CTS sites will be replaced by HART Hubs by next month
There are only about twenty days left until nine consumption and treatment services (CTS) locations are set to close across Ontario, including one in Kitchener and one in Guelph. Those facilities will be replaced by Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment — or HART — Hubs. Melissa Kwiatkowski is the CEO of the Guelph Community Health Centre, which is the home of the new HART Hub in Guelph. She spoke to CBC's Aastha Shetty about winding down CTS services in the city.
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Research shows exercise can help people recover after having colon cancer: Dr. Peter Lin
Exercise is important for everyone, but new Canadian research published in the New England Journal of Medicine says it can be even more important for people who are recovering after having colon cancer. CBC medical columnist Dr. Peter Lin explains.
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This expectant mom's living in an outdoor shelter as YWCA Hamilton waits on federal funds to build housing
Four months into her pregnancy, Megan Ryan's bump is just visible — a constant reminder of what she's hoping for by the time she gives birth in November: Housing. The 34-year-old lives in Hamilton's outdoor shelter, which is designed for adults and pets only. Before that, she lived in a tent near Hamilton's rail trail for over a year, including last winter. She's afraid if she doesn't find a more permanent place to live, her newborn will be put into foster care. "That's what I'm terrified of," said Ryan. "And I don't know how I'll deal with that. I really don't." CBC Hamilton spoke with Ryan at a park near the outdoor shelter on Wednesday. She spoke openly about her life: her parents' struggles with alcoholism and how she began drinking at age 13, her first pregnancy at 16 and leaving home to live in a shelter while going to high school, experiences with mental illness and intimate partner violence, and having four more children and trying to keep them housed — renting mostly, but also couch surfing and living in hotel rooms and family shelters. In 2021, Ryan, her children and partner at the time were renting a home when he left, and she struggled to pay all the expenses on her own. "It came down to paying the bills or buying groceries, so I stopped paying the bills," she said. Limited services in Hamilton Ryan was evicted in December 2022 and her five kids went to live with other people — a gut-wrenching decision she and they have struggled with since, she said. "Two years, that's a long time," Ryan said. "I want my kids back. I've been trying." But in Hamilton, there are few housing options specifically for unhoused pregnant people and their children to live together until they can find permanent housing. The YWCA Hamilton has three beds at its transitional living program for women and non-binary individuals needing emergency reproductive care, but the site can't accommodate partners, pets or children. That means a person who's given birth can't return with the baby. "That's one of the leading issues at the end of pregnancy, with the person we're supporting asking where are they going next?" said Chelsea Kirkby, the YWCA's vice president of strategic initiatives and program development. That's where the Oakwood Project comes in, said CEO Medora Uppal. On Barton Street East, the proposed building would include 90 housing units for women, children and gender-diverse people who have experienced homelessness or violence. Some of the spots will be for women before and after their pregnancies, whether or not they bring a baby home or have other children in their care. Since August 2022, 126 pregnant, unhoused women — or social service providers on their behalf — have reached out to the YWCA for help, said Mary Vaccaro, a program co-ordinator. "A lot of the time it's invisible homelessness — they're staying at a sister's house that's untenable, unsafe and they're trying to get out of it," Vaccaro said as an example. When Uppal began envisioning the project in 2021, she said, she thought the process would be faster given the need. The YWCA found the land that December and bought it with a loan from the Hamilton Community Foundation, Uppal said. It also received $6.75 million from the city to pay for demolition, which took place this week. It's now waiting to hear back from the federal government if it will receive $34 million in funding to build. The City of Hamilton has committed $6.75 million in capital contributions to the YWCA's Oakwood Place project at 1067 Barton Street East, as part of the Affordable Housing Development Project Stream (the Project Stream) and Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). Pre-development funding will cover early-stage activities such as demolition and site remediation. Construction funding will be released in phases to ensure the project's completion and occupancy. "We're really hopeful, but the news can't come quickly enough," Uppal said. "This is a long time coming and we are behind as a community, as a country, in building affordable housing." 'See that would be cool' Once the Oakwood Project is open, the YWCA will have more flexibility in helping people at any point of their reproductive or parenting journeys, said Kirkby. Along with housing, the site will offer other supports like medical care, child care, skills training, and employment and immigration services. "It's going to be really unique and something that's not offered in the city currently," said Kirkby. If the YWCA receives federal funding soon, it aims to start building by the end of the year. Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, which decides which affordable, supportive and transitional housing projects receive federal funding, declined to comment on this specific application to protect confidentiality. As of the end of last year, the federal government's National Housing Strategy has committed about $15 billion to build, repair and support over 300,000 housing units for women and children across Canada. The Oakwood Project won't be ready for when Ryan gives birth, but she said she likes the idea, not only because it would give her and her newborn a place to live, but her other children, too. "See, that would be cool," she said. "That's what I would love to do." Instead, she will stay in the outdoor shelter for the time being. With the help of staff there, she's applying for more permanent housing, and while it may not be tailored exactly to her and her family's needs, she feels optimistic.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada's homeless population is aging, changing how shelters are run
Seventy-one-year-old Roger Oake sat on a bench outside the Union Gospel Mission shelter in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside after breakfast. He had been sleeping at the shelter for about a month 'this time' and said that after several years of homelessness, walking 'the beat' during the day when the shelter isn't open has become harder as he gets older. 'I really don't know where to even begin. There's so many things that could or should change, but I really don't know,' he said on Wednesday. 'We're people too, you know? We're not just bums, we're not just hobos looking for a handout. We are what we are and we're at where we're at – and that's basically where it's at.' In major cities across the country, those who provide shelter and services for people who are homeless say they are seeing more elderly people turn to them for help. It's leading to a shift in how they do their jobs and the type of care they are providing. They often must juggle complex medical needs with basic considerations, like ensuring seniors get beds closest to accessible washrooms, and that power sockets are available to charge mobility scooters overnight. Nick Wells, a spokesperson for Union Gospel Mission, said more than 1,000 people sleep in the shelter every year and that the number of elderly users spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to grow. 'The number of people in the 61-to-65 age range keeps growing at about 2 per cent every year,' he said. 'If you look at it from 55-plus, around COVID, they accounted for about a quarter of our shelter population, and now we're up to one-third.' Wells said teams that work around B.C. have heard of seniors who do not have enough money at retirement to keep up with housing and other costs of living. Some have been evicted when their long-term rental homes are renovated, he said. 'There's been a couple cases, and these are really tragic, that a senior's gone into hospital for a health issue and had an extended stay, and then when they've come back, they've discovered that they've been evicted because they haven't paid their rent,' he said. 'So they've just come back to no home and then they end up here.' Wells said that along with helping clients complete pension or old-age security applications online, staff sometimes have to help with medical issues like Alzheimer's and dementia. In one case, a former shelter user was able to secure a spot in full-time transitional housing in the same building. But he returned to the shelter space to use the washroom. 'He remembers how to get down there. He remembers how the bathrooms are laid out, but then he needs help getting back to the [transitional housing] floor, because he can't really remember the ins and outs of going back there,' he said. 'So we will have a staff member help guide him back up. That's not a problem whatsoever, I don't want to even suggest that, but it is something that I don't think people would have thought about a couple years ago.' The Mustard Seed runs a dozen 24-hour emergency shelters in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia with a total of 747 beds. Numbers provided by the agency show that at the Calgary women's shelter, the percentage of clients aged 51 and older has gone from 25.4 per cent in 2024 to 28.4 per cent this year. The shelter in Red Deer saw the proportion of clients 55 and older jump from 12 per cent in 2023 to 29 per cent in 2024. Samantha Lowe, Mustard Seed's senior director of shelter operations, said the experience of chronic homelessness can age someone differently than those with secure housing, meaning the definition of what qualifies as a 'senior' can be different than the conventional definition of 65 years old. 'Somebody who has experienced, say, chronic or episodic homelessness and has aged within that population will need those supports earlier,' she said. 'The physiological age of somebody who's experienced so much in their life, they may be 55 and they present like a 75-year-old in terms of their co-morbidities and everything they've got going on, whether that's in their lungs or their heart or their social situation or their mental health.' Lowe said staff are seeing more elderly clients who struggle to manage medications for illnesses ranging from diabetes and breathing problems to cancer, on top of the cost of housing. 'You're having to choose between that or housing. And so we're having folks who are coming in with more chronic conditions that staff are then having to be more knowledgeable about,' she said. Lowe said one shelter is able to allow oxygen tanks to be present, but that's not possible in all spaces. She said there are people in emergency shelters waiting for spots in supportive housing and dedicated seniors housing. Lowe said shelters also have clients nearing the end of their lives. 'We have people who have disclosed that they are dying of cancer, they have a certain amount of time left in the prognosis, but they're really hesitant to go into hospital, and so we work with them to see if we can get them into hospice,' she said. 'We work with them to see if we can prevent that acute crisis that they do end up in hospital, if they're hesitant to go there … but it's quite challenging." In Toronto, the Salvation Army runs the Islington Seniors' Shelter, an 83-bed, 24-hour shelter for men and women experiencing homelessness who are 55 and older. Spokesman Glenn van Gulik said the facility is at capacity, and while the organization does not maintain a wait-list, beds fill up fast when they become available. 'There's over 8,000 people who are currently experiencing homelessness within Toronto, and what we know to be true is just about 20 per cent of those who have responded … are over 55,' he said. 'It's going up.' The Islington shelter offers three-bedroom suites, each with a shared bathroom, and staff familiar with the unique needs of homeless seniors. Van Gulik said that could mean helping with dietary needs, connecting with landlords to help find rentals for people on a fixed income, or finding dental care for aging mouths. He said the style of living, with both men and women and shared spaces, also helps combat the loneliness that can come with aging. Wells said there have been steps in the right direction, like the opening of more seniors housing in B.C. He said there needs to be broad conversation between governments and health care and service providers about the kind of wraparound supports elderly homeless people need, including more housing options and rent protections. Mo Singh Khunkhun sometimes sleeps and eats at the Union Gospel Mission emergency shelter in Vancouver. He's easy to spot, with his formerly grey beard dyed a bright purple. 'People like it, you know? I don't do boring,' he said on Wednesday. Khunkhun is 68, and worked most of his adult life, including in construction and on farms. But he has been homeless for about eight years since the heat failed in his last apartment and he fell behind on rent. He's stayed at various facilities and has watched as more seniors turn up. 'I don't know what proportion is increasing, but I'm sure there is an increase,' he said. He said he considers himself in good health, and tries to help others as they age, whether that means going for a walk, telling a joke or just having a conversation. 'Some will talk about their health issues,' he said. 'But a lot of them, they just have the camaraderie of being here, you know?'
