TORONTO -- Across the country, people are being told to stay home and stay apart as a way to slow the spread of COVID-19. But when you don鈥檛 have a place to live, following those guidelines and staying safe from the virus is a huge challenge.
With homeless shelters reducing capacity to allow for physical distancing and few options for housing, more people are camping out on the streets, in city parks, or, as in one B.C. woman鈥檚 case, a beat-up van.
Tucked behind a shopping mall sits a 1988 Dodge Ram -- 50-year-old Kathy Denton鈥檚 current home.
Early in the pandemic, she became homeless for the first time, forced from her apartment after her relationship fell apart.
鈥淢y stress level was through the roof,鈥� Denton told CTV News. 鈥淚 cannot explain how bad it was at that time for me.鈥�
She鈥檚 also unemployed and thus can't afford a place of her own.
鈥淗ow can you afford to rent a place if are not bringing in at least $2,000 a month?鈥� she pointed out.
The van -- which has no running water or stove -- was only supposed to be a temporary solution.
鈥淚 am on the housing list,鈥� Denton said. 鈥淢aybe I will get in, but it is not going to be right now.鈥�
Nov. 22 is National Housing Day, which began in 1998 when the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee declared that homelessness was a national disaster in Canada. In 2020, housing is more important than ever amid a pandemic that makes gathering indoors in large numbers with strangers a potentially dangerous situation.
As COVID-19 cases continue to spike in B.C., space in short-term housing and shelters is increasingly difficult to find.
Jeremy Hunka helps run one of Vancouver鈥檚 oldest shelters, the Union Gospel Mission, and tells CTV News that 鈥渨e don鈥檛 have enough places for people to go.鈥�
There鈥檚 more demand for beds now than during the pandemic鈥檚 first wave, he explained.
In B.C., a ban on evictions that was put in place early in the pandemic was lifted on Sept. 1, potentially contributing to the number of those experiencing homelessness in the province.
鈥淭he need is up, space is down, threat level up,鈥� Hunka said. 鈥淧eople are stressed. Some people are getting sick.鈥�
According to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, up to 235,000 Canadians spend time in homeless shelters each year.
Across the country, infections are up among the homeless. On Nov. 6, announced there was an outbreak at Oscar鈥檚 Place, a homeless shelter in The Pas, Man.
At a shelter in Calgary, there have been three separate outbreaks.
鈥淭here are 60 clients who have tested positive, and four staff,鈥� Sandra Clarkson, executive director of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, told CTV News.
Their most recent outbreak started earlier this month, only weeks after they had lifted their outbreak status to allow more to access the shelter.
So far, who tested positive have since recovered.
In Ontario, the battle for support for the homeless is only heating up. Activists staged a demonstration outside of the condo Toronto Mayor John Tory lives in on Sunday, constructing green 鈥渇oam domes鈥� as snow fell around them to highlight the need for more housing help.
Some shelters are trying to keep their residents safe by putting up glass dividers between beds, something that鈥檚 been done in Toronto鈥檚 Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place. The facility, part of the city鈥檚 winter plan for expanding shelter services, has been criticized by activists for the lack of privacy and the prison-like design.
In addition to the virus, for this housing crisis. Snow and dropping temperatures can turn living on the streets into a death sentence, even in a year without a deadly pandemic.
This leaves many of those experiencing homelessness with an impossible choice: try and find a space in a crowded shelter and risk contracting COVID-19, or stay in an outdoor encampment and risk the freezing weather. Many cities also have bylaws against encampments, and will issue eviction notices to tent residents as well.
Denton knows winter will be a challenge.
鈥淚 would rather not be living in my van, please,鈥� she said.
Another hurdle is the hefty parking tickets she gets, just from having to park her van somewhere every night, one more example of the obstacles put in the way of those experiencing homelessness.
