On Saturday January 11th, I placed a call to 211 looking for a shelter bed in the Niagara Region. 211 referred me to the Hope Centre (in Welland) and Niagara Assertive Street Outreach (NASO) only to find out that in the middle of this cold winter weather, there were no shelter beds available in the Niagara Region.
The last time the state of emergency for mental health, homelessness and addiction was mentioned is in a March 5, 2024 memo to Niagara Region Public Health and Social Services Committee for information with no further direction provided to staff.
In April 2023, as a result of declaring the state of emergency and a fix to the provincial homelessness funding formula, Niagara Region received a 20.8 million dollar funding boost to support homelessness prevention in the Region.
Ultimately, NASO told me that they would try their best to find me a shelter bed only to ultimately leave me in the dust. They have not tried to reach out to me since my initial Saturday phone call.
This is cause for concern for our homeless population in Niagara Region and it is unacceptable that NASO was willing to leave me out in the cold without even bothering to check on my status or well-being.
This type of ineffective response is not reflective of a homeless state of emergency which Niagara Region still remains under to this day.
It seems that Niagara Region has given up on this state of emergency for mental health, homelessness and addiction. The problem is far from solved and it's time for ALL politicians to wake up to the fact that this state of emergency on mental health, homelessness and addiction is far from over!
Steven Soos
Welland
The last time the state of emergency for mental health, homelessness and addiction was mentioned is in a March 5, 2024 memo to Niagara Region Public Health and Social Services Committee for information with no further direction provided to staff.
In April 2023, as a result of declaring the state of emergency and a fix to the provincial homelessness funding formula, Niagara Region received a 20.8 million dollar funding boost to support homelessness prevention in the Region.
Ultimately, NASO told me that they would try their best to find me a shelter bed only to ultimately leave me in the dust. They have not tried to reach out to me since my initial Saturday phone call.
This is cause for concern for our homeless population in Niagara Region and it is unacceptable that NASO was willing to leave me out in the cold without even bothering to check on my status or well-being.
This type of ineffective response is not reflective of a homeless state of emergency which Niagara Region still remains under to this day.
It seems that Niagara Region has given up on this state of emergency for mental health, homelessness and addiction. The problem is far from solved and it's time for ALL politicians to wake up to the fact that this state of emergency on mental health, homelessness and addiction is far from over!
Steven Soos
Welland
