Homelessness 'becoming more visible' in Montague, say those calling for a shelter

As they watch the number of people without housing in Montague grow, advocates in the area are becoming increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of government action.

"I'm very, very sad that our government has allowed people to be homeless," said Southern Kings and Queens Food Bank manager Norma Dingwell.

"I have heard no rumblings about a shelter or anything coming to Montague in the near future. It's frustrating and it's sad."

Local MLA Cory Deagle raised the issue of homelessness in the area in 2021, saying he was surprised to learn there were people living out of their cars and in tents in the woods. Little has changed, said Dingwell, and she is hearing from people regularly who are newly without a home. 

"It's definitely on the rise and it's becoming more visible," she said.

"Look around. When you see vehicles that have clothes and blankets and stuff piled up in the back, that's a really good indication. They probably aren't camping there by choice."

Tyler Proude of Cornerstone Baptist Church has also watched the problem growing.

The church has partnered with a local school to provide weekend food packages for families identified by the school's guidance counselor. When they started, the congregatiaon was helping about a dozen families. That number has since doubled.

Proude connects that directly to the increased cost of housing.

"If people are struggling to afford their houses or their living spaces, then everything else is going to suffer," he said.

"All of the other complex issues we have going on in our lives, that we want to address and we want to become well in, can't really be addressed until we know that we have a roof over our head."

Data hard to come by

Reliable information on the extent of homelessness in Canada's rural areas is hard to come by.

At a national forum in Charlottetown earlier this week, researchers noted that most homelessness research is focused on large urban centres such as Toronto and Vancouver.

In 2021, the John Howard Society estimated at least 147 Islanders were homeless, a 71 per cent increase over 2018. On June 15 of this year, the province's Homelessness Management Information System had 288 Islanders reporting themselves as homeless.

As the methodologies behind the two numbers are different, it is difficult to make direct comparisons, but it does suggest the number of Islanders without a home is growing more rapidly.

'A no-brainer'

When Deagle raised the issue of homelessness in Montague in the legislature two years ago he suggested there was a solution immediately at hand.

The province currently has a surplus building, the former Riverview Manor, that the MLA argued could quickly be turned into an emergency shelter.

"If we have the building sitting empty … it's a no-brainer to me," he said.

Deagle, who was named minister of fisheries, tourism, sport and culture after the April provincial election, did not respond to a request for an interview on this story.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, the Housing, Land and Communities Department said it is too early to talk about the strategy for homelessness in Kings County.

"We will have to decline the opportunity for an interview," the email said, before going on to say: "In the fall of 2022, the province issued an RFQ [request for quote] for a consultant to undertake a Kings County Needs Assessment. We anticipate a final report later this summer, which will help inform future resources for the region."

Similar process for Prince County

The email noted that the province went through a similar process in 2019 for Prince County.

The government has since partnered with a community group to create a six-bed men's shelter in Summerside, which opened in May. The operators of the shelter, the Native Council of P.E.I., report the shelter is full every night.

The options for homeless women in Summerside are also very limited. In early June, one woman told CBC News she has on occasion been taken to the Park Street emergency shelter in Charlottetown because her hometown has no shelter beds available.

The Department of Housing statement went on to say that the former Riverview Manor is not being considered as a shelter option for the Montague area. In the long term, the building is being scheduled for demolition, and a new building including affordable housing would be built in its place.

The community is not necessarily looking for the province to solve all its problems, said Proude.

"It doesn't just have to be 'Here's the province solving all the problems,' but what are the assets in the community already that can contribute towards finding a solution," he said.