BONNYVILLE – A rumour that unhoused individuals have been arriving in the Town of Bonnyville and other nearby communities from places such as Vancouver, appears to have no merit according to those who deal with vulnerable populations in the community.
Staff Sgt. Sarah Parke confirmed to Lakeland This Week that the Bonnyville RCMP detachment has no reason to believe homeless individuals are being bussed into the local detachment area.
“We have not received any reports to investigate situations involving homeless individuals not already known to RCMP,” stated Parke, adding, “I too have heard this through the rumour mill and am curious where it started.”
When it comes to other comments about growing homeless encampments in the Bonnyville detachment area gaining traction and multiplying online, Parke says this too is inaccurate.
“We do not have any knowledge of any homeless encampments in the detachment area. The Town of Bonnyville peace officer requested RCMP assistance in dismantling a tent and camp along Jessie Lake last winter but that belonged to one person. There were no more reported issues once it was taken down,” Parke said.
She said that while she has observed homelessness since arriving in the community, the RCMP does not keep statistics on the unhoused population and is unable to provide data on whether there has been an increase or decrease in homelessness.
New faces reflect growing hardships
When it comes to stories of unhoused individuals being brought into the community by bus, the director of operations for the Bonnyville Friendship Centre, Janice Gobert, says she first read about it on social media.
“In regard to the Friendship Center, we have not seen that to be the case,” said Gobert. “What we are seeing is more individuals coming in from Cold Lake and the surrounding communities. They are here for a short period of time, then they navigate back to their own communities once again. But as for being bussed in – I would say that is totally inaccurate.”
The Friendship Centre is often the first line of support for those facing hardships in the community. Nearly every service offered by the centre has seen an increase in demand whether that is the food bank, mat program for unhoused men, the community kitchen or the Shower Pass Program.
While Gobert acknowledges that the centre is seeing an increase of unhoused individuals, she added that the food bank is also seeing new clients that they would not have necessarily been seeing in years prior.
Cynthia Gamache, the crisis support worker for the Friendship Centre, noted that over the last few months, the food bank has been seeing about 20 new clients per week. These clients had never accessed the food bank before.
With increased costs of living, vehicle insurance, utilities, groceries, and a lack of affordable rental housing, individuals and families are facing difficult choices, and many are treading water.
“Families are making decisions between having money for groceries and paying rent,” emphasized Gobert.
In early May and June, the Friendship Centre saw an increase in demand for their mat program when historically demand for the men’s shelter usually drops during the warmer months.
“[Demand] definitely did increase from the prior years... I even received a call myself from a single father that was asking if it would be possible for him in his child to stay [at the men’s shelter] and that's something we didn't see prior,” said Gobert. “They couldn't [stay] due to safety concerns. It was quite disheartening.”
When it comes to public discourse online, Gobert said it is easy for keyboard warriors to target vulnerable groups such as unhoused individuals from the community.
“However, that's not understanding the true issues of homelessness. We're looking at not only addictions, but we were also looking at mental health issues. We're looking at women leaving domestic violence situations and men leaving domestic violence situations.”
She continued, “I really do not believe that the increase in homelessness has anything to do with the increase in crime that we're seeing. And without understanding the true issues of homelessness, it's easy to make those assumptions.”
Homelessness is not a crime
“At the FCSS, we do see a lot of houseless and housing insecure individuals that come through our doors and reach out to us for resources, but I wouldn't be able to say if there's been an influx,” said Rachelle Lavoie, the Director of Community Services for Bonnyville and District FCSS and Lakeland Family Resource Network.
While it is not in the mandate of FCSS to assist unhoused or housing insecure individuals specifically, Lavoie says that people have come to know that they can seek answers to their questions from staff and they do utilize services provided by the organization, such as the FCSS’s income tax clinic for low-income individuals.
“We were not fully aware of the full scope and the extent of housing insecurity in the community, but we do have clients that we see repeatedly and so we are definitely a first point of contact for a lot of people,” acknowledged Lavoie.
To better understand the local impact of homelessness and housing insecurity, both the Bonnyville FCSS and the Bonnyville Friendship Centre provided the opportunity for people to complete a self-reporting survey on housing and service needs.
The survey was created by the Rural Development Network with local and provincial results expected to be released this fall.
"We participated in the study in I think 2018 and gave us some pretty informative results,” noted Lavoie.
With affordability, housing availability and even rising crime on the minds of many Albertans, the FCSS director acknowledged she has witnessed more hostile conversations and reactions to homelessness over the last 12 months, in general.
“I think a lot of people are frustrated. They want a quick solution. I know there's a lot of people that have asked for them to be put in jail, but they forget that homelessness is not a crime – people are allowed to be out in the community,” said Lavoie.
“Some people might find that disruptive, but they're absolutely not doing anything wrong by being out in the community. There really is no quick solution and it takes so much co-operation by so many agencies and multiple municipalities to be able to properly try to tackle this issue.”
Providing a bed is just part of the solution, added Lavoie. Often mental health services are needed to make a meaningful difference.
