Since Prince George launched its housing first program in January, 16 homeless people have found homes but more than 100 still sit on the waitlist.
Through Association Advocating for Women and Children (AWAC), a team offers sometimes daily support to people who were previously chronically homeless - some for as long as 10 years.
"There a huge need for it," said team lead Amie Foster, adding the AWAC outreach workers on-call 24 hours a day are a huge part of its success. "A lot of our clients would not be able to succeed on their own and have not historically, which is why they're chronically homeless for so long."
Earlier this year, Prince George participated in the federal homeless count and found 131 were chronically homeless. The vast majority of the 2015 people interviewed - 90 per cent - said they would like to find permanent housing.
The shift from living in a shelter to a rental unit can be overwhelming at first.
"The beginning is very difficult for them and it's very time consuming for us, but in a good way," said Foster.
"It's very rewarding as well. There's so many little things that we assume people know."
Considerations like cleaning, cooking, using laundry cards, budgeting and paying rent on time are new realities, added AWAC executive director Connie Abe.
Some have been evicted three or four times, but the staff works through that to develop better skills and all but two, who were "exited" from the program, still have homes.
"We're basically there to help them with their mistakes. It's working them through it," Abe said.
"They're used to being in 24-hour survival mode so having that roof over their head is a..."
"Huge adjustment," said Foster, finishing Abe's sentence.
There's a lot of that as the two discuss the program's first six-month report, published in July.
They're already responding to some recommendations, including adding another support worker thanks to increased funding in September.
Since July, they took three people off the waitlist, bumping the total to 16 in homes and they're hoping to pull in more.
Putting a bigger dent in the long wait list will be difficult because the people require "intensive case management" and support.
"You can only have so many clients and that's the supports that they need," said Foster, especially since some need daily support.
The program is designed to remove - or at least address - the many barriers homeless people face. Affordable housing is a problem in Prince George, but even before that the team needs to find landlords willing to rent out their units.
The report lists accessible housing as a key challenge and Foster has made courting new landlords as her main focus over the coming months.
So far, the report says the program works with three landlords who offer subsidized housing and six landlords in the private market, but that most "expressed an unwillingness to take the risk of housing a Housing First client."
"The program has not been well received as the majority of landlords have been resistant to the idea of Housing First," reads the report, pointing to concern about potential damages, disturbances, drug use, and past bad experiences with tenants.
Many had been approached by other service agencies that had promised support but didn't follow through.
For Foster, it's all about building relationships and trust.
"If we have a good rapport with them, then they're more open to either renting to clients if one doesn't work out or they're more open to actually working with us and helping the clients remove some of the barriers to stable housing."
Long waitlists and access to timely community resources and support services are added barriers. In one case, housing first staff noticed symptoms of psychosis in a man, but the next available appointment with his mental health worker was 27 days away. AWAC had to bring in its own psychiatric nurse for an emergency assessment.
"Many organizations do not have the resources or capacity to provide immediate service, nor are they able to accommodate new clients within a reasonable timeframe," the report said. "After standard office hours, virtually no outreach or 24-hour resources in the Prince George community are available to clients."
In the first six months, AWAC spent 165 on-call hours and 50 on-call psychiatric nursing hours on crisis support and conflict resolution to clients and landlords.
"The reality is I don't think we expected it to be as high as it was," Abe said.
"That was a huge learning curve for us," Foster added. "Now that we're more settled in our role as housing first workers we are able to foresee a lot of the challenges that were coming up in the evenings."
"Our primary focus is really getting them referred to as many agencies that can help them out and stabilize them and help them maintain housing while also filling in the gaps and helping them with whatever else they need."
The hope is that the current clients can eventually be transferred to the outreach team, so housing first staff can take new people off the list.
"Our program, as long as we have funding, the supports for our clients are indefinite," said Foster.
"We have clients that I foresee being on our caseload for two to three years... it's just one step at a time and it really takes that time."
That funding is certain until at least March 2019, with Prince George listed among 61 designated communities in a June announcement where the federal government earmarked
$12.5 million for innovative solutions to homelessness through its Homelessness Partnering Strategy.
The city received a 50 per cent increase in funding over two years and Community Partners Addressing Homelessness agreed to an "upward amendment to current project holders" until the end of next year, Kerry Pateman said.
That funding came through in September, allowing AWAC to hire other a housing outreach worker and freeing Foster up to work with landlords and focus on finding affordable housing.
All but one person is on some form of income assistance and while the private housing market rent costs have been increasing, the shelter portions from the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation haven't.
"The rent supplement and income support programs available to clients are not sustainable," the report says, because all but one person is putting more than 50 per cent of their monthly income toward rent.
And, utilities aren't always included in market housing rent, which offers an barrier to housing, the report said. That's been difficult for some. Four of six who have accounts with BC Hydro haven't paid that bill and have received disconnection notices.
Half want to live outside of the VLA and downtown, but that's proved difficult.
More options are available downtown but "the location and quality of housing has not been ideal for many of our clients."
Correction: This story has been corrected to say the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation is responsible for the shelter portions handed to those on income assistance.
