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YORKTON - In a world where the Ottawa Senators are reportedly going to sell for more than $900 million, and movie stars get $1 million cheques to create a Hollywood blockbuster, how is it there is a homeless problem?
The idea of someone not knowing where they can spend the night with a bed to lie in, and a roof over their heads should be now something we only read about in history books and shake our heads at how it ever happened.
But we are far from that aren’t we.
In Yorkton Bruno’s Place is still a fairly new institution, a temporary shelter to provide the basic need of a warm bed in a place where minus temperatures are the norm for months on end.
Certainly, there will be those who read this and simply shrug it off by thinking the homeless only need a job and all their issues are over.
For some that might be a solution, although a homeless person walking into a business asking about work is not likely to have many offers of employment.
There are others who have ended up homeless for all manner of reasons, mental health issues and addictions perhaps the most obvious.
But those issues should not deprive a person of the dignity of a bed and shelter.
The question for society, small cities such as Yorkton included, is how to provide housing which is safe and affordable?
For many homeless even the most modest fees for shelter are going to be too much, at least as they work on the issues and hopefully transition to better situations.
That is where the recent Building Community – The Saskatchewan Housing and Homelessness Conference hosted by Métis Nation–Saskatchewan can hopefully be foundational.
The conference brought together a range of stakeholders – including Angela Chernoff who is in charge of Bruno’s Place – to discuss homelessness.
Certainly, when it comes to rural homelessness, they are just starting to realize how widespread to problem is.
“There’s a lot of unknowns with that topic,” said Chernoff.
The situation is hard to track, because homeless can be transient.
Chernoff said she hopes the conference leads to more meetings to share information, as that is a key to addressing the issue of homelessness.
“There’s more realization province wide something needs to be done,” she said, adding it will take some new thinking too.
“We have to think outside the box to move forward.”
Obviously, no single conference is going to find solutions to the varied challenges of homelessness, but it is to be hoped it was a first step toward the broader collective involved in the field finding innovative solutions that work here in Saskatchewan.
