‘She’s in grave jeopardy’: Homeless woman, 63, with diabetes in life-and-death situation, says Halifax doctor | SaltWire

2021-12-24 10:17:27 By : Mr. leon xu

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She stood up to her knees in snow, struggling to chew a few frozen almonds down.

The 63-year-old woman coughed; her eyes welled as pieces of almond fell out of her mouth. She had just spent another night in a tent. Hers is among the 20 at Meagher Park in west-end Halifax. 

“We need heat,” the woman said late Thursday morning, a few hours after a blizzard dropped roughly half a metre of snow on the city park, leaving her home partially covered.

“We need some way of heating our food. What I’d really like is some way to take a shower, or at least wash.”

The woman, who we’ll call Lisa, did not want to share her name. She has diabetes, bowel complications and copes with chronic depression. She’s been living at the park since early last month just after her mom died and she lost her apartment. 

She arrived there after showing up at the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre on Gottingen Street looking for shelter but none was available. She was told there was nowhere for her to go and she was sent to Meagher Park with a tent and sleeping bag.

For months, the City of Halifax has been promising emergency housing for the homeless. The still-unfulfilled pledge came shortly after it orchestrated a violent crackdown on homeless encampments in downtown municipal parks. 

The city says there will be modular units for up to 64 people — 26 in Dartmouth and 38 in Halifax. The Dartmouth units will be ready Dec.20 while the units destined for the Centennial Pool parking lot in downtown Halifax lot won't be ready until late January, according to the city.

Lisa’s heard about the project but isn’t counting on it. January is too far away. She’s accepted the reality that she’ll likely be living outside for the winter.

“I’m just going day by day, she said. “I don’t think about the future, I just see what’s going to happen today. It’s the only way I can deal with it."

Dr Greg Hirsch, a cardiac surgeon based in Halifax, says Lisa's life is at risk.

"She’s in grave jeopardy. That degree of exposure — she could have compromised circulation to her extremities," he said.

The doctor quietly supports local housing campaigns, showing up to rallies and donating to causes. The city and province can no longer delay making homelessness a priority, he says. That starts with getting people off the street and into basic housing now and making the modular housing project an urgent priority.

“The city and province have made some announcements that include modular housing, but the bottom line is it’s not ready for occupancy today," said Hirsch. "We’ve had a major snowstorm and we have people with very significant chronic disease who aren’t being housed."

“We're getting a lot of 'look at me, look at me; we’re doing modular housing' but is it ready?”

Neglecting housing will inevitably come at a heavy cost to the health of the homeless and taxpayers footing the bill, he says. 

"Take this woman, for example, it’s just a matter of time before she’s in the hospital with a non-healing diabetic ulcer. She’ll have a few weeks hospital stay, which is a  $100,000 interaction with the health-care system, and then she'll go home to no housing and then she'll be back in the hospital again."

Housing comes down to a moral and financial government responsibility, he said. 

"If she was housed, fed and clothed, you might sleep better at night but it would also be cheaper on the system." 

There are nearly 438 people homeless in Halifax according to the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia. Lisa belongs to a group of about 100 people living day to day outdoors.   

The city's failed to deliver on its original modular housing plan. Up to 70 units were supposed to be up already, but municipal staff found out last month that that 70 units the city had paid for were in disrepair and unusable.     

It's not clear when people will actually start moving into the units being proposed now. Neither the city nor the province has offered an estimated move-in date. 

The city says it’s the responsibility of the province to select the people who will move into the units. The province has agreed to provide social services, such as mental health and addictions counselling. 

The Chronicle Herald asked the Department of Community Services if it has started the selection process and when it expects the units to be filled, but the department did not provide that information.

The department says the province is committed to housing the homeless. It says it's funding 65 more temporary emergency beds in partnership the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre and North End Community Health Clinic. No details were given as to where and when those beds will be available.

A department spokesperson said the province has also earmarked $1.3 million in funding for a “hotel model in HRM,” which will place people in supported hotel housing for emergency needs. That will be in place shortly, said the spokesperson.

Campbell McClintock, spokesman for Halifax Multual Aid, says the homeless situation in Halifax is dire. He believes the only way that both levels of government will make it a priority is after someone dies.

"Is it going to be the first person who dies sleeping outside before we take this seriously? I think now is a time to take preventative action before anyone dies on the streets which is not a matter of if but when."

The city and province have the resources to deal with the problem but simply aren't concerned enough to make it a priority, he says.

"We know that the city owns infrastructure, buildings that are unoccupied. We know they have relationships with developers that have unoccupied units.

"We know that the capacity is there but what will it take for the willingness to not let people die on the streets when we have all the resources to prevent that.?"

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