Serving Up Pancakes for Homelessness!

Boy oh Boy! February sure has been jammed pack full of events and activities this year.  The town has been dressed in pink and schools busy with Violence Prevention activities, families braved the cold and enjoyed winter fun during Winter Carnival 2015. There have been Community Cafes and church breakfasts, and this year February brought our CBC Pancake Breakfast for Homelessness.

On Tuesday, February 17, 2015 many folks came out to enjoy a hearty breakfast fit for any king, especially a hungry one. Plates adorned with golden pancakes, crunchy toast, scrambled eggs, Newfie steak (bologna for any Mainlanders) topped with delicious baked beans all for the great price of $6.00. No need to cook or do the dishes, dedicated volunteers did that for you and maybe if you were lucky enough you could boast that MHA Scott Reid or MHA Tony Cornect served it to you.  Several invited guests including our own Mayor Tom O’Brien and Liberal Party Leader Dwight Ball joined us for this worthy event.

Did you know that since 2010, the Southwestern Housing Stability Initiative has been working diligently, in this area, to raise awareness of our housing issues, including hosting the CBC Pancake Breakfast for Homelessness? Did you know that all proceeds are donated to local agencies who deal with housing issues every day?  Agencies, such as Karen’s Place and Aunt Jean’s Place, offer emergency housing to those who find themselves without shelter. Our monthly Community Café volunteers have served over 8300 meals since Oct. 2011, all free of charge.

Housing stability and homelessness is not just for big cities. It isn’t always marked with unkempt men sleeping in cardboard boxes on street corners, or stringy haired women begging for change as sensationalized on television.  Every community, every town and every city has homelessness…you just may not see it. In fact in the last 20 years, the number of homeless families in Canada has increased with 10% of Canadian households living below the Low Income Cut-off. Hard to believe, that in this day and age, over 65,000 of our youth live without adequate housing.

Would you be surprised to learn that in 2012, there were 1685 sheltered homeless, with 92 right here in Stephenville? Since June 2011, the Housing Support Worker for the Bay St. George area has assisted 152 clients with their housing needs and has found adequate housing for 88.

 

Housing issues and homelessness affects us all. It costs the Canadian economy over $7 Billion annually, with over $26 million coming from Newfoundlanders and Labradorians pockets. Recently, research reported by OrgCode Consulting, Inc. stated that the total cost of proactive measures in NL is over $14.5 million a difference of $11 million. What do you say? Don’t you think its time to get proactive about ending homelessness in Newfoundland and Labrador.