Promoting Emergency Response for Homeless Service Agencies: Field-Based Recommendations from Two Municipalities in Nova Scotia, Canada

The fast unfolding of the global COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the homeless sector by triggering tremendous challenges for individuals experiencing homelessness (IEHs) and related service agencies. This quick-response research project qualitatively collected time-sensitive data from the IEHs and service stakeholders (SSs) experiences, challenges, efforts, and suggestions during the first wave of COVID-19 in the two most populated municipalities in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, namely, Halifax Regional Municipality and Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Through analyzing and synthesizing the standpoints from both IEHs and SSs, this technical note presents recommendations, addressing the practical challenges that IEHs have been confronting during COVID-19 and systemic issues in which homelessness is rooted. These recommendations will assist community-based agencies in improving their emergency response capacity, better serving IEHs in COVID-19 in particular, and supporting other vulnerable and marginalized populations in future extreme events in general.

On the Front Lines: Nonprofits in the Homeless-Serving Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Revue Canadienne de Recherche sur les OSBL et l'Économie Sociale (ANSERJ)

Dans cet article, nous examinons les expériences d'organismes sans but lucratif (OSBL) qui ont offert des services aux sans-abris durant la premiere vague de la COVID-19. Pour ce faire, nous avons mené des entrevues qualitatives aupres des employés et des bénévoles des services de premiere ligne dans les deux plus grandes collectivités de la Nouvelle-Écosse au Canada. Les personnes rencontrées ont souligné la pression considérable exercée sur les ressources humaines, mais aussi leur capacité d'ajuster rapidement leurs prestations de services pour continuer de fournir leur appui. La plupart d'entre elles ont indiqué avoir reçu davantage de soutien en nature de la part du secteur privé et de La communauté ainsi que plus de financement du gouvernement federal, accompagné cependant de fardeaux administratifs et d'échéances serrées. D'autre part, les OSBL du secteur ont fait figure de chefs de file dans l'élaboration de mesures pour répondre aux besoins des sans-abris, y compris l'aménagement d'aires de confort, l'installation de toilettes portatives au centre-ville, et l'aménagement de personnes sans logement dans des hôtels. En outre, les OSBL ont demandé que le gouvernement intervienne pour loger les sans-abris en investissant dans de nouveaux logements et en augmentant les salaires des fournisseurs de services de premiere ligne. En meme temps, les OSBL du secteur ont indiqué que, a la suite de leur réponse a la COVID-19, ils ont pu mener des actions intersectorielles avec les acteurs gouvernementaux et d'autres OSBL et améliorer leurs communications et leurs relations avec ceux-ci.Alternate :This article examines the experiences of the nonprofit, homeless-serving sector during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff and volunteers from frontline organizations in the two largest communities in Nova Scotia, Canada. Participants reported much strain on their organizations' human resources, but also the ability to adjust service delivery mechanisms quickly in order to continue offering supports. Most reported greater in-kind contributions from businesses and community members as well as more funding from the federal government in particular, albeit with administrative burdens and defined timelines. Nonprofits played a leadership role in developing responses to serve the needs of those experiencing lessness, developing comfort centres, installing portable toilets in downtown locations, and moving those without housing into hotels. They also advocated to government for state-level responses to those without housing, including calls to invest in new units and enhance funding for frontline service providers. At the same time, nonprofits reported working across sectors, noting better communication and relationships with state actors as well as other nonprofit organizations as a result of their COVID-19 response. RÉSUMÉ

Building Emergency Response Capacity: Multi-Career-Stage Social Workers' Engagement with Homeless Sector during the First Two Waves of COVID-19 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The dramatic increase of global extreme events (e.g., natural, technological, and willful hazards) propels social workers to be equipped with emergency response capacity, supporting affected individuals, families, and communities to prepare, respond, and recover from disasters. Although social workers have historically been engaged in emergency response, social work curriculum and professional training remain slow to adapt, jeopardizing their capacity to support the vulnerable and marginalized populations, who have always been disproportionately affected by extreme events. In response to this deficit, this article utilizes a critical reflection approach to examine three social workers' (a senior faculty, a junior faculty, and a social work student) interventions and challenges in their emergency response to persons experiencing homelessness (PEHs) during the first two waves of COVID-19 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (March 2020 to March 2021). The cross-career-stage reflections and analyses exhibit these three social workers' COVID-19-specific emergency response efforts: a top-down advocacy effort for social development and policy, a bottom-up cognitive effort to comprehend the community's dynamics, and a disaster-driven self-care effort. These three types of effort demonstrate a greater need for social work education and professional training, to develop more disaster-specific components to contribute to building the emergency response capacity of the next generation of social workers through in-classroom pedagogical enhancement and on-site field education training, better supporting PEHs and other vulnerable and marginalized groups living in the diverse context of extreme events in Canada and internationally.

A first voice perspective of people experiencing homelessness on preferences for the end-of-life and end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: People experiencing homelessness often encounter progressive illness(es) earlier and are at increased risk of mortality compared to the housed population. There are limited resources available to serve this population at the end-of-life (EOL). The purpose of this study was to gain insight into preferences for the EOL and end-of-life care for people experiencing homelessness. Utilizing an interpretive phenomenology methodology and the theoretical lens of critical social theory, we present results from 3 participants interviewed from August to October 2020, with current or previous experience of homelessness and a diagnosis of advanced disease/progressive life-threatening illness. RESULTS: A key finding focused on the existential struggle experienced by the participants in that they did not care if they lived or died. The participants described dying alone as a bad or undignified way to die and instead valued an EOL experience that was without suffering, surrounded by those who love them, and in a familiar place, wherever that may be. This study serves to highlight the need for improvements to meet the health care and social justice needs of people experiencing homelessness by ensuring equitable, humanistic health and end-of-life care, particularly during the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A reflection on living through COVID-19 as a social work professor

This short exposaccent is a reflective piece on my work with people experiencing homelessness in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper provides an intimate portrait of the fragility, insecurity and uncertainty of navigating social justice work during a state of emergency. As such, I attempt to provide a brief sketch of being a social work professor and practitioner during this surreal time.

COVID-19 and beyond: Social work interventions for supporting homeless populations

During the COVID-19 emergency response of ?staying the blazes home? in Nova Scotia, Canada, frontline social workers worked tirelessly ?out of the home? to secure safe dwellings for those on the street, living in shelters, and/or precariously housed. When the province moves to the reopening and recovery stage, social work strategies will focus on reducing homeless people?s vulnerabilities, aiming to offer safe and dignified living.