Thank you very much. Thanks for inviting me to speak.
I'm Patricia Bacon, and I'm the executive director for Blood Ties Four Directions Centre, as well as one of the contributing managers for the No Fixed Address Outreach Van. I'm hear to talk today specifically about the outreach van.
The No Fixed Address Outreach Van is a collaboration of four agencies that work together to reduce the harmful effects of poverty and substance abuse in Whitehorse. The Outreach Van has been operating since 2001 and currently runs six nights a week in the community. The van provides a number of important services, including food. On a nightly basis it goes out and provides soup and sandwiches and fresh fruit, as well as clothing and basic hygiene supplies. It also provides outreach nursing services, harm reduction education, equipment--such as needle exchange--and counselling support, as well as socks and mittens. To give you an example, on average, the Outreach Van hands out 3,000 pairs of socks per year to marginalized, street-involved populations.
When it comes to the issue of food, in the first six months of this fiscal year, 2009-10, we provided over 5,700 meals, or nutrition—either hot soup or a sandwich—to over 1,200 different people in Whitehorse. This included 800 men, 400 women, 900 first nations, and 300 non-first nations. Included in that group were 97 children, 96 youth, and 205 young adults. So when we look at the issue of food security and hunger around poverty in Whitehorse, it crosses the entire section of the population.
Basic food security continues to be a problem in the north. Many clients rely on the van as one of their few reliable food sources. The van has enough food to meet the basic needs of about 70 people per night. Sometimes the demand is higher and it exceeds what we can provide.
On the issue of shelter and housing, where do our clients live? The majority of our clients accessing the van are living in chaotic, insecure, unstable housing conditions that include substandard rooming hotels and illegal suites. Many of our clients trade sex or drugs for a bed or couch for the night. In summer months, clients tend to camp outdoors; in winter months, they live at emergency shelters, drug houses, and rooming hotels. Obtaining secure, adequate accommodation is one of the most pressing concerns for our van client population.
At the Blood Ties Four Directions centre, one of the agencies that supports and works with the van to put the service on the road, this is also one of the most pressing concerns for our clients who are living with HIV and hepatitis C. They are struggling to find secure, stable housing as well.
That is what poverty looks like in a northern Canadian city. I understand that the HUMA committee is open to recommendations, so we have drafted the following.
Homelessness is a pressing issue in Whitehorse, and the picture of homelessness in the north can be different from that in southern Canada. It can be hidden, with few visibly homeless people. We respectfully ask the HUMA committee to define homelessness broadly, as it has many different presentations in Canada. In the north it is typically experienced as unsafe, inadequate, substandard, couch-surfing, chaotic, unaffordable, and overcrowded. This is what homelessness looks like in the north.
We also respectfully ask the HUMA committee to put forth recommendations and create opportunities for programs that can address the need for a variety of affordable, stable housing options for northerners. We need reasonably subsidized housing that is adequate to meet the higher cost of living in the north, and a variety of subsidized housing options are urgently needed in Whitehorse.
Thank you.