4 faces of homelessness: Lyndsey – when housing is not enough

Lyndsey LeSage is a second generation homeless woman.

"My mom was in Shelter House when she lived on the streets," she said, sitting in the facility's boardroom. "I've known this place since 20 years ago – before this building was actually [here]."

LeSage grew up in care and said she didn't feel loved; she said she felt "like a paycheck."

"I would come and find her here," she said of her mother, "and then I'd stay with her as long as I could 'til they'd find out and then they'd come get me."

She's been in and out of the shelter ever since.

"It's a struggle after struggle, but I'm trying, but yeah, it's hard every day," she said.  "A couple years ago I had a solid home for a few years, but my dad got sick."

LeSage, 39, said she lives with mental health and addiction issues.

She said she used to have a social worker, and she would likely need support again if she succeeds in getting housing.

Housing with supports

That need for wrap-around services is something the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board has recently started trying to respond to.

"We have a program here at the DSSAB called the high needs homeless wait list strategy, and over the past year, we've been able to house around 75 homeless individuals … with supports," said the director of the DSSAB's housing services division, Ken Ranta, "and that's a success story."

The DSSAB also works with St. Joseph's Care Group and Dilico Anishinabek Family Care to administer a provincial program called Home for Good, which is less than two years old.

Home for Good funding paid for St. Joseph's Care Group to purchase the former Thunder Bay Inn for use as a 30 unit transitional recovery housing facility.

The program also provides housing subsidies and supports to help other high-needs homeless people find and keep homes in the community.

"Through that program, there's another 45 or 50 individuals who have received supports and are either housed currently or are on track to get into their own independent housing," Ranta said.

Miles Burgess is one of them.

Six months ago, Burgess was living in the Salvation Army shelter after a dispute with a former roommate, he said.  It was the third time in his life he'd been homeless.

Burgess has had issues in the past with drug use, he said, but his most destructive addiction is to gaming.

"Spending 16 hours in a chair looking at a screen is not very healthy for you," he said. "Plus I was working, and sometimes I'd take the day off work to game, so I knew it was a problem."

Back in the early summer, two counselors from the Home for Good program approached Burgess at the shelter and administered a survey called the Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool, or VI-SPDAT; it's one of the surveys used to determine eligibility for high needs housing programs.

Burgess is now living in a clean, comfortable, subsidized apartment in the north core, and two counselors check in with him regularly.

The stability and support are making him a better person, he said.

"My mindset has completely changed," he said. "It's not so negative anymore. I'm more positive. I want a better life. I want something good.  I want something that I've achieved."

Need to prove the program works

The average cost of housing a high-needs homeless individual through the Home for Good program is $1323 a month, Ranta said.  That includes the accompanying supportive services. 

By contrast, Shelter House estimates that it costs $65 a night, or about $1950 a month, to house somebody in its facility, according to its website.

What's more, Superior North Emergency Medical Services estimates that it responds to calls involving high needs homeless individuals three to five times a night at an average cost per call of $490.

The calls relate to everything from mental health and addiction issues to physical health problems like diabetes-related emergencies and heart attacks, chief Wayne Gates told CBC.

"No doubt for those with chronic medical conditions, proper housing and support would save the system money both for EMS and the hospital," Gates said.

But there isn't enough money in the Home for Good program to house and support all of the homeless people in Thunder Bay who are living with addictions or other complex needs.

Based on the available pot of money, Ranta said, the partners in the program requested funds to house 80 people;  the most recent point-in-time count identified more than 150 people with addictions alone. 

"If we can show that the long-term sustainability of the individuals being housed under the program is very positive, and we have very few people who aren't able to sustain themselves," Ranta said, "it gives us great evidence to go forward and to ask for not only continuing funding but broader funding."