The process of creating and implementing this study has been a great learning experience for me and for PHC. In the course of this work we have discovered many heartbreaking stories and many stories of incredible resilience. We are excited to continue our work into the Fall and Winter to get a greater sense of what the homelessness situation looks like year round. From experience at the food bank and soup socials, we know that the number of people who need help increases in the winter months when jobs become scarce. In order to extend our study we are looking into various funding options including another work/study possibility. The end result of this work will inform decisions made regarding affordable housing on Gabriola so it is very important to get as accurate a picture of the homelessness situation on Gabriola as possible.
In the course of our work we have met with our Victoria colleagues, The Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, and with our Duncan colleague, Anne Balding who is the Housing Programs Coordinator for the Cowichan Valley Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). We had a fantastic talk with these folks and were able to share some really valuable information and ideas. One piece of information that the Greater Victoria Coalition shared with us was a way of classifying the spectrum of homelessness that offers more nuances and accuracy. This classification system is called the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion (ETHOS) and the classification terms they use are:
- Rooflessness (sleeping rough)
- Houselessness (temporarily sheltered in an institution or emergency shelter)
- Insecure Housing (no security of tenure, domestic violence, threat of eviction)
- Inadequate Housing (Unfit living conditions, overcrowding, lack of basic amenities)
We have adopted this classification system as we feel it more accurately represents the variety of situations that we consider homelessness on Gabriola.
Another idea that came out of our meeting with our Victoria and Duncan colleagues is the need for preventative measures that target people who are in transition or crises so that they do not become homeless. We believe that the best way to end homelessness is to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place. Preventative measures include smoothing the transition from teenage-hood to adulthood and offering people support when they first experience crises.
The main difficulty of our study has been in getting people to come forward and share their stories, because of this we have begun offering incentives such as Cafe Wednesdays, when guests can come to PHC to enjoy a latte and home made goodies and talk about homelessness; and a pizza night, where we made our own pizzas and brought ideas to the table about possible solutions to homelessness that would work for those most at risk. The response to these incentives has been good, but we still need to hear more voices and stories to make this study as valuable a document as it can be.
Another approach we’ve tried and which has been met with mixed results is the “Snowball” research method where we ask those who have completed the survey to recruit another person to do the survey and so on. Unfortunately, people are reluctant to pass it on to their friends who are not regular PHC clients. The good news is that following our last articles in the Sounder and the Shingle we got an amazing response from folks who wanted to do the survey as well as challenge us on our definitions of homelessness and even offer affordable housing. We’re hoping that we get the same kind of response this time around. If you haven’t already done the survey, now is the time as this portion of the study will close on October 1st. If you have done the survey, thank you, your opinions, ideas and experiences are essential to the process. For more information visit the links above or call us at 250.325.7311, we look forward to hearing your story.
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