site chaplain. Other social services are provided through partnerships with the community. “The staff care about the clients, and they will try every resource to meet their needs,” says Sandra Brown, a frontline worker who has been with Florence Booth House for almost 10 years. Still, the needs of homeless women in Toronto far exceed what Florence Booth House can provide. “We run at a 99-percent occupancy rate—we have to turn people away,” says Harraher. “We refer them to other shelters, but there aren’t enough beds.” She notes that in downtown Toronto there are 1,629 beds for men, but only 510 for women. This problem is not unique to Toronto: the majority of shelter beds across Canada are for men. Going forward, Harraher hopes that Florence Booth House will be able to move to a larger building where it can provide more beds and additional programming for homeless women. Families at Risk While homeless women face many chal� lenges, their difficulties are multiplied if they have children. “It’s hard for a mother of several children to find accommodation,” says Lori Driedger, program co-ordinator at Mumford House, a 38-bed shelter for women and children in Saskatoon. “Many landlords don’t want to rent to a large family.” If these mothers do secure hous� ing, they often do not have the financial resources or the references necessary to find a place outside slum areas. The mothers who come to Mumford House are usually 23-38 years of age, and they often have several children under the age of five—some even have new� borns. Most are unemployed because the cost of childcare outweighs the financial
benefit of a job, trapping these families in a cycle of poverty. A number of factors contribute to homelessness among moth� ers and children, but the most common are domestic violence, drug addiction and mental illness. Families usually stay at Mumford House for up to 30 days, though they may stay longer if they are not able to find stable accommodation right away. While they are at the shelter, they are given food and clothing, as well as help secur� ing employment, furniture and housing. “Children often have a hard time set� tling in at first,” says Driedger, “but they get used to the routine within a few days.” The shelter has a playroom for the children and the staff make an effort to find toys and activities for them. “You get attached to these little kids,” says Lorna Thiessen, a frontline worker at Mumford House. “You just love them because you know they’re walking a hard life, and they’re probably going to walk a hard life for the rest of their lives.” Recognizing how difficult it is for homeless mothers to improve their situa� tion, Driedger says that Mumford House measures its success in terms of incremen� tal positive steps. “Our goal is make sure that people are better off by the end of their stay,” she says. Successes may include getting moth� ers to take their medication on time and take more responsibility for the welfare of their children. Opened in November 2010, Mumford House is a relatively new shelter. Looking ahead, Driedger says she would like to raise the profile of the shelter in the com� munity and gain additional support for the work it is doing. Young and Homeless Seventeen-year-old Donna has struggled with drugs and alcohol for the past four
Frontline worker Sandra Brown speaks with Esme, a resident at Florence Booth House 12 I April 2012 I Salvationist
years, but she has always felt the effects of addiction. “My whole life, my mom has been addicted to weed and drinking,” she says. “Growing up, I never had a dad, but when my stepdad came into the picture, her addictions got even worse.” By Grade 11, Donna’s relationship with her mother had deteriorated to the point where she was no longer going home, instead staying out late, using drugs and alcohol and skipping school. Donna was failing in school when she took a career aptitude test that set her on a new path. “The test tells you what your best career choices are,” she recalls, “and mine was to become an addictions worker.” Determined to change her life, Donna told a counsellor about her situation and was referred to the Hope Inn in Moose Jaw, Sask., where she has been living since October 2010. With the help of the Salvation Army shelter, she has overcome her addictions and will graduate from high school this spring. Open since 2008, the Hope Inn is a four-bed addictions program that houses addicted youth and helps them stay clean and sober. “The Hope Inn provides a stable home life for these youth,” says Christine Langton, who supervises the shelter. When youth arrive at the Hope Inn, they come with an addictions worker and a social worker. The shelter ensures that the youth attend appointments and meetings and, depending on their age, attend school or find employment. “The staff are like house parents,” Langton says. “We don’t bark at them about their plan of sobriety—that’s their addiction worker’s job. Our job is to listen to them if they have difficulty. “We call our residents ‘members,’ ” she adds, “because we want it to be like a family.” Creating a family-like environment is
Residents of the Sutton Youth Shelter work on an art project