An organization helping people find and keep housing has opened its doors in Queens.

South Shore Open Doors Association launched in Lunenburg County in 2021 and expanded to Queens in October with the hiring of housing support worker Krista Miller.

Miller has lived in Queens all her life and says people can come to SSODA to learn what supports are available to them and how to get that help.

“We would help access all of the local, provincial, federal resources that are around that can help out with housing insecurity. We reach out to some churches, Lions Club, Salvation Army, just other organisations to see if they'd be willing to partner with us to help folks,” said Miller. “We also are able to help ourselves in times of need so people would just have to call and do an intake with us. Once we can see what their needs are we can go from there and see if we are able to help them”

South Shore Open Doors Association is part of network of organizations using the online Homeless Individuals and Families Information System, or HIFIS.

HIFIS allows member organizations to quickly find resources for their clients that are offered from within the group.

Since starting in October, Miller has been working to gain a clearer picture of the housing needs in Queens.

Early results of an online survey she is conducting show 31 percent of respondents are between 45-54 years of age and come from across Queens County. Most people are renting their home, 85.7 percent consider themselves at risk of homelessness and 63 percent live in energy poverty.

Miller will continue running the survey until the new year and you can link to the survey here.

She is also hosting a series of housing clinics with the next two sessions set for Nov 29 at Queens Place and Nov 30 at the North Queens Hub.

Miller plans to continue to offer the workshops on a regular basis, alternating between the two locations.

She says it’s a great opportunity for people to start the process of getting the support they need.

“There will be lots of information on low-income housing options. I have subsidy forms to fill out if anyone would like to fill out for rent subsidy. We can do an intake for SSODA while they're there so they can have a housing support worker, look for apartments for them and just sort of system with the process of finding or keeping their housing,” said Miller. “Lots of resources like property tax exemption forms for Queens, just lots of forms, the heat rebate all that kind of stuff I have on file that I take copies of with me. And then, again, the B and L funding list and the HIFIS referrals as soon as I do an intake with somebody I put their information right into that”

More information on the Queens branch of SSODA can be found on their Facebook page.

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