Next federal government should prioritize affordable housing: Thunder Bay advocate

Continued investments in affordable housing should be a priority for the next federal government if any progress is to be made on the homelessness crisis in Thunder Bay, the executive director of a community organization said.

Nicole Latour, of Alpha Court, said the organization is seeing "significant demand" for its housing programs, with more than 80 people on the waiting list.

"We're seeing less housing stock, less affordable units that we're able to acquire for our clients," Latour said. 

"So we're really looking for opportunities to build our own homes for individuals that are unhoused."

City has plans for temporary shelter village 

The City of Thunder Bay is working to address the issue through the construction of a temporary shelter village, which would include mini cabins that could be used by the city's unhoused population.

However, council has yet to give its final approval to a site: the matter will be back before councillors on Monday, when they'll debate potential locations at Kam River Heritage Park and along Fort William Road, across from the CLE grounds.

Latour supports the village idea, saying it would offer security and support for unhoused people. 

"It also provides us an opportunity to connect better with people and assist them make their journey through the continuum of housing."

And while housing does fall under the federal government, Latour said shelter-based housing is a municipal responsibility.

"I really think that the two should be working closely together, and the city providing the temporary shelter," she said. "We need to look at providing more stable, permanent housing for individuals that are unhoused, and that would really fall under the federal government."

What the candidates say about a temporary shelter village

CBC contacted the federal candidates for the major parties in the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding — the riding where the the city is considering sites for the temporary shelter village.

Liberal incumbent Marcus Powlowski said he objected to a south core location for the village. But would have supported a site in the intercity area or in the north side near the Salvation Army.

"I think in choosing a site, you just want to be careful to put it in a place where you're going to have minimum adverse effects on other people, whether it's businesses or residents," he said.

Powlowski said homelessness is often entwined with other social issues such as mental health and addiction. He added that more services need to be offered. 

"If there were people and more psychiatrists, nurses working on the street, we could help deal with that."

"A lot of people with chronic psychiatric problems can and do live in the community, but they need some sort of assistance," he said. "And you certainly have to have access to opioid agonist therapy, and certainly safe injection sites have been shown to reduce mortality."

NDP candidate Yuk-Sem Won said that she's hearing a lot about housing, mental health and addictions when campaigning.

"When students who come to the college and university don't have a place to stay, when our businesses are trying to recruit people to come and work, there's no place to stay."

She supports the idea of a temporary shelter village. 

"We know that as a society, we need to tackle this," she said. 

Won added that we should be looking at non-profit housing, working with co-operatives and non-profit developers.

"And that's where I think the federal government can come in. We need affordable housing so that people have a safe place to call home. We need to ensure that those houses aren't priced out of reach by having for-profit developers doing them."

Won said she and the NDP also support a universal basic income, She added that the root causes of homelessness and poverty need to be addressed.

Green Party candidate Eric Arner said he's also in support of Thunder Bay's temporary shelter village.

Arner pointed to a similar project in Portland, Oregon from 2021 which he said "had great success."  

He added that there needs to be a housing-first philosophy, he described as "a safe place where a person can get their life back together and get whatever kind of help they need, whether it's economic or training or addictions counselling or mental health counselling."

But, he said, the government has a role to play in building homes.

"The government has to get involved and has to build houses, we have to have an active hand in that," Arner said. "Not everyone agrees with that philosophy because they want the free market economy to take care of itself."

"But it's not, it hasn't worked, right? So we need to actually get in the business of building houses. The government has to be directly involved."

Conservative candidate Brendan Hyatt did not respond to requests for an interview.

Details of the major parties' housing platforms are available here.