This is the 46th in a series of columns written by staff from The Lighthouse to help the community better understand people experiencing homelessness and those who support them. This column appears every other Monday.
Snow banks in Orillia are piled high, and the snow seems to keep on coming. On days when the weather turns harsh, many of us stay home, avoiding the cold. But for some in our community, staying home isn’t an option.
For people who are experiencing homelessness, it’s the availability of services or the kindness of others that ensure they have a place to go. For those without a solid support system, The Lighthouse’s services step in to meet their needs.
Spending time in The Lighthouse’s emergency shelter makes the reason to participate in Coldest Night of the Year even clearer. This is why we walk.
There’s an older gentleman sitting in the corner of the atrium. This is the first time he’s accessing The Lighthouse’s services, and adjusting to congregate living is difficult. He didn’t sleep well the night before because of sharing a room with three other individuals. Recently widowed, he’s living on a fixed income and couldn’t afford to keep the home he shared with his partner for the past four years. When he was evicted, he had nowhere else to turn and came to The Lighthouse. He’s been actively looking for another place to rent but hasn’t yet found anything within his budget.
Just outside the shelter’s front door, a woman in her 40s paces back and forth. She’s been staying at The Lighthouse for a few weeks, and she lives with numerous mental health challenges. She talks to herself as she walks, stopping to smile when someone passes by before continuing. Her mental health makes it difficult for her to hold down a job, and without steady income, it’s a struggle to secure housing. Over the past few weeks, she’s started talking with one of the mental health practitioners on site, but she doesn’t trust the system because she feels like it has let her down so many times. Still, she’s made progress in recent weeks, and has started a new medication that will help with her mental health.
At a table in the cafeteria, a young woman is sitting with her head lowered. She struggles with alcoholism, which she uses to cope with the trauma of a difficult childhood. She’s tried to quit before, but the alcohol numbs her emotional pain and provides brief relief. Having been on her own for more than six years, staying at The Lighthouse in the past few weeks has given her a break from constantly worrying about her safety and being in survival mode. She’s beginning to think about her future.
These stories are just a few examples of the situations people face in their experience of homelessness.
In order to provide the homelessness services The Lighthouse offers, including emergency shelter, supportive housing, outreach, an overnight warming centre, and food services, The Lighthouse needs to raise more than $1 million annually in addition to the funding received from other sources. These funds ensure people have access to safe, warm places to stay as well as receive support in their housing journey.
Coldest Night of the Year is The Lighthouse’s largest annual fundraiser. Participants brave the cold to walk either a two- or five-kilometre route through downtown Orillia. The walk offers a chance to better understand the challenges faced by people living on the streets during a cold Canadian winter.
Coldest Night of the Year is a fun, meaningful, family-friendly event that brings the community together to take action on the important issue of homelessness. It’s an opportunity for people to get involved in advocating for people who are experiencing homelessness while supporting the vital services available to them in our community.
We walk to be able to support and serve people like those described in the stories above.
You can be part of it and make a difference, too. It’s not too late to get involved. Sign up to walk and fundraise for Coldest Night of the Year at cnoy.org/orillia or donate at secure.e2rm.com/registrant/donate.aspx?eventid=389710&teamID=1022237.
Linda Goodall is the executive director at The Lighthouse and can be reached at [email protected].
Rosemary Petersen is the managing director at The Lighthouse and can be reached at [email protected].