This Ontario town is on a mission to end homelessness by 2027. Here’s how it's going

This communicative is portion of The Hometown Edition, a peculiar bid airing connected CBC Radio's As It Happens Nov. 3-7, showcasing the struggles and triumphs of Canada's tiny towns. Listen here to larn much astir what’s happening successful St. Thomas, Ont.

When Sara Pepper was surviving connected the streets of St. Thomas, Ont., a fewer years back, she says determination wasn’t overmuch successful the mode of support.

“It wasn't the spot to beryllium homeless, that's for sure,” Pepper told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. 

“There weren't a batch of unfastened doors, not galore services were offered and, socially, radical conscionable didn't recognize it.”

Now, acknowledgment to the town’s assertive program to extremity chronic homelessness, Pepper has a extortion implicit her caput and a lukewarm furniture to slumber successful each nighttime arsenic she puts the pieces of her beingness backmost together.

And if things spell according to plan, wrong 2 years, cipher volition beryllium surviving semipermanent connected the streets of St. Thomas.

LISTEN | Full interrogation with Sara Pepper:

St. Thomas is simply a metropolis of astir 46,000 successful southwestern Ontario. For 44 years, the section Ford works was the city’s main economical driver, until it closed successful 2011. 

Like galore towns and cities crossed Canada, St. Thomas has recovered itself facing 3 overlapping crises: a lodging shortage, an opioid epidemic, and surge of homelessness.

It utilized to support Mayor Joe Preston up astatine night. But these days, with a Volkswagen electrical artillery works connected the mode and an anti-homelessness program showing tangible results, helium tells Kӧksal, he’s feeling optimistic. 

“We're connected the cusp. We're moving forward,” Preston said. “We're solving a occupation up of galore different cities crossed Canada.”

For astir 5 years now, the metropolis has been moving connected a strategy to get radical disconnected the streets and into housing, based connected the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness’ nationalist Built For Zero program. 

St. Thomas has partnered with the province, the feds, assemblage organizations and non-profits to ramp up structure spaces, but besides rapidly modulation radical retired of shelters and into supportive lodging with entree services similar counselling, health-care and more. 

St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston says the metropolis is connected way to conscionable its people of endling chronic homelessness wrong 2 years. (City of St. Thomas website)

Danielle Neilson, manager of lodging stableness services for the St. Thomas-Elgin region, says it's important to recognize that portion exigency shelters are important, they are not the solution to the homelessness crisis.

"That's determination that, successful my humble opinion, we've gone incorrect for decades,” Neilson said. “The solution to homelessness has ever been housing.”

So far, it seems to beryllium working. 

Last year, St. Thomas announced it had reduced chronic homelessness — meaning radical who are unhoused repeatedly oregon for an extended play of clip — by 30 per cent. 

The metropolis says it volition person capable structure spaces this wintertime to accommodate the astir 130 radical who are inactive surviving successful the streets.

What’s more, it says it’s connected way to conscionable its extremity of ending chronic homelessness successful St. Thomas by 2027.

“We telephone it a ‘functional’ extremity to homelessness, due to the fact that you tin ne'er halt it from happening,” Neilson said.  “But what you request to bash is make a strategy wherever … you've fundamentally cleared the bottleneck.”

That means that, portion radical proceed to autumn into homelessness, they don’t enactment that mode for long. It besides also means the metropolis can't remainder connected its laurels erstwhile it achieves its goal.

“We besides cognize we can't halt there," she said. "[Or] you'll extremity up close backmost successful the aforesaid bottleneck again.”

Pepper’s journey 

Pepper has lived successful a supportive lodging portion for the past 2 years. Before that, she spent 4 years connected the streets successful St. Thomas.

It’s not a beingness she ever would person expected for herself. 

“I met cocaine, and that decidedly sent maine sideways,” she said. “My matrimony dissolved and that benignant of thing, and I was connected the thoroughfare earlier I knew it."

Back then, the city's lone overnight shelter, Inn Out Of The Cold, operated retired of a religion basement successful winters only. 

“We would spell there, propulsion retired our cot, we had to acceptable up everything, and past person our sleep,” Pepper said.  “We had to beryllium retired of determination by six o'clock, I judge it was, successful the morning. It was beauteous busy. Very exhausting.”

The Station astatine 16 Queen Street successful St. Thomas is simply a 45-unit highly supportive lodging gathering constructed by foundation developers Indwell. The city's politician says 2 much akin projects volition beryllium completed by aboriginal adjacent twelvemonth to location much individuals (Indwell)

Today, things are looking brighter.

The Inn is present a year-round, 24-hour municipal exigency shelter, with its ain dedicated space, that offers 3 meals a time and entree to wellness attraction and intelligence wellness support. 

Pepper, meanwhile, lives astatine The Station, a subsidized supportive lodging analyzable built successful 2023 and operated by Indwell, a foundation developer the metropolis has partnered with.

Having unchangeable housing, she says, has made an “astronomical” quality successful her life. 

“Here, I tin respire a small bit. I'm guaranteed that I person meals. I person the abstraction that I tin program my future, you know?” she said. "Spending each time trying to support yourself adjacent fed oregon lukewarm oregon comfy in places that you're not getting kicked retired of, it's exhausting."

Indwell besides opened The Railway City Lofts successful 2021, which helps radical who are coming straight retired of homelessness by offering addiction support, behavioural therapy, wellness attraction and assistance with medicine and meals. 

The metropolis is besides moving connected gathering affordable homes, says Neilson, for radical who are acceptable to modulation retired of supportive lodging into thing much independent, including tiny homes built by the section YMCA.

WATCH | Tiny homes a portion of St. Thomas lodging strategy:

But 1 of the biggest differences Pepper has noticed implicit the past 5 years is simply a alteration successful attitudes.

“People are much consenting to help, radical are much consenting to inquire if you're OK,” she said. “They look to beryllium coming backmost astir to realizing that we're quality beings.”

Still much to do 

Despite each the advancement she’s seen, Pepper says she inactive encounters barriers that marque it hard for radical to get a limb up.

“The biggest happening that I spot is immoderate benignant of [missing] nexus betwixt the radical that are experiencing the homelessness and the radical who are moving the systems and programs. There's not a batch of radical that person lived experience, not a batch of radical that truly tin empathize due to the fact that they've ne'er been there, you know?” she said.

She’s calling connected the metropolis and Indwell and different services to connection much peer-led programs, and employment radical who person experienced homelessness first-hand. 

Natasha Thuemler, Indwell’s determination director, says charity’s unit travel from “varying backgrounds of some lived and acquisition experiences.”

“Organizationally, we aspire to support steadfast therapeutic relationships with our residents truthful the disclosure of those idiosyncratic experiences by unit are not ever made public,” Thuemler told CBC successful an email. 

“Our exemplary of supportive lodging besides doesn’t conscionable the needs of everyone…. Unfortunately, determination are inactive strategy gaps truthful we enactment with assemblage partners and individuals to assistance advocator and guarantee each people’s wellness and lodging needs get met.”

This ramshackle structure was built successful the trees astir a twelve feet distant from the Thames River successful London, Ont., a metropolis adjacent St. Thomas, successful 2023. (Colin Butler/CBC)

Pepper knows first-hand the quality lived acquisition makes. She present volunteers with The Nameless, an anti-poverty communal assistance radical successful St Thomas, wherever she runs a peer-support radical focused connected harm reduction.

“They cognize that I get it. They don't consciousness judged,” she said. “When they tin talk freely and openly, past you person the accidental to really assistance them from each angle, due to the fact that you cognize the full story.”

She is skeptical astir whether St. Thomas volition execute its extremity of ending chronic homelessness wrong the adjacent 2 years.

But Indwell’s newest lodging project, she says, gives her hope. 

The foundation is presently successful the process of transforming the bare Balaclava Public School into 78 supportive lodging units.

“If it tin beryllium palmy successful getting the radical into the apartments, and past helping the radical to support their apartments, past it could beryllium perfect,” Pepper said. “It truly could happen.”