This community health van helps some of Waterloo region's most vulnerable, but it faces a financial crunch

Sanguen Outreach's community health van helps some of the most vulnerable in the region, but it's facing a financial crunch next month, executive director Dr. Chris Steingart says.

Two years ago, the federal government gave Sanguen a $980,000 grant to run the health van during the pandemic. During that time it was up to Sanguen to find community partnerships to help fund the van after the grant money ran out. 

The funding is set to end on March 31. While Sanguen has made partnerships in the community, it has struggled to find the financial help needed to keep the van going.

That worries Steingart.

"I can't imagine our communities without this service, without this first point of contact and connection into so many other services that exist in the region and we just can't take this away from people," Steingart told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition, adding if they have to scale back services, "it will leave too big of a hole."

Sanguen's community health van visits several sites in Kitchener and Cambridge each week including shelters and encampments. It has plans to serve Erb's Village, the region's hybrid encampment scheduled to open later next month in Waterloo. On top of that, the van makes stops in Guelph and Wellington County.

The van provides harm reduction supplies, food, clothing, hygiene items and social support. 

"We're trying to reach people traditionally marginalized by our systems," Steingart said. 

Public health funds 1 position

He said it is becoming more difficult to fund the services Sanguen's health van provides as need grows. Right now, Region of Waterloo Public Health helps fund the van's co-ordinator position. The rest of the funding came from the federal grant that will soon run out.

Steingart said many people rely on the van and the agency is trying to find the funding to keep the van's operations consistent while it searches for sustainable funding. 

Sanguen Outreach was a recipient of Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program, which is provided to other levels of government and not-for-profit organizations in Canada to address a wide range of projects. 

In an emailed statement to CBC K-W, Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis and Cambridge MP Bryan May said the work of the van has been "critical" in helping people and they are aware of the funding crunch Sanguen is facing.

"We look forward to conversations with Sanguen and working with our provincial and regional partners to support the vital work they do in our community."

Steingart said Sanguen Outreach is looking at every possible opportunity to find new and sustainable sources of funding to keep the van going. 

"We've got a good team of people that work their magic trying to figure out any way to put together enough in order to keep this going," he said.