Ottawa’s homeless shelters are continuing to face staffing and bed shortages during the pandemic as the Omicron variant rages across the city.
According to Kaite Burkholder Harris, executive director of Ottawa’s Alliance to End Homelessness, the rise of the Omicron variant combined with the overall stress of the job has led to increased burnout and absenteeism among shelter staff.
“Everyone is really, really understaffed,” says Burkholder-Harris. “Staff are getting sick, and just because of the intensity of this work, and the intensity of the past two years… they're just really having a tough time keeping staff.”
According to Burkholder-Harris, staffing shortages can be partially attributed to an increased level of risk for shelter workers and their families. Fewer staff means less help is available for clients.
“So that's been a huge challenge in terms of dealing with this increased level of risk for everyone staying in the shelters, and then less staff to support the work and to support people staying,” says Burkholder-Harris. “So it's just an untenable situation for folks.”
A combination of factors, including unemployment due to workplace restrictions, high inflation, COVID-19 transmission, and a lack of affordable housing have contributed to a sharp increase in homelessness over the last two years. The Ottawa Mission estimates that since the beginning of the pandemic, there are 1,900 individuals accessing shelters on any given day.
Ottawa’s 10 Year Housing and Homelessness Plan provides that nobody should go without a place to sleep at night. There are temporary emergency housing measures in place which offer hotel rooms to people experiencing homeless when shelters are at capacity.
But Burkholder-Harris says shelters often go into “overflow mode” before the city starts offering hotel rooms. When there are no beds left, she says shelters begin putting mats down on the floor for people to sleep on before the city intervenes.
The arrival of cold winter weather has compounded the issue, as shelters tend to see higher intake when frigid temperatures set in.
Burkholder-Harris says the layers of challenges facing shelters have put everyone into “problem-solving mode.” The executive director added that the city's shelters are facing outbreaks.
“It is pretty dire,” says Burkholder-Harris. “And, in the winter in particular, I think everyone knows how serious it is.”
The city’s pandemic response has included some measures to assist homeless and housing insecure populations.
To take some of the stress off shelters, the city opened a self-isolation centre in the Byward Market for single homeless individuals. Several temporary respite centres opened during the early days of the pandemic. These centres offer shelter, food and some amenities to people experiencing homelessness.
The Rent Supplement Program offers low-income housing to low-and middle-income families.
Additionally, the city created a Human Needs Task Force in response to the pandemic which focuses primarily on addressing homelessness and financial and food insecurity.
Burkholder-Harris is hoping the provincial government will increase wages for shelter staff again, as they did previously, so Ottawa’s shelters can offer workers an incentive to come back.
“It's just not safe to have understaffed shelters and to not have enough people to support the folks who are staying in,” says Burkholder-Harris. “The provincial government has increased pay during the pandemic before, but we're in the most contagious wave, and it's really important that it happens again.”
Ottawa’s 10 Year Housing and Homelessness Plan aims to eliminate chronic homelessness and achieve adequate housing for all by 2024.
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