Those who work with people facing homelessness and food shortages say employees carry a huge emotional burden, as demand for services exceeds what their organizations can provide.
In New Brunswick, a director of a shelter network says his staff is seeing more despair, more violence and more people in extreme states of crisis. In Montreal and Ontario, food bank directors are forced to make heartbreaking decisions to reduce the amount of food their clients receive, in an effort to have enough for everyone.
“The fact that the weight of this massive systemic social crisis is falling on underpaid, overstretched and underfunded community organizations and their teams is unacceptable,” said Tasha Lackman, executive director of the Dépôt Community Food Center in Montreal.
“It’s a very difficult time to work in this sector,” she added.
As much of the country struggles with high inflation and a widespread shortage of affordable housing, food banks are reporting record demand.
Mme Lackman said his community food center is on track to distribute nearly 19,000 emergency food baskets in 2023, up from about 10,000 last year. The center is able to meet additional needs, as Mme Lackman and her team have capped the number of people they serve and reduced the amount of food they put in each basket, she said.
“I constantly have to make very difficult decisions that impact my team and the community,” said M.me Lackman in an interview. It’s extremely heavy. »
The number of people coming through the door increased from a daily average of about 150 to 280 on peak days, she calculated. This means volunteers and staff work harder, but find their efforts have less impact.
“They want to help and support people, and instead, in some cases, they turn people away and have to say no,” said the director, who fears that they will feel a sense of distress when faced with a situation which violates their fundamental beliefs.
“Eight days a week” would still be insufficient
Krista D’aoust, director of the Neighbor to Neighbor Center in Hamilton, Ontario, regularly suffers from guilt because the center can no longer meet the needs of her community.
“It’s like we could be open eight days a week, if that were possible, without stemming the tide,” she said in a recent interview. It hurts, doesn’t it? It’s really, really, really difficult. »
People who come to the center are no longer simply without food; they also have difficulty paying their rent or are sick because they are undernourished and without housing, underlined Mme From August.
Like Mme Lackman, she found that the housing problem and hunger in her community far exceeded the capabilities of charities and food banks. The problem requires systemic solutions, she said, starting with a commitment from those in power to care for the vulnerable.
Warren Maddox, executive director of homeless shelters in Fredericton, New Brunswick, said it’s harder to keep staff morale up as a growing number of people in the province find themselves without a place to sleep .
“The demand for what we are able to provide far exceeds what we are able to do,” he noted. The number of homeless people keeps increasing, increasing, increasing, and it’s truly disheartening. »
Employees are witnessing an increase in despair, violence and the number of people in extreme states of crisis, he noted. They noticed an increase in the number of women using the shelter to escape domestic violence, as well as a greater number of substance-abusing clients. As a result, staff demand for the organization’s in-house mental health counselor increased.
Mr. Maddox admitted that he, too, found the work more difficult.
“It’s just more of everything and it’s more intense,” he said. The problem is getting worse, but we fail to see the bigger solutions that need to be made. »