Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 55 • Issue 22
FREE
Cold start ARTS CO-OP ESTABLISHED NEWS - PAGE 3
One year in, housing first project creates noticeable changes BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
UNDERGROUND POWERLINES AN OPTION? NEWS - PAGE 8
RDPC SENDING 31 TRACK ATHLETES TO PROVINCIALS SPORTS - PAGE 13
It looks the same as some of the other buildings surrounding it, but those involved say the Project Northern Doorway supported-housing facility at 95 Cree Rd. has changed the lives of some of the people who live there. “We’ve had some great surprises,” says Paullette Simkins, executive director of the homeless shelter and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thompson branch, one of several organizations working together on the Project Northern Doorway initiative, a housing-first approach to homelessness, which seeks to address the immediate problem of having no place to live before moving on to address correlated issues, which can include addic-
tions and mental health. “You don’t need to be sober or abstain from drinking [to live at 95 Cree Rd.] but we’ve had participants that chose that they didn’t want to drink and then for those individuals, we had to try and find them housing in the community because they wanted to maintain their sobriety so that’s a great success. We had one other individual that wanted to work and so because he was making enough money he didn’t need to be on social assistance anymore and he’s no longer in the facility so there’s been some great outcomes.” That’s not to say that every resident at 95 Cree Rd. – which has space for 16 people and has been at full capacity for about a year – immediately adapts to a new way of living.
“We have had some of them that have decided that it wasn’t their time. Sometimes it can take two, three four tries before somebody decides that shelter living is not for them,” says Simkins. “When you are so accustomed to just that specific way of living, sometimes it’s really hard for an individual to say no because it’s like a culture shock. It would be like if you had somebody that never had a care in the world, had money, supported themselves and then in one split second they’re going from having it all to having nothing. Can you imagine the culture shock that it would be if you were having to go to a shelter?” The initiative isn’t just about getting people off the street. It’s also about putting them in the driver’s seat regarding where they want
to see their lives go. “There has to be buy-in because this is client-driven and client-centred so it’s really all about them,” says Simkins. “We don’t dictate. The homeless outreach mentors don’t tell them, ‘OK, you’re doing this today.’ We discuss what it is that you want and we are going to assist you so that you can achieve these milestones.” From a policing perspective, Thompson RCMP detachment Insp. Will Tewnion says one person who is participating in the Project Northern Doorway initiative went from having 50 negative interactions – in which he was the subject of a complaint – with police in 2013 to just a single interaction in 2014. This time, it was as a witness. The housing-first model has not only paid individual
dividends, however. At a macro level, it’s reduced the amount of time and money dedicated by various agencies to providing for Thompson’s homeless population and incarcerating them for the problems that arise when they’re on the street all day. This winter, for example, the cold weather policy that houses people that there isn’t room for at the homeless shelter in warmup buildings at the city’s outdoor ice rinks was only activated a handful of times. “Last year it was like 69 times,” Simkins says. “And a minimum of 10 to 12 individuals [on each of those nights] so by housing it has turned into a positive effect on all of these other areas.” Tewnion says that while the project requires police Continued on Page 10
JUNE CONSTRUCTION MADNESS! CHECK OUT THIS CUSTOM TRUCK!
...OR CHECK OUT THIS 2015 DODGE DART GT VITAMIN C
FOR JUST $ 169BW
2015 RAM 1500 SPORT CREW CAB 4X4 5.7L HEMI, 2” LEVELING KIT, CUSTOM 35” RIMS AND TIRES, WHEEL FLARES
ALL THIS CAN BE YOURS FOR ONLY $339BW
call 1-800-268-2312 and ask for (PAYMENTS OAC 0 DOWN, 96 MTHS ALL REBATES APPLIED)
AMY, JORDAN, DAVE OR JERED
40 Station Road TOLL FREE 1 (800) 268-2312 www.twinmotors.ca
HIGH SCHOOL PLAY DATES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 9
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Students from R.D. Parker Collegiate and other Thompson schools kept warm by getting moving for the Mystery Lake in Motion five-kilometre walk and run on May 29, when freezing temperatures and falling snow made it hard to believe that the school year is almost in its last month.