As eviction looms, this Oshawa man's family is desperate to keep him from becoming homeless
CBC
Oshawa resident Dale Nimmo has one month left to find housing. If he doesn’t, come March 31, he could be living on the streets.
He says there’s “absolutely no way” he’s going to find an affordable place before that deadline.
“I don’t really have any alternatives, other than being homeless,” he said.
Nimmo is one of over 200 people who were part of The Salvation Army’s rental housing program in Durham Region, which ended in November. Now, Nimmo’s family says they’re struggling to help him find shelter.
Durham Region funded the program and says it is providing support to all former tenants. But Nimmo and his family say they’re still waiting for a response from the region after reaching out for help.
Nimmo’s mother, Jeanette Clark, lives an hour away in a rent-geared-to-income retirement home in Warkworth, Ont.
“I feel helpless,” she said. "It seems like we’re getting nowhere, we’re getting the runaround."
Nimmo’s cousin, Jamie Wagar, lives a few blocks away from him but says he can’t afford to take him in. He's a single father with two children and relies on a regional housing benefit to pay rent.
Wagar says he and his aunt began “scrambling for options” once they learned Nimmo was losing his housing.
Since October, when Nimmo got notice the program was ending, his family members say they've connected with local politicans and homeless support services with the region — but they haven't received any updates yet.
“I have maxed out everything that I can, every resource out there that I can come up with for my cousin,” Wagar said.
The regional housing shortage puts significant pressure on families who supporting relatives, says Oshawa city Coun. Derek Giberson, who previously worked in homelessness support.
"There are people who step away from supporting the family member, and it’s not because they don’t care [and] it’s not because they don’t love them,” he said. “They just don’t have the resources, because that individual might need the types of supports that they’re not able to give.”
Eventually, Giberson says, a family “may be tapped out in terms of ways they can help."
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