Before any numbers are reported from this month’s point-in-time count of homeless people across the district, there are indications of how high those numbers are. One source is your local food bank.
The manager of the one in Cochrane, Ardis Proulx prefers to refer to them as “unhoused”, reflecting the fact that many couch-surf or rely on friends and family from one day to the next.
She says all food banks from Hearst to Kirkland Lake know the number is large. She admits that it’s shocking and hard to believe that in Cochrane, which has fewer than 6,000 residents, the size of the unhoused sector is in triple digits. She estimates that up to 40% of food distributed at the food bank goes to the unhoused.
“If you look at the housing crisis that’s happening right now, there’s no housing available. So when these individuals – be it kids or people (who) separate, there are no houses or placements for them to go to.”
Proulx adds that when housing is available, it’s often cost-prohibitive.
All of this underlines why it’s important to donate to local food drives leading up to the Christmas holidays.
“Every little bit counts,” Proulx remarks. “Even if you want to make a monetary donation, we’ll accept that; even those couple of cans of soups, if that’s in your ability, we will definitely take those.”
Food banks are participating in the point-in-time count of homeless people.
