Did you know that there are hundreds of people experiencing homelessness in Antigonish? Including dozens of people sleeping rough each night? It’s an invisible issue, and maybe a surprise to many Antigonish residents. We sat down with Speireag Hendra, Executive Director of A Roof Over You Head: a non-profit organization aiming to address the lack of affordable and safe housing for those who find themselves homeless, precariously housed or at risk of homelessness due to various contributing factors such as poverty, mental illness, addiction, etc.
Speireag tells us about:
The surprisingly large number of people experiencing homelessness in Antigonish, including the dozens that visit the A Roof Over You Head office each day
The lack of emergency, temporary, or transitional housing in Antigonish
The causes of homelessness, including skyrocketing rent and utility costs, lack of affordable housing, and general increase in living expenses that make it unaffordable to rent in this town
The stigma associated with homelessness where the reality of who experiences homelessness and how they got there is quite different to our preconceived notions
Many people experiencing homelessness are in fact working fulltime jobs
To learn more about A Roof Over Your Head, visit their website or Facebook page at these links:
https://www.facebook.com/AROYH/
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