風蕭蕭_Frank
以文會友
露宿街頭，無家可歸的人在加拿大各省劇增
社會機構和倡導者表示，利率上升和高通脹正在將更多加拿大人推向無家可歸的境地。
自己曾經無家可歸的查茲史密斯說，他的 BeTheChangeYYC 街頭外展小組的一些客戶已經在等候經濟適用房名單上五個多月了。
他說，隨著利率和通貨膨脹率的上升，這可能會使更難租到房子。
BeTheChangeYYC 的創始人史密斯說：“我擔心的是，我們會看到人們違約進入本已擁擠的租賃市場，而且我們會看到整個加拿大的無家可歸者人數增加。”
本月早些時候的一個晚上，在卡爾加裏市中心，史密斯和一群誌願者推著裝滿一袋裝午餐的貨車，包括代餐、維生素粉和格蘭諾拉麥片。由於當晚氣溫達到約 -20 攝氏度，他們還分發了襪子、急救毯、防水布和帳篷。
在他們到達街區的盡頭之前，他們被一群大約 80 人包圍，等待分發食物和暖和的衣服。
史密斯和其他誌願者每周出去幾次，為有需要的人提供物資。
“當你同時來這麽多人時，這很困難。這對我們現在來說是相當典型的，”史密斯在與數十人打招呼時說，其中許多人他都知道名字。
他還與新客戶進行了交談，其中包括一名來自埃德蒙頓的男子和另一名來自溫尼伯的男子。
史密斯說，他的團隊去年幫助了超過 17,000 人，其中許多人是露宿街頭生活的新手。
“那是可怕的部分，”他說。“我和很多剛接觸無家可歸者的人談過，你馬上就知道了，因為他們問你，‘避難所在哪裏？’ 他們沒有聽說過住房清單，所以你問他們，‘你是哪裏人？’”
加拿大消除無家可歸聯盟首席執行官蒂姆·裏希特 (Tim Richter) 表示，無家可歸者行業正處於危機之中，而且隻會變得更糟。
“我認為我們正麵臨四重打擊，它正在推動一波新的無家可歸者的浪潮，並使無家可歸者對已經在那裏的人來說更加糟糕，”裏希特說。
他說，負擔得起的住房已經嚴重短缺，但大流行病、更高的生活成本和阿片類藥物危機的影響也揮之不去。
他說：“通貨膨脹讓更多人無家可歸，並使無家可歸變得更加危險和致命。”
10 月份在全國發布的饑餓統計報告顯示，自 2019 年以來，阿爾伯塔省的食品銀行使用量增加了 73%，是全國最高的。
“艾伯塔省的增長實際上隻是一場低工資、高房價、高食品價格、燃料和公用事業價格的結合，所有這些都在世界有點崩潰的時候聚集在一起。”艾伯塔省食品銀行首席執行官阿裏安娜斯科特說。
“全國各地都非常相似。你看到全國每個省份都在增長和掙紮。”
卡爾加裏食品銀行臨時總裁邁克爾帕斯瑪表示，對食品的需求是前所未有的。但我們能夠養活盡可能多的前來上門領取食物的人，”帕斯瑪說。
“需求上升。如果你看一下去年的同一時間，它會高出了大約 30%。”
他說，食品銀行正試圖在繁忙的聖誕節期間將其產量增加到每天近 500 個籃子。
通貨膨脹也對加拿大的老年人產生了巨大影響。
加拿大全國老年人權益保護組織 CanAge 的首席執行官勞拉·坦布林·瓦茨 (Laura Tamblyn Watts) 表示，加元並沒有像過去那樣緊張，甚至中等收入的老年人也第一次麵臨貧困。
“我是把錢花在取暖費上，還是買食物和藥物？我們所看到的可以用“熱或吃”來概括。如果人們每個月隻有幾百元來管理？你沒有太多選擇，”Tamblyn Watts 說。
“這意味著中等收入（收入者）比以往任何時候都更難過。（低收入的人）麵臨著可怕的處境，包括我們曾經遇到過的最高比例的無家可歸的老年人。”
'Perfect storm' of inflation, high prices driving more into homelessness: advocates
Volunteers with BeTheChangeYYC hand out supplies to homeless people in downtown Calgary on Feb. 3, 2021. (CityNews photo)By Bill Graveland, Dec 19, 2022
Social agencies and advocates say rising interest rates and high inflation are pushing more Canadians into homelessness.
Chaz Smith, who was once homeless himself, said some of the clients of his BeTheChangeYYC street outreach group have been on waiting lists for affordable housing for more than five months.
He said with interest rates and inflation on the rise, it could make the rental market more difficult to enter.
“My fear is we’re going to see people default into the rental market that’s already crowded and we’re going to see an increase in homelessness throughout all of Canada,” said Smith, who founded BeTheChangeYYC.
On an evening earlier this month in downtown Calgary, Smith and a group of volunteers were wheeling wagons full of bagged lunches, including meal replacements, vitamin powder and granola. They also handed out socks, emergency blankets, tarps and tents as temperatures that night reached about -20 C.
Before they reached the end of the block, they were surrounded by a group of about 80 peoplewaiting to be handed food and warmer clothing.
Smith and the other volunteers venture out several times a week to provide supplies for those in need.
“It is difficult when you have so many coming at once. This is fairly typical for us right now,” Smith said as he greeted dozens of people, many who he knew by name.
He also spoke to new clients, including one man from Edmonton and another from Winnipeg.
Smith said his group helped more than 17,000 last year and many of them are new to life on the street.
“That’s the scary part,” he said. “I talked to quite a few people who are new to homelessness and you know right away because they’re asking you, ‘where are the shelters?’ They haven’t heard of the housing list and so you ask them, ‘where are you from?'”
Tim Richter, CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said the homeless sector is in crisis and it’s only going to get worse.
“I think we’re facing a quadruple whammy that’s driving a wave of new homelessness and making homelessness much worse for the people who are already there,” Richter said.
He said there was already an affordable housing shortage, but there are also the lingering effects of the pandemic, the higher cost of living and the opioid crisis.
“You’ve got this perfect storm of terrible news driving people into homelessness and making homelessness, as it is, much more dangerous and more lethal,” he said.
“Homelessness is a kind of a slow-motion crisis.”
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Food banks are also seeing a spike in need, especially in Alberta.
The Hunger Count report, which came out nationally in October, showed Alberta saw a 73 per cent increase in food bank usage since 2019 — the highest across the country.
“The increase in Alberta is really just a perfect storm of low wages, loss of wages, high housing prices, high prices for food and fuel and utilities and all of that coming together at a time when the world was kind of collapsing down on top of us,” said Arianna Scott, the CEO of Food Banks Alberta.
“It’s very similar across the country. Every province across the country you’re seeing increases and struggles.”
Michael Pasma, the interim president of the Calgary Food Bank, said the demand is unprecedented.
“We’re seeing a demand that we’ve not seen before, so it is stretching our resources but we’re able to feed as many people who are coming to our door,” Pasma said.
“Demand is up. If you look at the same time last year, it would be about 30 percent higher.”
He said the food bank is attempting to increase its output to almost 500 hampers a day with the busy Christmas season.
Inflation is also having a dramatic effect on older people in Canada.
Laura Tamblyn Watts, the CEO of CanAge, Canada’s national seniors’ advocacy organization, said dollars aren’t stretching as far as they did and, for the first time, even middle-income seniors are facing poverty.
“Do I put my money on the heating bill or do I buy food and medications? What we are seeing can be summed up with ‘heat or eat.’ If people only have a few hundred dollars a month to manage through ? you don’t have a lot of choices,” said Tamblyn Watts.
“What it means is middle-income (earners) are feeling it harder than ever. (People with) lower income are facing dire circumstances, including the highest rate of homeless seniors we’ve ever had.”
