THUNDER BAY — After weeks of worry over the availability of winter supports for people experiencing homelessness in Thunder Bay, it appears some — including a north side warming centre and an outreach van — have secured funding.
It remains uncertain whether the "care bus" that offered free transport to shelters, health and social services across the city over the last two winters will run, though an announcement is expected next week.
While expressing relief, local organizations leading the response to homelessness say the situation reflects a dire need to permanently fund services that have averted deaths on the city’s streets.
Thunder Bay–Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois raised the issue at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, agreeing lives hung in the balance and pressing the government for immediate funding.
Since reports emerged the programs were at risk, the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB), which allocates provincial homelessness dollars, has responded it has a grant envelope of $300,000 available to local groups for outreach work that it intends to award quickly.
The funds could help replace dollars that earlier in the pandemic came from sources including federal and provincial COVID relief funds, the City of Thunder Bay, and other local groups, but have since dried up.
Elevate NWO executive director Holly Gauvin said Friday the agency had just secured five months of funding to run the daytime warming centre it launched last year on Cumberland Street, the only one in the north end.
The agency also found operational funds for an outreach van and encampment response program, she added, but couldn't yet share details.
Elevate is in discussions over a “revitalized SOS program” with groups including the Shelter House, which announced in September it was reluctantly cancelling the program, citing funding and staffing challenges.
The shelter launched the SOS (Street Outreach Service) program in 2014, with workers patrolling the city in a marked van offering supplies, transportation, and other supports 12 hours a day.
The work was recognized by the city multiple times and was believed to reduce strain on emergency services, but the Shelter House has long struggled to support it.
The program cost just over $300,000 a year to run, including vehicle costs, fuel, staffing, and supplies, estimated Shelter House executive director Cal Rankin.
Facing a projected deficit this year, the shelter felt it had to make hard choices.
“We had to revisit the budget and figure out how we [could] balance it,” he said. “I made the decision the program would have to be discontinued. It wasn’t an easy decision … I was trying to do it in a timely way so perhaps the community could get together and come to some [resolution].”
A requirement to return over $200,000 in unspent COVID relief funds to the province contributed to the difficulties, he said, along with a drop in volunteering and donations during the pandemic.
Elevate’s program, run in partnership with the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, may not exactly replicate the SOS model but will meet similar needs, Gauvin said.
The organization has staffing and operational funding in place, but has raised only $15,000 of the van's $80,000 price tag (explained by needs like an extended roof and cargo hold for health equipment).
The Shelter House is still using its van for daily transportation needs, meaning it's not available, Gauvin noted.
The future of the care bus, launched in 2021 in response to calls from activist group Not One More Death, which reported multiple deaths on the city’s streets that winter, remains uncertain.
NorWest Community Health Centres, which operated the bus last year, warned earlier this fall it didn’t have funding in place.
In an email Friday, however, a representative said NorWest will soon “have further confirmed information” about the care bus.
TBnewswatch wasn’t immediately able to confirm if a south side warming centre operated by People Advocating for Change through Empowerment (PACE) will operate this year.
In Question Period on Wednesday, Vaugeois called on the government to step in to fund the services, saying they’ve “literally saved lives these past two winters.”
“What each of these agencies need is core operating funding so there will never again be a question of whether or not they're available."
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark acknowledged “shelter challenges” in Thunder Bay, but said his government was taking action, pointing to a recent investment to help Matawa First Nations build 21 transitional housing units.
He also said the DSSAB had additional funds available.
“That’s not a good enough answer,” said Vaugeois in an interview. “Basically, show me the money. It’s not a lot of money to run these three services from the perspective of the province – it [is] from the perspective of the municipality and the organizations.”
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo called the SOS program “necessary” in a subsequent response to Vaugeois.
Rankin, the Shelter House director, said the programs are important, but only because the fundamental problem — a lack of housing and other supports — isn’t being adequately addressed.
He’s also concerned the work is being left to already-overstretched non-profits.
“I think there’s a need for the SOS van, or that type of service,” he said. “Should it fall upon the shelter system to provide [it]? I think that’s debatable.”
"It certainly benefits a lot of organizations in the community, including EMS, the emergency room, and police. It was a diversion service, and there’s a need for that to take the pressure off of all of those services, which are much more costly."
Gauvin agreed the outreach initiatives, while needed, amount to a band aid solution.
"None of this can be seen as ‘the answer,'" she said. "What we need is housing [and] more access to psychiatric care, health care."
"We can mitigate risk and ease suffering — most importantly, we can actually save lives. But until something really huge happens in this community, where we see an influx of resources placed in meaningful ways, we’re going to see these issues come back again and again."
The DSSAB said its funding of the SOS program has remained stable at around $50,000 a year (it doubled in 2018 and 2019 when the program temporarily expanded to 24-hour operations).
In an interview, CAO Bill Bradica took issue with the contention there’s little money for outreach.
"Organizations are aware there’s funding available from TBDSSAB for outreach services — it’s just a matter of getting in the application," he said. "So [I was] a little surprised to hear... organizations saying there’s no funding."
In response to follow-up questions, the DSSAB didn’t specify when it advised organizations the new $300,000 fund was available. One group said it wasn't aware until mid-October.
The DSSAB said the fund was made possible after it received a net increase of $317,592 in homelessness funding from the province, when it consolidated several existing funding streams into the Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) earlier this year.
Overall, the DSSAB received about $5.6 million in HPP funding, allocating $1.3 million of that to outreach efforts, including two DSSAB outreach workers, Bradica said.
Outreach services have proven “very effective,” he said, with over 40 people housed through referrals from the new initiatives.
Gauvin expressed optimism the new dollars could rescue at-risk programs, but said ultimately, governments must provide reliable, permanent support.
“We need to start to see this become part of our core funding,” she said. “Year after year, [the agencies] that provide these support services are writing grants and applications, and things don’t come through until the 11th hour… This can’t be something we’re fundraising for, selling chocolate bars.”
