101 Homeless People Living in Oxford County

Thursday, 24 September 2015 at 13:22

A new group is looking to help the homeless in Oxford County.

WOODSTOCK - The issue of Homelessness has been brought front and centre in Woodstock with recent news about squatters at a downtown store.

At least one business has had a real problem with people breaking into their upstairs apartment for a place to stay. Recently the downtown Woodstock BIA sent a letter to all business owners warning them about squatters in the area. The business impacted has tried to take several steps to stop people from breaking into their space and they still manage to get inside.

The issues of homelessness in Oxford is not a new one and a new group in the County, the P.S Cycles of Life for Supportive Transitional Living is looking to create a 24-7 shelter in Woodstock. Co-founder Mary Jane Phillips tells Heart FM they want to offer a safe, stable environment for those in need.

"A crash bed or an emergency bed however you want to say it, we want to have a 5 staging housing program where we are looking at each step through their life they are improving their self esteem."

Phillips says they would also provide some crisis counselling and direct people to the right agency.

The other co-founder Tim Smith says the numbers show that homelessness is a real concern in the County.

"Homeless are generally considered invisible anyways but the County itself has estimated 101 homeless people in Oxford, In Out of the Cold last year I believe they averaged 6 people a night."

The group has a long way to go before realizing their dream and have applied for not for profit status. After that their next step would be to raise somewhere between $3-4 million dollars.

Oxford County does have a lot of support programs in place already for people in need. Operation Sharing provides a lot of services for the homeless and some of the less fortunate people in the region with their well known Food for Friends program and they provide an In Out of the Cold shelter in the winter time. However Oxford does not have a 24-7 homeless shelter.