households in need to find adequate, suitable and affordable housing. As part of the strategy, it was announced as part of the 2017 budget that a total investment of $2.2 billion over 10 years will tackle homelessness.