Sarnia-Lambton summit considers housing-health connection

Housing has been more expensive and harder to come by in Lambton, the county’s homelessness prevention supervisor says.

In fact, the local vacancy rate has been cut in half during eight years to 2.5 per cent, and the supply crunch has meant higher rents, less turnover in subsidized housing — because people have nowhere else to go — and ultimately, more homelessness, said Ian Hanney.

This winter, 10 to 12 people slept outdoors almost every night and nearly 250 are on a list for housing, he said.

Another 3,600 households are in a precarious situation, where their lodging is rundown, too small or too expensive, while social assistance programs pay a fraction of monthly rent costs, he said.

“There’s a dire need for one-bedroom units and, particularly for our vulnerable populations, supportive housing in our community,” he said, even as the county is working to help build 75 units by 2024.

It’s a start toward the 2,500 affordable rentals he said are needed in Lambton during the next decade to meet demand.

Lack of housing contributes to poor health outcomes for a variety of reasons, heard about 170 politicians, public health officials and decision makers from various social service agencies gathered Tuesday for the county’s Stronger Together: Collaborating for a Vibrant Community summit at the Lambton College event center .

Housing is a social determinant of health, like education, environmental conditions or stable income, said Lambton’s acting medical officer of health Karalyn Dueck.

Without such supports, poorer health outcomes tend to result, she said.

People who are homeless for instance are five times more likely to have heart disease, four times more likely to have cancer and have a mortality rate two to three times higher than the general population, said Marie Morrison, director of Built For Zero Canada.

“Housing is foundational to health and is a human right,” said Canadian Mental Health Association acting CEO Rhonny Doxtator, underscoring the importance of a housing-first approach.

One in five people seeking withdrawal management services at Bluewater Health in 2022 had no fixed address, she said. For inpatient mental health registrations, it was one in 10.

“That’s shocking,” she said.

Demand for those withdrawal-management beds also has been orders of magnitude higher than supply, she said.

Meanwhile, officials see the result in deaths, higher than the provincial average, related to the opioid epidemic and other drugs, and alcohol, said Lambton public health’s health promotion manager Mike Gorgey.

“Evidence has shown there’s a strong relationship between mental health and addictions,” he said. “The two are inherently linked.”

Likewise, they often go hand-in-hand with homelessness, as causes or results, Gorgey and others said.

But the issue is also more complex, and homelessness can’t be explained by substance use alone, or the inverse, said Hanney.

“Relationship breakdown, in addition to the lack of affordable, safe, alternate housing is the most cited reason for a household experiencing homelessness,” he said as an example.

Regardless, it’s not as simple as making a choice, Morrison said.

“The reality is this is a policy and system problem due to gaps in systems like education, justice, child protection and including mental health and treatment, but also poverty, colonization, discrimination, a lack of secure employment that pays a living wage and, of course, a lack of affordable housing and chronic underfunding of the affordable and housing systems,” she said.

Indigenous and youth are over-represented in the local homeless population, Hanney said.

Focusing on housing first, developing the by-name list, creating units, opening more withdrawal beds, naloxone distribution, developing a housing and homelessness plan and a community drug and alcohol strategy — expected to be released publicly next month Gorgey said — are among the things happening to counter the problem, he and Hanney said.

Participants listening to the state of affairs and in charge of some of the agencies working with the county to address the problem were scheduled to break off into groups later in the day to consider where gaps exist and how they might be addressed, summit officials said.

“While there’s still a lot to do, efforts like this summit I think are really effective in bringing us together to try to solve this issue,” Gorgey said.

“The important part is five out of five people have impact from mental health and addictions,” said Doxtator.

“Whether that’s ourselves or our partners, family or friends, we’re all impacted by this in our communities, and the services are not outpacing the cost,” she said.

More information about housing, mental health and substance dependency in Lambton are available at lambtononline.ca/summit.

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