Proportional funding essential for homeless Indigenous people in North Bay – Anishinabek News
October 23, 2020
NORTH BAY— Services for people who are homeless are needed now more than ever. And this is why Suswin Housing Navigator Workers are important and very much needed in the community.
A final report for the Ontario Trillium Foundation called Finding Home with Suswin lays out the dire situation. Indigenous Peoples make up about 14% of the population in the Nipissing District but 44% of the homeless population are Indigenous.
The North Bay and Nipissing area received almost $1.2 million over five years under the new federal homelessness strategy, called Reaching Home. Of this, the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre received $32,500 towards salaries of the Suswin Housing Navigator Workers.
In just three years of the program, Suswin of the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, has helped hundreds of people access culturally-safe services and almost 200 people to secure housing. They also offer cultural events and training to other service providers to build relationships and collaborate for wrap-around trauma-informed support.
