At the Back Door Mission, project Mission United brings health care and service agencies under one roof to help those who are unhoused and struggling. People who come to the mission need very real help and are at different stages of healing or hurting. The work done there is tremendous and compassionate, and it helps people on their journey to get the help they need or to have support that they’ve never found before.

I invited the minister for mental health and addictions to Oshawa, and I want to thank him for coming. I appreciate immeasurably that he came for hours to tour the mission, meet with and learn from front-line service providers and the medical team there. He saw the hub model in action.

What he didn’t see and couldn’t have seen is what we don’t have. We don’t have a system that will help people without financial means get from hurting through recovery to stability; 18 months is the wait-list for a bed for treatment.

The minister for mental health and addictions saw the value in the work done at the acute-care clinic that treats folks on-site so they don’t have to go to emergency rooms. But in our province, the ministry for mental health can’t pay for the health needs, and the doctors who serve so many homeless people without ID can’t be paid salary so they can continue to supply street wound care and addiction support. That doesn’t make sense.

We heard from victim services that survivors often have no affordable and supportive living opportunities, because it doesn’t exist, and they’re forced back into danger. CMHA Durham told us they have housing units available, but don’t have the subsidy. So we could have housing for more people in need, but agencies can’t afford it.

At Mission United, they have figured out how to work together to best support people living in poverty and on the street. I wish this Premier would acknowledge the crisis we’re facing and choose to heal and help our community, so people wouldn’t have to live on the streets and in pain.