Once a 'hidden case' of Windsor's homeless, advocate wants more Indigenous-led supports
CBC
Kim Noah feels anxious when her phone rings, aware that a missed call could leave one of her clients in a desperate situation.
"It could mean someone doesn't have a house. It could mean someone doesn't have an income. It could mean someone gets evicted," she said.
Noah is Windsor's only housing advocate for Indigenous people, a city-funded position with the Can-Am Indian Friendship Centre that helps people secure stable housing in the community.
She believes hiring additional Indigenous housing support workers would help rectify the continued over-representation of Indigenous people in the region's homeless population.
Recently released findings of an in-person count of Windsor's homeless population said that 22 per cent of people surveyed identified as Indigenous, a number Noah believes is an underestimate.
"There's a lot of hidden homelessness here in Windsor. I was one of those hidden cases," she said.
WATCH: Noah explain the growing momentum for the Indigenous-led support program
In 2015, Noah was working full time and living in her car. She would likely have gone uncounted.
"I was homeless three times in that year," said Noah, a single mother of four at the time.
She remembers preparing for job interviews in a grocery store parking lot while her kids stayed with family members in Moraviantown and Walpole Island.
Return trips meant hours of highway driving from Windsor.
"That was a really low point in our lives," said Noah
She tried to access an emergency shelter but the regulations didn't fit with her way of life.
"We have a different culture, I'd say.... I couldn't commit to being in at a certain time or staying over the weekend or not having my other kids come stay with me."