Opposition slams P.E.I.'s shelter line, says 'political interference' required to get help

There are Islanders calling the province's emergency shelter line, being refused housing in their area, and then finding better luck bypassing the system by contacting their MLA, the Opposition says.

Green MLA Steve Howard said a woman in Summerside experiencing homelessness called P.E.I.'s shelter support line (1-833-220-4722) and it "was refusing her help."

After the woman reached out to him, Howard called the line to see what the issue was, and the operator said they "don't provide hotel rooms and then I was hung up on," he said in the legislature Tuesday. 

Later, after he called Minister of Social Development and Housing Matt MacKay and then called the shelter line back, "the answer changed," Howard said. The operator then provided one night in a Summerside motel room for the woman.

"Question to the minister: for a woman sick and in need, why in the world is 'no' the first answer she would get, and 'one night' the next answer?" Howard asked.

"When I did a little backchecking on that, the operator on the phone has a very different story than that, Mr. Speaker, and I think what we need to do is be able to record some of these calls to see exactly what the issues are," said MacKay.

"That's one thing I'm committed to doing, because we see this a lot."

Howard said when people from Summerside call the shelter line they're often told they can't find rooms in the city — and they're then told that they'd have to go to Charlottetown.

"It takes someone knowing that they have to reach out to an MLA or a minister in order to know that the system can be bypassed by going through those means," Howard told CBC News.

"It takes political interference as we mentioned today in the House. That's a broken system. No residents of Prince Edward Island should have to rely on political interference to get the help they need to put a roof over their head."

Howard said recording phone calls would be a start to fixing the issue of inconsistency when people call the shelter line.

"[Matt MacKay] needs to know the truth."

Minister Matt MacKay said the conversations need to be recorded so the people calling are looked after, as he'd heard two sides to what happened in the instance of the woman from Summerside. 

"You hear it from one side, and then you call the shelter line and it was a different story. I do think it's very important that we start recording these phone calls," MacKay said.