Powell River Educational Services Society (PRESS) runs programming to prevent housing loss and to secure housing for local youth and families who are at risk of homelessness.  Through Reaching Home funding for the Housing Hope Project, PRESS has been able to have a major impact on homelessness and housing in our community.  From April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, our Housing Hope team provided intake for 154 new clients including at risk children, youth, adults and seniors, and support with a range of services that helped them to overcome their homelessness or prevent them from becoming homeless.

Supports have included securing temporary housing for 8 new clients who were homeless when they completed the intake process and securing new housing for 33 people by providing damage deposits and first month’s rent.  The Housing Hope program also aided 154 clients retain their existing housing by providing funds for either rental arrears or when clients cannot pay the full rental amount.  To ensure long-term housing stability for 240 clients the program provided funds to meet their basic needs, primarily groceries, clothing and work-related supports as well as having funding available to prevent utilities from being cut off.

To further our ability to prevent housing loss and to secure housing for local youth and families PRESS continues to partner with local government and landowners as well as participating in the local Housing Roundtable for our community.  We have also partnered with a local affordable housing non-profit to get priority notice of upcoming vacancies that match the needs of our housing Hope clients.