October 8th, 2024
Hockey Helps the Homeless
There are some amazing organizations in our community who work with people who experience housing insecurity and homelessness. I am a returning sponsored player for the Hockey Helps the Homeless tournament on October 25th. Last year, my team raised $14,000 for local agencies. This year’s tournament will support ONERoof, House of Friendship, Starling Community Services, Cambridge Shelter Corp, YW of K-W, and The Working Centre, which together run the Region’s emergency shelter bed network. This year’s tournament fundraising goal is $350,000.
What might shock you is that in July 2024, over 4,100 Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients – people with disabilities who are unable to work – were homeless.1 That number includes adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities. The president of the Ontario Psychological Association also estimates that 18% of people in shelters in Ontario have a developmental disability.2
At Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, we support a number of people who are homeless. It shouldn’t be a surprise, since ODSP provides a person with $582 to cover shelter costs. With average rent in our region doubling or even tripling that number, housing insecurity is a real issue.
In addition to that, Developmental Services Ontario (DSO) has over 700 adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities on a waitlist for residential support in Waterloo Region, and our Region has an 8-year waitlist for affordable housing.
I love to play hockey and I’m a big fan of the local organizations that will receive funds from this tournament. I would encourage you to check out the tournament’s website and consider sponsoring a player; perhaps even me.
Yours in community,
Allan Mills
Executive Director
Sources:
- Number of homeless OW, ODSP recipients has almost doubled in two years: government data (The Trillium)
- Growing national challenges faced by individuals with developmental disabilities (Intentional Community Consortium)
