There is renewed talk of establishing an emergency shelter in the City of Dryden.
That is one priority identified in an update provided by the Dryden and Machin Joint Community Safety and Well-Being Advisory Committee.
A presentation was made to the new Mayor and Council on Monday.
Figures show the homeless population is anywhere between 35 to 68 if not higher in Dryden.
That doesn’t include the number of people who are “couch surfing.”
Henry Wall is Chief Administrative Officer with the Kenora District Services Board and suggests the numbers could be even higher than Sioux Lookout.
Wall stresses securing funding for a shelter needs to be a team effort.
“There are a lot of communities in Ontario that are really struggling with homelessness and it takes resources to get these programs started. Without Mayor and Councils political influence it’s quite difficult to get the resources.”
Wall adds, “There’s a lot that you can do to help us at Queen’s Park. There are 444 municipalities competing for the limited dollars that Ontario allocates to address homelessness and I think when ministers hear directly from you about what’s happening in your community that’s when things start to happen.”
Councillor Ritch Noel says, “I’m supportive of anything that we can do because I heard you (Henry Wall) say we’ve been doing this since 2018. We’re in 2022 and we still don’t have something to speak of. We need this…yesterday.”
Councillor Martin MacKinnon agrees.
“This has dragged on for four years or more probably this homeless problem we have in our community. It’s going to fall on this Council pretty heavy to lobby the provincial government. We have in the past lobbied but we have to get a lot stronger in our lobbying.”
MacKinnon adds, “Be more intense. I mean KDSB is very intense in their lobbying already and it’s up to this Council also to provide the Dryden Hospital with the tools they need to fight the same battle because it is for our community.”
Funding for a shelter is expected to be the main priority in upcoming meetings with provincial officials.
