'I struggled the same way they do': Inside the Labrador shelter that isn't
Happy Valley-Goose Bay hotel a stop-gap in system chronically overcapacity and overburdened
Joseph Pijogge quickly goes door to door down a long corridor in the Labrador Inn.
One by one, he grabs the small, black plastic garbage bags outside each room.
"We did this room yesterday. It's empty until another person checks in. Usually someone checks in," Pijogge says, in an unvarnished room with two double beds.
"All the rooms are full except this one."
The Labrador Inn has been providing food and shelter to homeless people in Happy Valley-Goose Bay for two years. The funding comes from the provincial government, but that's the extent of the agreement.
There are no in-house social or health services, or security paid for by the province.
The provincial government pays $125 plus HST per night, per person.
While it varies night to night, there are routinely about 20 people staying there. However, that number can drastically change, and they have housed more than 30 people at a time, far surpassing the capacity of the Housing Hub, the local shelter.
One night this week, the Labrador Inn took in 37 people — five over capacity, in an effort to ensure people were inside, safe from the elements.
Some residents have lived there for more than a year.
Frederica Benuen, 28, of Natuashish was at the Labrador Inn for only a short time before she died.
Benuen died outside the inn on Jan. 19. Video footage shows her appearing to drink alcohol outside with three men. They went inside, and Benuen remained there throughout the night. Inn staff say the person on the front desk was unaware she was outside.
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She was the second homeless person to die within six weeks in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, outside a government-funded building meant to house the vulnerable population.
Lukie Karpik, 35, was found outside the Housing Hub, the homeless shelter, on Dec. 7. The operator of the facility says Karpik never tried to enter the building that night.
In addition to the lack of on-site supports for residents, inn staff don't have access to the required resources either. Staff are often faced with fallout from trauma or addiction issues that residents are coping with, and say they face situations more suited for a social worker.
An RCMP spokesperson said between October and February, officers responded an average of five times a month to the Labrador Inn and its surrounding property.
Some employees can relate to those guests who have nowhere else to turn.
Pijogge, who moved to Happy Valley-Goose Bay in 1978, struggled with alcohol addiction and housing, sleeping in trails, the streets, and in the shelter.
"I used to wake up in the drunk tank for four or five nights in a row sometimes," Pijogge says.
"Sometimes I'd be drunk walking down the road and the police would just pick me up and bring me to the drunk tank. And I'd be doing nothing, but I guess they were doing it for my safety."
Pijogge is open about his personal struggles. He said he took his first sip of alcohol at the age of 11, in Nain, the northernmost community in Newfoundland and Labrador. He believes his addiction stems from childhood, when he saw loved ones struggling with alcohol addiction as well — a long, common thread woven through colonialism.
Pijogge, who started working at the Labrador Inn in 2015, says the manager helped him back on his feet every time he fell back into serious addiction.
"If it wasn't for him I don't know where I would be because he always helps me. I think he knows that I can do it. A lot of other people know I can do it, because I know I can do it."
What is required?
Like Pijogge, Lindsay Budgell has also worked off and on at the Labrador Inn for years, and suffered with an addiction that made finding housing difficult.
"If you have active addiction, [Happy Valley-Goose Bay] is even a harder place [to find housing]. Not many people are going to be willing to open the doors for you," Budgell says.
"Years ago, I struggled the same as they did."
The struggle still continues, however, as Budgell tries to find a permanent home for herself and her young daughter. At the moment, she said, they are living with a friend.
Budgell said she has been able to understand what some of the residents are going through on a deeper level because she has been there herself.
She said she also knows some of what they need to try and better their lives — but they're not getting it.
"We're just housing. We are providing meals and a roof over their head. But there's so much more to that than you need. They have so many questions they go unanswered up there," Budgell says.
"I try to guide them the best I can but there's only so much I can say or do."
Labrador Affairs Minister Lisa Dempster has said residents of the Labrador Inn can use the same services that are available at the Housing Hub, the homeless shelter in town, but Budgell said it's not that simple.
"They're not going to walk to the Hub if it's –40 C," Budgell says.
"Can you imagine someone who was sitting up here intoxicated — which is when you want help the most — and they're looking for help? If it's not here in the building, they're not going to call a cab that they can't pay for. They're not going to call someone and wait for a ride. They're not going to pick up a phone and do it."
Promise of resources
Children, Seniors and Social Development Minister John Abbott, who oversees N.L. Housing, visited Happy Valley-Goose Bay last week.
During an interview with CBC News, he promised the provincial government will do more to protect the vulnerable homeless population.
"[The Labrador Inn] does need supports, case management, those things. We want to bring those things into the Labrador Inn as well," Abbott said.
"We have to up our game, there's no doubt about that."
Abbott said his department will also ensure there is funding for security, to ensure guests are safe.
'It really is a waste'
The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation said it has paid $456,324 to the Labrador Inn for the 2021-22 fiscal year, until the end of January.
However, the manager of the hotel said the business takes in nearly double the number provided by NLHC.
"Look at how much $400,000 can buy when it comes to counselling, employment opportunities, life skills, dealing with people's issues and helping them get past addictions and the domestic violence trauma that they suffered," says Lela Evans, the Independent MHA for Torngat Mountains.
"When you look at the cost of the hotel, it really is a waste and that's something people have been looking at."
According to the NLHC, as of Feb. 7, there were just three one-bedroom housing units available in the Labrador region.
But there were 45 applications from people seeking a place to live.
Evans says there must be emphasis on the problems that are driving homelessness, and the reasons people leave their home communities for Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
"We have problems with addictions, we have problems with domestic violence, we have problems with a lack of housing but at the end of the day, we don't have a proper shelter as well for people with the resources," Evans says.
Financial pressures for low income people in Northern Labrador create pressures that drive some people to a central hub like Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Evans said
Food costs are sky-high, fuel is costly and housing is limited. She said there is hidden homelessness on the north coast, which includes people couch-surfing.
Lab Inn needed right now: minister
Evans said Labrador is often forgotten by the decision-makers in the capital city of St. John's.
"It goes back to the graves uncovered for residential schools — in the moment everybody was upset and everybody had an outpouring but when we look at reconciliation, what has been done? Nothing had been done," Evans says.
Abbott said the Labrador Inn will continue to play an integral role in keeping homeless people inside from the cold.
An injection of $100,000 to the Labrador Friendship Centre from the province and non-profit Community Housing Transformation Centre will allow an assessment of community needs, he said, including the future of the Labrador Inn.
"We will use whatever resources are in the community to make sure people are off the street and certainly in Labrador in the winter, they need to be in a safe, warm space. And if it's not in the community, then we will have to rely on the private sector to do that."
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