Rapidly crumbling roads. Insufficient seniors’ housing. An aging swimming pool.
Those are the items we tend to hear about when Flin Flon’s civic leaders discuss the major challenges facing our community.
As important as those issues are, let us not neglect what is undoubtedly our most significant social concern: homelessness.
Many residents were shocked last year when a reputable report estimated that 100 Aboriginal homeless people now live in our area.
At the root of the homelessness phenomenon is the decision by many First Nations people in our region to leave their home reserve for a new life in what by northern Manitoba standards is an urban centre.
Homelessness isn’t going away. In fact, with reserves growing far faster than non-reserves, this quandary is likely to worsen.
So why isn’t homelessness a bigger part of the conversation among our civic leaders? Why do we hear more about leaky pipes than about Flin Flon residents with no roof over their heads?
For one, homelessness is largely out of sight, out of mind. Most of us see the road barricades set up around a leaky pipe. Very few of us see the man sleeping in a rickety shed he trespassed his way into.
Also relevant is the tendency not to accept homeless residents as “real” Flin Flonners because they usually moved here from elsewhere.
There is as well an assumption that the homelessness problem will solve itself when these individuals “go back to where they came from.”
Funny, I thought Flin Flon was supposed to be a welcoming community.
The reality is that Flin Flon is now home for many homeless in the same way that it is home for more fortunate people who have relocated from other communities.
Rather than wishing homelessness would go away, Flin Flon needs to take a much more proactive approach in addressing it.
I agree that we need to lobby for more seniors’ housing. But clearly the housing needs of our community don’t end there.
And clearly the level of government services we have in our community are no match for our homelessness problem.
Now is the time for action. I will say it again: Homelessness isn’t going away.
