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WENDY ELLIOTT: Open Arms is evolving

Over 20 years ago now, I interviewed a man who’d been homeless for seven years. Very susceptible to frostbite, he told me about being so cold that the liners in his boots froze. This fellow wanted the community to support a shelter.

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It took a while for that shelter to happen, but thank goodness it did. Just recently, I got to hear Leanne Jennings, of Open Arms, speak about how her organization is navigating the surge in rural homelessness. It ain’t easy to move people from survival to stability.

Jennings said an able-bodied person on unemployment receives $738 a month. Basic housing in Kentville costs between $1,400 and $1,600 each month. So, for many people, affordable housing is unattainable and unrealistic. That’s why we need rapid investment in non-market units that are 80 per cent of the going rate.

It’s hard to get a handle, she said, on how many people are unsheltered in the Annapolis Valley, but over 100. A lot of homelessness is invisible. Tents pop up in wooded areas. According to Jennings, individuals have more complex realities to deal with today.

There’s trauma, mental illness, domestic violence, renovictions, and seniors being catfished by fraudsters. It was interesting back in........

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