Community groups renew calls for emergency shelter in Three Rivers

A few weeks ago, Norma Dingwell arrived at the Montague Food Bank to find a woman standing in the doorway. 

The woman had been sleeping in the dumpster behind the food bank for days. It was the only shelter available to her in Three Rivers.

Dingwell, the food bank's manager, tried to stay in touch with the woman to provide any support she could offer, but she hasn't seen her for the past two weeks. 

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This was just the latest example of homelessness in Montague — an issue that Dingwell said has been increasing steadily over the past few years. 

"It's not difficult to see who doesn't have a home," she said. "There's cars parked with all kinds of belongings and blankets and pillows. You can see some people carrying a tent bag on their side. You can see it."

Instances of people sleeping in dumpsters, vehicles and tents are now leading to renewed calls for an emergency shelter in the area.

Dingwell would like to see the province build an eight-to-10 bed emergency shelter in Montague — a place where people experiencing homelessness can stay the night and get a shower, even get help crafting a resumé to assist in a job search.

No recommendation for shelter in assessment 

The P.E.I. government said a community assessment report for Kings County does not include a recommendation for an emergency shelter. 

It said people should call the province's emergency shelter support line to access services in their area.

"Our priority should be diverting Islanders from needing emergency shelter services," said Montague-Kilmuir MLA Cory Deagle, in a statement to CBC P.E.I. "We need to strengthen front-line services in our community including services provided by government and the private/non-profit sector and invest in long-term, stable and affordable housing."

With the nearest emergency shelters located in Charlottetown, Dingwell said that's a barrier too high for many people in Three Rivers who need it. 

"A lot of people know about the shelters in Charlottetown, but finding transportation from Montague or the surrounding area to Charlottetown can be difficult," she said. "Even if they can get in there, they're not always guaranteed that they can get a bed because those shelters tend to fill up quite quickly."

Tyler Proude, a pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Montague, said people in the area with housing struggles are constantly asking him for help.

Like the food bank, his church has limited resources to address the problem long-term. 

"I'm not actively aware of a whole lot of sustainable, long-term support for people in the area," he said. "A lot of it tends to be, 'We'll taxi you into Charlottetown to a shelter,' but we do have people who work in the area [and] that's not really a sustainable option for them." 

Proude echoed Dingwell's call for an emergency shelter in Montague, saying its location as a hub for Kings County could provide support for people beyond the Three Rivers area. 

He said there is a sense among many people he talks to that services are too centralized in Charlottetown. 

"There is something to be said about having resources available in rural communities," said Proude. "There is something dignifying about that — about allowing people to remain in the parts of the Island where they desire to live and seeking to have supports that aren't requiring people to uproot in the way that they might need to."  

When it comes to the immediate need for shelter this winter, Dingwell said she's "very fearful" for unhoused people in Montague. 

Even the dumpster behind the food bank is no longer an option. It's now locked at all times. 

Dingwell said the measure is to protect people's safety after a man experiencing homelessness in Moncton who was sleeping in a dumpster recently had to be rescued from a garbage truck. 

"It's very sad because they were able to be out of the cold and the rain, but it's also very dangerous and we just can't run that risk," said Dingwell.