As the days get shorter and the temperatures start to drop, our thoughts turn to our families who are struggling with sustainable housing. At the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village we assist individuals and families who have lost their homes through a variety of reasons, ranging from family breakdown or domestic violence to loss of employment, addiction, and mental health.
There have been some conversations lately wherein some city residents have said the homeless in St. Albert should all be sent to Edmonton. Let’s stop and think about that. A family impacted by violence would then have to leave all of their supports in St. Albert — a city they have possibly called home for many years.
We do refer some of the folks to Edmonton when they require services we currently don’t have in St. Albert. Many times they will access the services in Edmonton and come back to St. Albert as soon as possible.
There are different categories of homelessness. In addition to “living rough,” “couch surfing,” and, “car,” there are also folks who fall into the category of emergency sheltered and transitional, which includes folks staying in motels or other temporary accommodations.
We have assisted 116 individuals who experienced homelessness so far in 2021. Who are they? While you may envision individuals who sleep outside and push a shopping cart, this is quite rarely the case. In fact, the number of folks “living rough” has been relatively low. The largest number of folks were either couch-surfing or sleeping in their cars. Our homeless clients this year have ranged in age from one year old to 72.
What, as a community, can we do? We can continue to advocate for appropriate housing and other supports within St. Albert. The Mayor’s Task Force is focusing on youth transitional housing — we can support that. We can ask what we can do to help. We can accept the fact that some St. Albert residents will, unfortunately, find themselves without a safe place to live and offer the supports they need.
Over the years we have had conversations with our folks who were “living rough.” They have always been willing to tell us their stories and how they were impacted by living outside. They told us how it hurt to be called a “homeless bum” or “thief.” They said what was toughest for them, though, was that people would “look through them like they didn’t exist.”
Sometimes folks just don’t know what to say to someone whom they suspect might be homeless. Our advice is to treat them like anyone else. They are somebody’s brother, dad or grandad, sister, mom, or friend. They are people who are going through something in their lives most of us cannot imagine.
So, I ask again. What can we do as a community? We, at the Community Village, have a couple of projects we could use some volunteer support with that will help us give better service to the families who are struggling. Please email [email protected] for further information.
Suzan Krecsy is the director of the St. Albert Food Bank.
