“Since COVID, we just saw this phenomenal increase in people in serious need coming in for services,” said Nancy Keough, executive director of theAt the beginning of the pandemic, the provincial government provided additional funding for extra mental health support workers and homeless outreach team members at the Kettle. That money has since dried up, but the need has not abated, Keough said.
Anne Beauchemin was at Kettle’s door in December, when she moved to Vancouver from Quebec, a single mother with a toddler and an infant, and no housing, employment or daycare. She lived in a friend’s studio apartment, along with her young children, Automne, 3, and one-year-old Théodore, until the Kettle helped her find subsidized housing.
• Subsidized housing applications rose from 76 in 2019 to 233 in 2021, and that trend continues in 2022.To meet this demand, the Kettle used emergency provincial COVID funding to hire extra staff, including three additional homeless outreach team members and a weekend mental health support worker, but that money is now gone.Article content
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