Drayton Valley FCSS could find themselves unable to carry out the community mat program this winter.
The mat program gives people with nowhere to go a place to stay for the night. The program is reliant on government grants and funding and donations to stay afloat. This year the provincial government is not giving the FCSS funding for the program which leaves its future in jeopardy.
“Without that funding the mat program will not operate and I mean, certainly in the summertime, this heat were seeing those kind of temporary camps or whatever you want to call them popping up in the forested areas of our community, but come winter time when it gets minus 30 at night it can be a little bit of a challenge to be living outdoors so that’s going to be a strain on some of the people that use that program,” says Mayor Mike Doerksen
The program is not just for the permanently homeless but anyone who finds themselves without a place to stay. The program has helped around 40 individuals throughout the year. As of last year Drayton Valley had an estimated homeless population around 15-20.
“It’s not just the homeless but if you are kind of couch surfing from one place to the next and you find yourself without somewhere to sleep they offer some assistance there as well,” says Doerksen.
The Town is now sending a letter to the provincial government hoping to receive funding and to draw attention to the fact that rural communities need assistance with homelessness.
“At a minimum it’s just to get that funding back so we can offer the mat program again and the bigger picture is highlighting the need for assistance in rural Alberta for dealing with homelessness on a more permanent basis. The mat program is really a temporary fix so we still need to look at long term solutions that will help all the people of our community,” says Doerksen.
Currently the majority of funding is going to large cities such as Edmonton and Calgary with not as much put into rural communities.
“The highest concentration certainly are in the bigger centres but we need to find some sort of solution for rural Alberta and smaller centres because to say that it doesn’t exist here would be a lie so we need to do what we can,” says Doerksen.
