Richmond Hill event answers questions about unhoused people and how to help them

Unhoused in the Hill runs at the library's Central branch on Jan. 27.

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 25, 2024
Mike Adler

If you live in York Region, you have unhoused neighbours, whether you see them or not.

And if you want to help, a first-time Richmond Hill event, Unhoused in the Hill, will tell you how.

Residents with questions about unhoused people can get answers from experts at Richmond Hill Public Library’s Central Branch on Saturday, Jan. 27, organizer Sheri-Anne Harrison said.

“It’s something that’s visible. A lot of people have been wondering how they can help,” said Harrison, a resident volunteer with the South-Central Richmond Hill Community Action Table.

The event, from 1 to 4 p.m., has guest speakers from a dozen local social service agencies, and will assemble blessings bags of supplies for unhoused people. Pizza, as well as Naloxone kits, will be available.

One of the speakers, Michelle Sutherland, a staff lawyer at the Community Legal Clinic of York Region, said the situation for people with precarious housing is dire.

The region’s shelters are full, Ontario Works recipients can’t afford to rent a room and unhoused people encamped outdoors have been evicted, depending on how municipalities decide to enforce their bylaws, she said.

Encampments in the region are often not visible; they are in forests and hard to reach, said Sutherland.

Lots of unhoused people in York Region have full-time jobs, Sutherland added. “There’s kids; there’s families that are unhoused.”

Though Sutherland said the crisis of homelessness is like an onion with many layers, she thought vacancy decontrol (controlling rents when apartments become vacant) and including newer buildings in rent control (those completed after November 2018 are exempt) would help.

Residents, she said, should call their representatives and ask what they are doing to address issues that are producing the crisis.

“The more visible it becomes, the more it’s top of mind for everyone.”

People can register for Unhoused in the Hill by writing to 2Shared.Abundance@gmail.com.