The last time 49-year-old Don Bell had an apartment of his own was about two years ago.
The former welder has since bounced around, between Windsor and London, from emergency shelters to the streets and back.
Carrying a bag with some of his belongings, Bell, who first began dealing with homelessness about 11 years ago after his marriage broke down, says he’s optimistic his “unlucky” streak will soon end.
London’s one-week blitz to help the homeless, trying to house people in need and connect them with public services, is a big part of that optimism. While Bell doesn’t have a permanent place yet, he’s half way there, with temporary shelter for now, thanks to the city campaign.
“It’s helped me out quite a bit already,” Bell said outside the Silverwood Arena, where city hall encouraged people in need to go this week to get help.
“Everything you actually need is under the roof,” Bell said of the reception centre.
Bell had more than a few needs, apart from a place to live. He had no official ID, needed some winter clothing and also hoped to get some help to find a doctor and a dentist.
Now, he has temporary ID, some cold-weather clothing and, through the one-week campaign’s help, a spot at the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope that will be a transitional place for him to live until a permanent place can be found.
Bell was among more than 550 people who made their way to the east London arena during the campaign that ended Friday, part of the city’s Housing Stability Week.
The goal was to get as many Londoners as possible off the street and into supported homes, while also connecting them with social services that can help to break the cycle of homelessness. In a city with an affordable housing crisis, officials also hoped to get a better understanding of needs.
To help, city hall is offering to sign leases for those who don’t qualify to rent places, either because of their background or income, pay first and last months’ rent through the Housing Stability Bank and top up people who are short on rent.
In Bell’s case, that will be quite a lot, considering he receives less than $600 a month in social assistance.
“You cannot survive on that,” he said.
City hall’s push has been effective, said Jessie Ford, who manages a housing program at St. Leonard’s Community Services called “project home” that was one of city hall’s partners in the campaign.
“It really was positive in bringing community organizations together, which has made our job easier in terms of getting people housed,” she said.
“It has also brought (to attention) individuals who are experiencing homelessness in our community, who we aren’t necessarily aware of because they are not accessing shelters, so it has brought them to the forefront,” she said.
Ford said the program she leads had managed to house 34 people since the start of the fiscal year in April.
But as a result of the blitz alone, they secured places to live for another 10 people, with 11 others either in the process of applying for housing or in transitional rooms or hotels, Ford said.
City officials admit more needs to be done.
An estimated 200 people live on city streets, with most emergency shelters running at capacity and about 4,700 families waiting for rent-geared-to-income units.
Compounding the issue are high rents and a low vacancy rate, which squeeze low-income people out of the market.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us in the next three to two weeks to crunch all the data we have been able to collect and move forward with our plans to rapidly house people with supports,” said Craig Cooper, city hall’s manager of homeless prevention.
Effective as they think this week was, there are still scores of people living on the streets that city hall and local agencies have yet to reach, Cooper added.
“We could probably do this for a couple of weeks in a row and still not see everybody,” he said.
As for Bell, he said the campaign was a good start that could give homeless people new hope.
“When people shut the door in your face more than once, and it keeps on shutting, sometimes you just give up,” he said.
“This is helping out a lot of people,” he added. “I keep hearing it.”
