Long Blog 1 — Homelessness in Thunder Bay
Homelessness is a constant issue seen in almost every city throughout the world. However, the problem of people living on the streets becomes an increasingly important issue when temperatures reach over -30℃ nearly every night in the winter seasons. Thunder Bay has had continuous complications within the homeless throughout our city. We are currently in a state of emergency for these individuals with poor housing conditions or no housing at all. Throughout the recent weeks, more and more people have been found dead on the streets due to hypothermia. Normally this issue is much easier to control but due to the severity of continuous outbreaks throughout the city, people are experiencing more difficulty finding places to keep warm during these cold winter nights. Although the community is working hard to fight for funding from the government with the hopes to lessen the severity of this issue, they are having a hard time. As with any communication with the government, there is a process which takes place that can take undetermined lengths of time before any dramatic changes can be made. This issue becomes so severe because by taking time to go through a formal process, more people are likely to suffer from this issue when no immediate changes are being made. Another common issue being seen through this is the involvement of police and ambulance services. The community believes that there is no need for police or other services to get involved with an issue that is easily solvable. The issue involving these types of services for such a problem is the involvement of unnecessary services with a negative cost effect. With proper funding and small changes made, Thunder Bay will be one step closer to creating a safer city. It is extremely important to reduce this amount of harm as well as provide awareness for this issue. Although there are some shelters available, there are still not enough. Due to the covid outbreaks our community is in dire need for more spaces to house these people in need. There is also a lack of publishing in regards to the shelters themselves making it difficult for people to become aware of the help that is available to them. This is such a big issue that is easily solvable with the proper action taken. There are some amazing people in Thunder Bay who are involved in fighting for the survival of everyone in the community no matter who they are and this issue needs to be resolved sooner rather than later in order to save countless lives.
