KENORA – Unhoused, unsheltered or homeless – whatever word is used, All Nations Health Partners (ANHP) seem to agree there’s a troubling gap in aid for people without a steady roof over their heads in Ontario’s westernmost city.
The City of Kenora and the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB) issued a public “call to action” on Jan. 29 for all in ANHP “to come together in the spirit of collaboration to find long-term solutions to the service gaps in our community to support those who are unsheltered and experiencing homelessness.”
In particular, the city and the KDSB were referring to a four-hour period five days a week when there is no place for those experiencing homelessness to find shelter.
The city and KDSB, which are among ANHP’s 15 member organizations, “strongly encourage” the coalition to pool resources and find a way to ensure shelter and support is available to the unhoused “24 hours a day in Kenora year-round,” their joint statement said.
The call to action is appreciated and has not gone unheeded, ANHP’s co-chairs said Friday in an interview.
“It is a very respectful, collegial way of holding one another to task to make sure that we’re working as collaboratively as we can together and that we’ve covered all the bases in a strategy to close that gap,” said Jennifer Dreaver, who co-chairs ANHP with Colleen Neil.
Key partners have been “very actively involved in advocacy” for the funding that would make closing the shelter gap possible, she added.
“And there’s also our current emergency shelter operator who has signalled a willingness to close that gap if properly funded,” she said.
“I think that is really important – we’re not having this conversation as a community without strong leadership from stakeholders willing to step up to actually close that gap.”
Neil said there has been progress as everyone in ANHP is keenly aware of the problem.
“I think we know that until every person has a place, a warm place in winter or a cool place in the summertime or a place to be that they feel safe, our work isn’t finished,” she said.
The Fellowship Centre on Water Street serves a warm lunch to 80 to 100-plus individuals seven days a week and offers a safe drop-in place during daytime until 4 p.m.
The 44-bed Kenora Emergency Shelter, on Second Street a short walk from the Fellowship Centre, offers overnight accommodations starting at 8:30 p.m., according to its website.
That leaves a few hours during which a homeless person has no welcoming place to get out of the cold, except on Tuesdays and Fridays when a group called Kenora Moving Forward (which is not part of ANHP) offers a drop-in at St. Alban’s Cathedral on Main Street.
The city and KDSB’s Jan. 29 statement was welcome news to Kenora Moving Forward member Marlene Elder.
“We’re cautiously optimistic and encouraged that our lobbying and advocating and meeting with the city and KDSB has resulted in this,” she said Friday.
People being unhoused and under-housed is not a new problem in Kenora, Neil said.
“We have a number of people who have been disenfranchised from their communities for various reasons,” she said.
“We have a considerable number of people who live with deep trauma based on things that have taken place in our region,” she continued, adding that ANHP is committed to helping those people.
All Nations Health Partners is a group of 15 Kenora-area organizations including the Kenora Chiefs Advisory, the Northwestern Health Unit, Grand Council treaty #3 and Sunset Country Family Health Team. It evolved from the Kenora Area Health Care Working Group, which formed in 2015 to address a physician shortage and related challenges in the region.
