Salvation Army sees sharp rise in homeless

Major Lindsay Rowe is concerned because not only is the Army seeing more people on the street ÷ it is seeing different generations of people, too.

ãFor years,ä Major Rowe said, ãthe people on the street doing our ministry knew who was out there, but now there are new faces on the street ÷ which indicates a hole in the safety net.ä

The Salvation Army served more than 20,000 hot meals to the homeless this year through Harbour Light, the Emergency Housing Complex, the Day Care Centre for the Homeless and the Soup Run ÷ a 20 per cent increase in meals served this year over last. Major Rowe says this ãconfirms what we noticed all year long. There are definitely more people on the streets and some seem to be younger people.ä

Major Rowe does generalize about why so many more people were homeless. He said each street person likely has a different story and a different reason.

But homeless people are not the only ones increasingly in need. More than 1300 families and 5000 individuals sought food, clothing and counselling from the Salvation Armyâs Community and Family Service Department this past year. These numbers reflect an increase of almost 10 per cent over last year.

The Salvation Armyâs job has been made all the more difficult by increases in the price of food.

Major Rowe said: ãWeâre finding since 9/11 that the cost of food is up· We have seen a 20 per cent increase in what it costs us to run Family Services alone.ä

The disturbing statistics come at a time when the army is gearing up for its seasonal Christmas campaign. It will need between $40-50,000 just to fill the 500 food hampers it will need this year to give support to more than 1,400 individuals. An additional 500 Christmas toy hampers are needed for children under 12.

The Salvation Army programmes depend on donations. The Army has raised $400,000 of the $450,000 they anticipated they will need to operate the programmes in the coming year but Major Rowe expects they will need even more funds because ãthe cost is going up all the timeä.

The Salvation Army will launch its Hamilton Christmas Cheer Kettle tomorrow.

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