Homeless numbers continue to rise locally
No More Tears provides update to council.
Last week, the local group No More Tears presented an update to council. Their detailed presentation gave councillors an overview of the homeless crisis in our community and all the work that the grassroots organization has undertaken.
They shared with council that they have a network of over a dozen dedicated volunteers and offer a number of services to community members. Since July of 2023 they have operated a soup kitchen which was able to serve over 100 people in February.
The group shared that they have been closely monitoring data and statistics regarding the population they serve and their latest count indicates that there are 42 unhoused individuals in West Nipissing. That number is a 60% increase from just five months ago. When this group first presented a petition to council last November, they were tracking 26 homeless individuals.
Back in November, No More Tears made two requests to council. The first was a request to consider opening a temporary warming centre locally. They then presented a motion for council to prevent all evictions of homeless encampments until a long-term solution could be found. In both cases, council defeated the motions.
Recently, No More Tears has established a permanent location in Sturgeon Falls in order to better serve the community. The volunteer organization requested approximately $10,000 in annual support from council in February in order to help it pay for their rent and other ongoing expenses. The group informed council that they were a registered non-profit organization and had a board of directors with appropriate financial controls. After a lengthy discussion only two councillor (Pellerin & Tessier) were willing to help them.
At that meeting, councillor Daniel Gagne led the opposition to the financial request by stating that “we can’t fund every not-for-profit group asking for money”. West Nipissing’s only voice on the DNSSAB board, Jamie Restoule also opposed funding a local group by claiming they were not “filling a gap” in the community. Restoule stressed that this request is not similar to the money allocated to the food bank. He said this was more like someone “starting a second food bank”.
As I reported on in February, DNSSAB allocated over $6M to various homeless initiatives and organizations last year with none of these being based out of West Nipissing. In February, councillor Fern Pellerin asked council (or more specifically Restoule) if they could somehow direct DNSSAB to help fund this organization since our municipal budget allocated $3.5M to that group. Mayor Thorne-Rochon intervened and said that “we can’t speak to that” while indicating that there was no intention to request funding from DNSSAB on this group’s behalf.
Earlier this month, as part of a process to establish a more formal donation policy, council disclosed that over $130,000 was awarded to 20 non-profit groups in 2023 by the municipality. Almost none of these made detailed presentations to council or provided financial breakdowns.
No More Tears has asked that their funding requests be brought back to the next meeting of council which is on May 7th. Staff has confirmed that this item will be on the agenda for another vote.
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If some non-profits are allocated funding and not others there should be a set of criteria that the groups must meet. Once they meet all prerequisites then they shuould be allocated funding. This should not be a personal decision based on favourtism or prejudice. Gagne's statement that ''...we can't fund all non-profits..." is just too facile to be considered a thoughful response. In fact, Gagne's response was close to incredibly callous and dismissive. Retoule's ressponse concerning 'filling a gap' and that the objective of 'No More Tears' was to ''start a second food bank'' shows just how out of touch with reality these men are with the plight of the poor, marginalized and hopeless. The current food bank is not open every day, or even evey week! If people run short on food what are they to do? But this is not a matter that concerns these counciillors. Yesterday I spoke with a young homelss man who had been standing in the cold rain begging for change. They never ask for help, these homeless people, they just hold their little cardboard signs, hopeing someone will have pity on them, I gave this gentle young man all the change I had and then asked him, ''Where are you going to sleep tonight." He didn't know. He did say that he had a place to sleep inisde the bank between the doors. At night the outside bank doors are a unlocked while the inside doors are locked, He had been sleeping between the doors. But lately the bank had locked the doors. The homeless are often afraid of people, they have been hurt too often and are subject to violence, thier meger possessions are stolen, and they are chased out of any shelter they find. These young men are equally God's children and I can't imagine the experinces that brought them to this low estate. When I asked him where his family was he just look away.....wistfully and sadly. It seems to me that authortative indurate individuals such as the mayor, Gagne and Restoule who make these decisions should first spend a week getting to know some of these lonely young homeless men.
We will not fund or support incompetent leadership that dosen't care for their own fallen. No respect to any who leave their own behind for they do not lead they cower. As a citizen with no confidence in the current leadership we will support our fallen rather them those of no humanity.