By Daniel Adam
Fort Frances Times Staff Writer
dadam@fortfrances.com

Thanks to the Ontario government, the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board (RRDSSAB) is set to receive a funding increase of over $592,000, bringing the Homelessness Prevention Program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program allocation to over $1.1 million for 2023-24.

RRDSSAB CAO Dan McCormick says provincial involvement is key.

“It makes makes a big difference,” he says. “When you’re trying to address homelessness with $540,000, it doesn’t go very far.”

McCormick says without this funding, “you’d be looking at 100 per cent municipal dollars to address the problem.”

“I would say [homelessness] is one of the most difficult problems we’re facing and it’s approaching a crisis point here and in the province,” says Fort Frances mayor Andrew Hallikas. “We have people with no place to live. I think it’s a problem everyone in the community worries about.”

McCormick says the warming centre in Fort Frances has averaged 5-14 people per night. But he says that only accounts for the “visible homeless.”

“We know there’s somewhere over 100, 120 homeless across the District,” says McCormick. “They just tend to migrate to Fort Frances because most of the services are here.”

View the rest of the article here or in the May 31, 2023 edition of the Fort Frances Times.