Sudbury's Homelessness Network, independent outreach workers, both reaching out to help vulnerable

In late 2020, a community group called Bizzy Bea's started providing an estimated 14,000 warm meals to Sudbury's homeless population.

That work stopped when Public Health Sudbury & Districts said the group – which is not affiliated with any of the city's official service providers –  was ordered to stop distributing food until it could do so from a certified kitchen, as per health regulations.

But Chantelle Dupuis, Bizzy Bea's founder and executive director, said she has since enlisted the help of owners of a former downtown restaurant, received significant buy-in from Metro for food donations, and  is now expecting the health unit's "beautiful little sticker" of approval in the coming days. 

"With the certified kitchen, it kind of opened my eyes on how big we are getting, especially with Metro signing up," Dupuis said. "It's really opened my eyes…like, we're Ontario-wide, now."

Once approved, volunteers with Bizzy Bea's will take food to the city's homeless, usually working during hours the Elgin Street Mission – a facility that offers housing services, temporary shelters and warm meals –  has its doors closed. 

Although her team sits outside the city's authority – which has caused some other organizations to raise concerns about proper training or a duplication of services – Dupuis said Bizzy Bea's primary focus will be on the people in need, not the bureaucracy.

"This could be anybody," Dupuis said. "This could be anybody's children down there. This could be anybody's sister and brother down there. This could be anybody's parents."

"It doesn't overshadow anybody. Nobody fits into a special box," she said. "For me, it's to really spread the awareness that this can happen to anybody. And if we all kind of take a part in it and we all hold each other up, maybe it would make the impact a little bit less horrible."

But Denis Constantineau, CEO of Centre de Sante, the lead group in Sudbury's homelessness network, said an independent group providing outreach, though well-intentioned, is creating waste in the system.

There's a waste of resources...that's not helpful- Denis Constantineau

"There's a waste of resources, in both physical resources and in terms of the food that's wasted," Constantineau said. "So that's not helpful." 

The city's homelessness network is comprised of six community groups – SACY, John Howard Society, Elizabeth Fry Society, L'Association des jeunes de la rue, N'Swakamok and Centre de Sante – which each take the lead in own their specific area in a multi-pronged approach.

Their efforts are coordinated – including using the downtown mission as a base of operations, drawing people in for food, where they can then access services needed.

But if outreach groups are not part of the chain, Sudbury's homeless population – which in 2021 was estimated to be close to 400 – may not be accessing the best possible care, including finding shelter or a permanent home.

"If outreach groups are going to see the clients where they're residing, it makes it more difficult to connect with them for the other services because they're not coming to the Mission," Constantineau said.

"They're not connecting with housing services, where workers can assess where they are in that journey towards obtaining permanent housing."

"The city has a by-name [housing] list," he said. "Clients are known by the workers. And when they're connecting with other groups and aren't part of that system and receiving services, clients think they're part of that network. They think they're part of that system and that they're accessing those services but they're not."

There's also the concerns around safety of the workers, Constantineau said. City agencies, especially those that provide housing services, fulfil lengthy training and requirements around health, safety and crisis intervention. 

"Other groups don't have those requirements," he said. "I've seen some groups recruiting high school students to come out and get their volunteer hours volunteering with a group."

"That's not a safe environment for high school students," he added. 

But Dupuis said Bizzy Bea's isn't trying to fly in the face of the city's established systems.

"I still look at ourselves as very small, just a family group," Dupuis said. "We go out and we hand out food." 

"We go out after hours, we get in our vehicles and we bring the food to where the [homeless] are," she said. 

But now that Bizzy Bea's is picking up momentum, Dupuis said she'd like to expand her program to other cities in the north.

"I know Timmins has a very bad, vulnerable situation as well," she said. "So I feel like they would need a Bizzy Bea's kitchen. Thunder Bay, Timmins, North Bay, the Soo."

"If we can really spread out our umbrella and and really spread our wings and reach all these different communities, I think that would be something that would be really great."