Peel health service appeals for more funding to help people experiencing homelessness

A nursing and primary care service for people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable communities in Peel Region is scheduled to lose its funding in a matter of months, and is asking the province to help it keep operating and expand its role.

Homeless Health Peel (HHP) says its funding from the region's  COVID-19 emergency response budget runs out in March. According to Peel, the contract for HHP and those of other similar services operating the region, will end in June. That means people like Bill Smith, who is now living in a Brampton shelter hotel, might not have access to that care.

"I ended up having a couple aneurysms in my leg, couldn't work, so I ended up having to go to hospital," Smith told CBC News. 

Smith lost his job in the tourism sector as a result of the pandemic and has been precariously housed for most of it. Through HHP, Smith receives regular check-ups from his assigned nurse, Shaunna Demars. The service, which consists of small, dedicated teams of nurses, also helps organize his medication.

"This assistance has been really good for me, and I'm sure it's been good for other people," Smith said. "It made me feel comfortable and reassured."

Smith visits with HHP every Tuesday. Without it, he said, he would have to visit the emergency department or a random walk-in clinic in the city. But he wouldn't receive the same attention, he said, as he does with Demars.

"Shaunna cares, not just about me, but about the other people here," Smith said. "It makes me feel like I want to come here; she'll lift the spirits.

"If you don't have that constant contact with somebody, it's different," he added.

HHP began in December 2020 as one of the services contracted by the Region of Peel for its COVID-19 isolation and recovery program. It's now looking for sustained funding to create a shelter health network. Its nurses provide care at various shelters in Brampton and Mississauga, including Brampton's COVID-19 isolation centres.

While it began for individuals in the shelter system, it expanded to all individuals who were precariously housed, its founder and clinical director Clinton Baretto said HHP nurses also visit encampments and overflow hotels for primary care assessments.

"If we don't provide that for individuals like Bill, who's going to?" Baretto said.

"This is health service for a population that is often forgotten that really needs to be front and centre as we move forward from the pandemic," he said.

"The most heartbreaking thing about the patients we see is they've been promised a lot over the years. It's time that we actually dedicate some service to them."

HHP will formally request that Peel ask the province to provide more funding at a regional council meeting on Thursday..