The results of the Point in Time Homeless Count done in April for the Cowichan Valley were released on Wednesday.
The count is a snapshot of the valley taken on the evening of April 11, and during the day of April 12, and found 223 people who identified as being homeless, though not all may have been accounted for.
Among the reasons given for housing loss were not enough income (37%), substance abuse (31%), conflict with a landlord (22%), conflict with a spouse (16%), and having experienced abuse (15%).
At Wednesday’s news conference at the Cowichan Housing Association, the organizers of the PiT count and local housing advocates noted that the tally would have been higher if not for two new facilities opened recently: the Village on Trunk Road in Duncan with 34 housing units and wrap-around supports, and a building with 54 apartments and supports for the tenants in North Cowichan.
Shelly Cook of the CHA says the new data provides a better understanding of the services needed in the valley.
“What we’re able to do through the Point in Time Count,” says Cook, “is really illustrate some of the complex issues that people are experiencing.”
She says it helps them focus on ensuring the necessary supports are included in housing to help people overcome those issues.
Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples says the PiT Count also gives municipalities the information necessary to pursue greater action and cooperation from higher levels of government.
She says municipalities do not have jurisdiction in areas such as healthcare, but the provincial and federal governments do, so they need to be on board when it comes to creating solutions.
Cook says the PiT count can help them tear down the walls that currently prevent government departments with overlapping responsibilities from working together, and connect them with municipalities and agencies on the front line to create a broader and more integrated system.
Staples says during the pandemic “those barriers melted,” but now seem to be falling back into place.
She says in a pandemic, “everything sort of changes really rapidly and we have to respond like in an emergency, and then after the emergency we kind of sit in reflection and study and see what happened and what worked,” and she hopes that is the stage we’re in now because old barriers to cooperation need to disappear.
Staples says municipalities want higher levels of government at the table, not to tell communities what they need, but to listen to them and help create solutions.
She says housing is a crucial first step because one lesson from the pandemic sheltering camps in the Cowichan Valley is that understanding the needs of an unsheltered person can best be done when they have a safe, secure environment.
“We will be able to discover what it is that we need for those people, or what those people identify as what they need to support them,” which will help avoid building the wrong kinds of services in the future.
Another concern highlighted by the latest PiT count is the lack of affordability that’s creating a new wave of homelessness in the valley.
Seniors on fixed incomes, as well as people who are employed, report difficulty getting rental housing they can afford.
Cook says this makes it “impossible for people to find housing, or maintain housing,” something they are not used to seeing.
Cook says the CHA is working with people who are precariously housed because because once they lose their homes it ultimately creates more complex issues for them.
Another big area of concern is the continued stigmatization of unsheltered people.
Mayor Staples says the Point in Time Homeless Count helps understand the complex reasons people may end up without a home and “bust the ongoing pervasive rumours” that contribute nothing to the dialogue surrounding a problem which is being faced by communities across the country.
