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| Cardboard box where Dorinda Penner spent the night |
About 60 people slept outdoors Thursday night in Steinbach's K.R. Barkman Park as part of the CEO Sleepout. The annual event is organized by Today House, the local homeless shelter.
Lindsay Smith of Steinbach works for Siloam Mission in Winnipeg and spoke to the group. She says many of the homeless in Steinbach are not visible.
“This is what we call the hidden homeless or the under-housed, so they don't have safe, affordable, appropriate housing. They may be couch surfing, they may be staying with family or maybe they are staying in a place that's too small for the amount of people in their family or the amount of money that they're pouring into rent doesn't allow them to pay for anything else. Some folks are spending 80 to 90 per cent of their income on rent. That's not affordable. I believe that's what you are starting to have in Steinbach.”
People who took part in the sleepout, like Dorinda Penner from Sunshine Nursery and Greenhouse, say it was a big eye opener.
“We think we understand what homeless people go through but we don't. It's hard. I brought myself a box, thinking that would give me more shelter and stuck it in some shrubs. But you turn over and then there's a noise and then you roll and then you think, oh this is really hard on my back, and then you roll again and it's hard the next morning to get up and function normally.”
Penner says the sleepout reinforced the need for the community to support services like Today House.
Shannon Kehler is the Shelter Coordinator at Today House. She says they see a lot of people throughout the year.
“It's not every night which is a good thing. We don't want to be busy every night, hopefully. It comes and goes, it goes in spurts. The weather is definitely a factor, the winter is a lot busier than the summer.”
Today House spokesperson, Doctor Curtis Krahn, says there is an ongoing need for more volunteers and financial donations to sustain the operation of the shelter.
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| Group discussion on the poverty challenge led by Kyle Penner(Photo by Moni Loewen) |
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| Participants gather at KR Barkman Park for instructions(Photo by Moni Loewen) |
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| Hanover School Division principals set-up at KR Barkman Park (l-r) Eldon Dueck, Rod Kehler (in black), Shelley Amos(Photo by Moni Loewen) |
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| Guest speaker Al Wiebe(Photo by Moni Loewen) |
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