Mancini says homelessness in Waterloo Region is heading in right direction
Posted Mar 3, 2023 11:00:00 AM.
“These are members of our community, members of our society and it's not like 200, it's a thousand.”
Joe Mancini has been the director of The Working Centre since it was founded with his wife in 1982. The not-for-profit manages St. John's Kitchen, and houses hundreds of people in the region every night, but they have never seen homeless numbers as high as they are now in Waterloo Region.
“We have a much harder mount of work to even make a difference because of the scale,” said Mancini.
Despite the alarming numbers and the visual difference from years past with tent cities appearing more often across the region, Mancini was adamant that the problems created by the pandemic are starting to be solved. He said that there were 240 shelter spaces in the region before the pandemic, and now the Working Centre manages that amount of beds themselves.
“There are some realities around higher levels of addiction, mental health [issues], higher rent levels and a shortage of units. Those are things that have to be managed in a new way. We used to talk about eliminating homelessness. Sure that's a goal, but right now we're trying to get back to where we were.”
The aforementioned issues with addiction and mental health as well as the rental and housing market have caused homelessness to be quite a multi-pronged problem. However, Mancini said that despite the controversial ruling issued in January, where Justice Michael Valente dismissed an injunction application from the region which sought court approval to clear tents from 100 Victoria Street in Kitchener, he's witnessed a change in how officers are dealing with the homeless, by getting to know the people and help them work through their issues.
He believes that people have been taking a more human-centred approach.
“A lot of people would like to say 'no, just move it away' but other people have said 'no, we got to go much slower, let's listen to these realities that these individuals have and act a little slower, but still come to the same conclusion'. People need housing, not tents.”
