BELLEVILLE – For those in need of a home, this city isn't always the most promising.
Fortunately there are places like the Hastings Housing Resource Centre that can help people find solutions. The centre offers housing assistance to everyone ages 16 or older. The main office is located in Belleville, with three other offices throughout Hastings County.
Reta Sheppard is a housing co-ordinator at the centre and helps people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless find an affordable place to live.
Sheppard says that homeless numbers are hard to accumulate but was willing to share the centre's usage for last year.
"Last year we worked with almost 1,600 people one-on-one throughout the county. Probably 80 per cent of those being from Belleville or Quinte West," says Sheppard. "565 people were homeless and 971 people were at risk of being homeless."
Sheppard explained that at risk of being homeless means a person is behind on rent or bills with no means of catching up.
The centre sees on average 1oo to 130 new clients every month says Sheppard. This does not include people who were already registered and continues to need the services.
This year the number of seniors – age 50 and older – has risen, says Sheppard.
"Senior numbers have increased dramatically over five years. It started at 75 seniors in 2011. Last year we worked with 403," says Sheppard about the age dynamic of homelessness in the area.
She also says that helping clients stretch a buck is an important part of what the centre does.
"Things are expensive, rents expensive. So we try to make all those connections with other organizations like food banks," says Sheppard.
Networking with other organizations helping those in poverty is an important part of the centre, and one of Sheppard's favorite parts of the city.
"I love the networking we have in the Belleville community. I can pick the phone up at any time and speak with a member of another agency and we know each other," she says.
Still the availability of affordable housing in the city is concerning says Sheppard. They aren't always able to find affordable housing for clients.
"I don't like that we don't have affordable housing for the people that we work with," she says.
Rent costs are one of the major issues with helping people find a living arrangement. Average rent costs have gone up over the years says Sheppard.
Though the centre's numbers suggest at least 565 homeless people in Hastings County, it isn't always a visible problem.
"We have a different kind of homeless than Toronto. We have hidden homeless. Those are people that couch surf, or two families staying under one roof," says Sheppard.
The housing co-ordinator says she still enjoys being able to help people.
"It's an instant reward. Someone can come into our office and they can be homeless, have no money, have no food and we spend half-an-hour to 45-minutes with them and we've connected them with a landlord, Ontario Works and a food bank. So they go out of here and everything that was bad in their life is now better."