Homelessness

"There's No Place Like a Home"

The Kenora District has one of the highest rates of homelessness in Ontario. However, homelessness can be invisible, especially in the North where our cold winters force virtually everyone indoors. People who couch surf, rely on emergency shelters, stay in hospitals, or even jails may be experiencing homelessness. Without a home, it is difficult to find and keep a job or maintain a healthy and normal life.

The City of Dryden, the Kenora District Services Board, the Northwestern Health Unit, and other community partners are working together to build awareness about homelessness in Dryden, Machin, and area. The There’s No Place Like A Home campaign aims to increase awareness about homelessness in our community so that we can build support for long-term solutions.

We must work together to improve homelessness. Finding solutions starts with understanding the facts:

• Based on an October 2021 “point-in-time” homeless enumeration conducted by the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB), 221 people identify as homeless across the District, including 37 people in the City of Dryden.
• Much of the homelessness in our region is hidden as people rely on couch surfing or institutional settings for shelter.
• Dryden, Machin, and area have limited supports for people experiencing homelessness and lack emergency options such as warming shelters.
• The average annual household income for renters in Dryden is $48,696, compared to the provincial average of $53,691.
• 45% of renter households in Dryden spend more than 40% of income on rent and utilities. 12% spend more than half of their income.

In 2018, 393 people in Kenora District identified as homeless according to the KDSB’s enumeration. A significant number of new housing units, including supportive housing, built over the last three years are helping to reduce homelessness. It is good news that fewer people identified as homeless in 2021, however recent results may be understated. Since 2020, the Ontario government has provided significant support for housing and homelessness in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These supports are not permanent, but they do shine a light on what can be achieved when governments work together to address some of the most pressing issues facing our communities.

Learn more:

Kenora District Services Board Housing and Homelessness Report:  A Place for Everyone

Northern Policy Institute Northern Ontario Quick Hits Insights Series

Northwestern Health Unit – Housing Matters

Kenora District Services Board – Snapshot of Homelessness Enumeration (2018)  

Background:

The City of Dryden’s Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan identified four Pillars of focus, including the Social Development Pillar which sets out the goal to identify and highlight needs for housing, coordinating services/supports for emergency housing, and advocating for supportive and crisis housing. The There’s No Place Like A Home campaign seeks to raise awareness of the state of homelessness in the Dryden, Machin and area and build support for long-term solutions. The campaign is a direct output from the CSWB with the goal of increasing services/supports for those in need of housing.