*One major source of funding during the COVID-19 pandemic has been Reaching Home.
This existing program, already taking place in the Nanaimo and Cowichan areas, has been providing further funding to support programs that help those in need of various housing supports.
What Is Reaching Home?
The Government of Canada's Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, is a federal program that aims to prevent and reduce homelessness.
It provides funding to communities large and small across the country and puts decision-making in the hands of local stakeholders and service providers.
Locally, United Way Central & Northern Vancouver Island distributes funds and provides administrative support to a Community Advisory Board that decides where funding goes.
Reaching Home is funding a range of services, including:
- providing housing
- helping people to keep their homes thereby preventing homelessness
- connecting people in need to things like medical supports, or helping them apply to resources like employment insurance
- during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s also funding service providers to adapt to new health requirements and continue providing services, as well as supplying the homeless with masks, hand sanitizer and temporary housing in which to isolate.
Reaching Home is also collecting information to make sure that local strategies are working, and requiring communities to create a consistent process for those in need to apply for and access services.
For a more in-depth review of how Reaching Home works, check out the video presentation below.
