As winter arrives, Thunder Bay's only funded, Indigenous-led street outreach is running out of money

A large black vehicle rolls up to a couple of men sitting outside on the ground in an alleyway in Thunder Bay, Ont. The window rolls down.

"Hey guys, you guys okay?" a friendly voice calls out from the driver's seat.

It's the start of Steven Okeese and Mya Dixon's evening shift with WiiChiiHehWayWin, the street outreach program run by the Matawa Tribal Council. 

Their first task: to check up on people who are out and about in the streets.

But as they proceed, there is additional pressure, beyond making sure people are getting the help they need.

The only funded, Indigenous-led street outreach program in Thunder Bay is about to run out of funding for the second time this year. Just as winter arrives.

"We have water and gatorade," Okeese offers, as Dixon hops out of the vehicle and grabs a couple drinks from the cooler in the backseat.

"Are you going to be around here later? We're gonna go make lunch bags soon," Okeese asks, before driving over to the next alleyway to check in with another group of people huddled underneath a vent blowing warm air.

During this shift, Okeese and Dixon hand out food, water, and warm clothes to help with the dropping temperatures. 

On other shifts, lives have been saved.

The outreach workers have responded to overdoses, found people unresponsive in the streets, helped families search for loved ones reported missing, connecting people with a warm place to stay. They've even lent out their phones so people living with homelessness can call family members living back home in their First Nation.

But now, the timing of the funding crunch is leading to worries about the well-being of the vulnerable population as COVID-19 cases start to creep up and temperatures drop.

The WiiChiiHehWayWin program was born last winter during a series of cascading crises in the northwestern Ontario city.

On Jan. 22 of this year, the body of Arnold Sakanee, a 29-year-old man from Neskantaga First Nation, was found frozen on the front steps of the Thunder Bay Museum.