At Partners In Resources (PIERS), we feel that we have a great impact on our clientele in terms of assisting them to remain stable as our office can assist clients in maintaining housing using a client-centered, consistent model where we empower the client to be the Hero in their own story.  We walk along with the client and support them while giving them tools and guidance if needed or asked for – our goal is to support independence.  Our program mitigates problems before they happen through assisting clients holistically with their barriers and roadblocks, which helps greatly in maintaining and finding housing. We are very fortunate to have good connections with the property owners/landlords we work with, enabling us to keep folks housed. We only have 35 openings in this office but have a lot more people referred to us than we can take on and are having to refer clients elsewhere daily.  

The number of Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT) our West Kelowna office completed has doubled from the same time last year, there are many more unhoused people who are living in their cars and couch surfing not captured in the West Kelowna Bylaw numbers.  West Kelowna does not have any supportive housing.  We have been able to get more people rental supplements with a new Mental Health & Substance Use (MHSU) and BC Housing Rental Supplement.  For the month of March alone we have noted a minimum of one person from the unhoused community or someone about to be unhoused dropping into our office - some days we can have up to five people dropping in or calling for housing or referral services.  We seem to be getting more seniors referred to us; 60% of our intakes this year are over 55 years old.  The number of requests for help with getting a Person with Disability (PWD) application completed has increased this year.

This quarter our staff member trained other community partners (workers) in how to fill out housing applications, such as Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters (SAFER) and other rental supplement applications.  Our staff has supported and trained workers with the Salvation Army and the West Kelowna Transition house. They did this because we were receiving all the referrals from these service providers for assistance with housing their clients and we do not have the space in our program to take further clients.  Because these programs at other organizations are also case management programs, we offered to train them in how to support a client in doing housing searches.  Additionally, we were able to support and train another worker in how to fill out a Person with Disabilities (PWD) application to present to the client’s doctor.