The misery of homeless people in Fort McMurray is made much worse by unique factors at play in the community that's at the epicenter of Alberta's oilpatch, new ALES research reveals.
"The thing that struck me is that many of the study participants were employed in the recent past, and some were working at the moment but still were not able to afford housing," said Pushpanjali Dashora, an assistant professor in ALES' Department of Human Ecology, who led the research with her colleague from the Faculty of Nursing, Solina Richter.
Due to the rapid expansion of oilsands mining, the town of approximately 77,000 has historically had a housing shortage and expensive rents. Indeed, 44 per cent of the homeless there have some source of income but can't secure safe, adequate and affordable housing.
Short layoffs that remove workers from camp housing, job-site shutdowns, work-related injuries, addictions and depression are all major risks in a place where erratic, sometimes dangerous, employment, plus drugs and alcohol are prevalent.
As a result, at 6.78 homeless per 1,000 residents, Fort McMurray's rate of homelessness is double that of the second highest rate in Alberta, 3.98 per 1,000 in Grand Prairie.
The revelations are from research Dashora conducted in 2012 to 2013 on social determinants of health in Fort McMurray. The term refers to living conditions that affect people's well-being. They stem from the circumstances in which people live and work, and the systems put in place to deal with any inequities. In Fort McMurray, not only are the circumstances unusual, the systems are highly stressed.
A large turnover of health care professionals in the region means that services dealing with mental health, addiction and even physical injuries are patchy and poorly coordinated. Waits to see doctors are long, consultations are brief and there's a dearth of follow-up.
By interviewing 15 homeless people - 12 men and three women with a mean age of 44.3 years, who were either newly or chronically homeless - Dashora found multiple additional barriers facing them.
There's a scarcity of shelter beds, and restrictive shelter rules cause some to spend nights on the streets or in the woods. Female homeless are particularly underserved and vulnerable to predators.
Dashora recommends tackling housing first and then identifying gaps in services - in particular mental health services, but also shelter and feeding programs, and drop-in centres. More research is needed on the needs of Aboriginals, and on the "shadow" population that is homeless when it's not in work camps.
Government and industry both have a role in tackling the homeless issues in Fort McMurray, she said.
"It's not only the environmental impact that we've all heard about," she said. "We hardly talk about the impact on the people, not only in the short term but the long term.
"Many of the participants in our study are in their fifties and sixties, have had employment in the oil industry in the past but are now struggling with health problems (like addictions or physical health issues). So whose responsibility is it to take care of them?"
The study was commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and was published in the International Journal of Case Studies.
"The thing that struck me is that many of the study participants were employed in the recent past, and some were working at the moment but still were not able to afford housing," said Pushpanjali Dashora, an assistant professor in ALES' Department of Human Ecology, who led the research with her colleague from the Faculty of Nursing, Solina Richter.
Due to the rapid expansion of oilsands mining, the town of approximately 77,000 has historically had a housing shortage and expensive rents. Indeed, 44 per cent of the homeless there have some source of income but can't secure safe, adequate and affordable housing.
Short layoffs that remove workers from camp housing, job-site shutdowns, work-related injuries, addictions and depression are all major risks in a place where erratic, sometimes dangerous, employment, plus drugs and alcohol are prevalent.
As a result, at 6.78 homeless per 1,000 residents, Fort McMurray's rate of homelessness is double that of the second highest rate in Alberta, 3.98 per 1,000 in Grand Prairie.
The revelations are from research Dashora conducted in 2012 to 2013 on social determinants of health in Fort McMurray. The term refers to living conditions that affect people's well-being. They stem from the circumstances in which people live and work, and the systems put in place to deal with any inequities. In Fort McMurray, not only are the circumstances unusual, the systems are highly stressed.
A large turnover of health care professionals in the region means that services dealing with mental health, addiction and even physical injuries are patchy and poorly coordinated. Waits to see doctors are long, consultations are brief and there's a dearth of follow-up.
By interviewing 15 homeless people - 12 men and three women with a mean age of 44.3 years, who were either newly or chronically homeless - Dashora found multiple additional barriers facing them.
There's a scarcity of shelter beds, and restrictive shelter rules cause some to spend nights on the streets or in the woods. Female homeless are particularly underserved and vulnerable to predators.
Dashora recommends tackling housing first and then identifying gaps in services - in particular mental health services, but also shelter and feeding programs, and drop-in centres. More research is needed on the needs of Aboriginals, and on the "shadow" population that is homeless when it's not in work camps.
Government and industry both have a role in tackling the homeless issues in Fort McMurray, she said.
"It's not only the environmental impact that we've all heard about," she said. "We hardly talk about the impact on the people, not only in the short term but the long term.
"Many of the participants in our study are in their fifties and sixties, have had employment in the oil industry in the past but are now struggling with health problems (like addictions or physical health issues). So whose responsibility is it to take care of them?"
The study was commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and was published in the International Journal of Case Studies.