Lack of housing frustrates efforts to help Truro’s homeless

All Charles Blades wanted was a safe place to live after he left Yarmouth to come to Truro.

Having just completed a prison sentence for drug offences and looking to make a fresh start, a tight housing market leaves him stuck sleeping at the Truro Homeless Outreach Society (THOS) shelter on Prince Street. By day, he visits a friend’s place or the library, “places where I can stay warm.”

“I’ll put it straight to you – I’ve been in the drug industry quite a while. I lived it – I’m not hiding it. I’ve done what I’ve done,” said Blades. “I just decided that I didn’t want to stay in Yarmouth and came here.”

According to Brian Currie, THOS volunteer co-ordinator, up to 10 people at a time show up for apartment viewings in Truro, where subsidized or low-income housing is scarce. The housing market is even more restricted for disabled clients like Blades, who has permanent leg injuries, restricting him to a ground-level home.

While housing in Truro is often expensive, less expensive places to rent can be found in Bible Hill, Valley or in communities slightly farther away, like Debert.

But homeless clients typically do not have vehicles and there is no public bus system making accessibility a problem when job hunting or working in down- town Truro, for example.

People like Blades also need a fixed address to apply for benefits such as disability payments. Without a permanent home, he receives only a monthly $100 allowance from the province to cover basic needs.

“It’s frustrating when you try to help people who actually want it but there’s nothing available. Charles is a perfect example – he wants to turn his life around,” said Currie.

Pointing to his cramped office, barely big enough to fit three people in its front area, Currie said he could rent it out for about $600 a month if it was a typical Truro apartment.

“It’s pretty pathetic,” he said. Although finding permanent housing for clients is frustrating, THOS is not yet experiencing a major influx of homeless people as freezing weather sets in.

For the night of Nov. 15-16, Currie said 14 out of 16 shelter beds were occupied, slightly up from the 10 to 12 nightly visitors who stayed at THOS last month.

If all 16 beds are full, THOS has 12 extra cots to take extra clients.

Currie expected numbers to go up slightly over Christmas, meaning the cots will soon be pressed into service.

“It’s frustrating when you try to help people who actually want it but there’s nothing available. Charles is a perfect example – he wants to turn his life around.” Brian Currie, volunteer co-ordinator, Truro Homeless Outreach Society

FRAM DINSHAW/TRURO NEWS If Brian Currie’s cramped office was an apartment, he could rent it out for about $600 per month in Truro, well beyond the budget of the homeless clients he helps resettle. Currie is the volunteer co-ordinator for Truro Homeless Outreach Society and is seen here with Kelly Furlotte, the society’s navigator.

FRAM DINSHAW/TRURO NEWS Truro Homeless Outreach Society has 16 permanent beds and another 12 cots to accommodate clients. Up to five people can sleep in the biggest men’s dorm on the centre’s second floor, according to volunteer co-ordinator Brian Currie.