Latest news with #LondonCares
CTV News
2 days ago
- General
- CTV News
In Your Community: London Food Bank
London Watch CTV London's Reta Ismail is at Food Basics to talk with Jane Roy about the London Cares Curb Hunger Campaign.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
'Disheartening' trend sees more families, seniors reach out for homelessness supports
Social Sharing One of London's homelessness response services says it's been tracking an alarming trend over the past few months: the number of new people experiencing homelessness increasing rapidly, including more seniors and families with children. London Cares serves people experiencing chronic homelessness in the city, and runs a number of highly supportive housing units in London. "We were chatting in our all staff meeting just earlier this week and we were surprised by some of the data that we were seeing," said Lierka Vandepoele, the outreach manager at London Cares. Numbers shared by London Cares say the people accessing their services who say they're newly homeless rose from 14 in February to 54 in April. The number of families reporting being homeless for the first time rose from 10 to 26 over the same time frame. Rising homelessness has been a concern across Ontario, and the whole of Canada for a number of years, with a report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario released at the beginning of the year estimating more than 80,000 people were homeless in 2024. The issue has been plain to see in London, where the issue of homelessness has been front-and-centre in not only every day life, but also municipal politics. Vandepoele said the broad spectrum of different types of people seeking London Cares's services shows the depth of the problem. "Mothers with children, dads with children, people with pets who have nowhere to go," she said. "We also have a lot of elderly individuals facing homelessness for the first time. It really does show us that anyone could experience homelessness at any time in our community, not just people who are addicted to substances or who have complex mental health." As a result of these increases, Vandepoele said, the number of people accessing support for basic needs has risen too, from 740 in February to 1087 in April. The increase has lead London Cares to rely more on working with partners like churches and other shelters, and accessing community resources. "There's a lot of pressure and politics happening right now within our system. Resources are scarce, navigating how we support an individual when all of the shelters are full," Vandepoele said. She said the root of the issue is multifaceted, but often comes down to an inflated cost of living. Looking to the future, Vandepoele said, she hopes to see members of the community and politicians continue to advocate for supporting the unhoused. She would especially like to see more supportive housing, which is designed with supports for mental health and addictions built-in. "I know that housing is the right way forward, and I know that highly supportive housing is the right pathway to help support individuals who have been chronically homeless for, sometimes, as long as a decade," she said.
CBC
15-04-2025
- CBC
Stories of suffering and hope emerge at discussion of homelessness
In taking a hard look at London's struggles with addiction, mental health and homelessness, Nigel Stuckey's documentary film Atrocity pulls few punches. Among the unhoused people he interviews is a man who reveals for the camera crippling burns and skin infections, the result of living outside. In another interview that a security guard tries to end, a couple in Victoria Park explain their inability to escape fentanyl addiction. Another man struggling with addiction explains the challenges of supporting a $400-a-day habit through petty crime, including shoplifting. The interviews put human faces to the grim toll the combined crises of opioid addiction, missing mental health supports and a lack of affordable housing are having on downtown London. About 200 people attended Monday's screening at The Palace Theatre in London's Old East Village, a neighbourhood hit particularly hard by addiction and housing scarcity. After the screening Stuckey, along with city councillors Sam Trosow and Susan Stevenson and Chantelle McDonald of London Cares took part in a panel discussion about the film and the troubling reality it raises. Last winter was 'inhumane' Stuckey had some of the strongest comments. He was particularly horrified at what he witnessed in January when overnight temperatures dipped to -20 C and the city, under pressure from service agencies, opened an emergency shelter at the Carling Heights Optimist Centre. "What happened last winter was deplorable," said Stuckey, who prior to making Atrocity spent years as a police officer in London. "It can't happen again. It was inhumane." Some spoke of the ongoing challenges at Watson Park, the homeless encampment that was the scene of a fire and explosions last week. Some city councillors say the encampment should be removed, but with few clear answers about where to relocate its displaced residents. Also featured in the film and joining the panel discussion was Lauralea Collins. During her interview in the film Stuckey captures Collins only a few months into a period of sobriety and speaking about the fear of living in a tent. Since then, Collins has managed to find a path to living housed and drug-free. "It took me a lot of self-will, and self-care," she said in an interview with CBC News after the panel discussion wrapped up. It was a meeting with someone working for St. Joe's Cafe, which operates drop-in meals for people in need, that helped point her in the right direction, Collins said. She's now working as a peer support worker. Although no longer living outside, she's trying to help those who still do. "In the winter I had six individuals come and stay with me in my two-bedroom apartment just so they could stay warm with their animals," she said. The city needs to do more to reverse a problem "that isn't getting better, it's getting worse," Trosow said. Stevenson derided the city's response, which she said isn't funding enough permanent overnight beds. "Something is clearly not working in the city," she said. For his part, Stuckey said he's not done turning his camera onto the Londoners left desperate as they face addiction, mental health challenges a lack of housing or all three. He plans to focus his next film on Cheryl Sheldon, a London who died last year in what police have described as an intimate partner killing. Sheldon was turned away from one London shelter the day she was found severely injured in her apartment.
