There’s no easy solution to homelessness, but members of Lloydminster’s Housing Working Group are hoping conversation can create change.
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The Lloydminster Exhibition’s Nissan Hall will provide shelter for the Housing and Homelessness Symposium on May 7. The event will include frontline workers and organizations, advocates, policymakers and community members to discuss homelessness in Lloydminster.
The day will start at 9 a.m. with opening remarks and a prayer before guest speakers and two fireside panels, which will act as question-and-answer sessions.
Housing Working Group members Kagen Kneen, executive director of the Lloydminster Men’s Shelter, Becky Schille, executive director of The Olive Tree and Tyler Lorenz, executive director of Residents in Recovery, encourage the public to attend and ask questions.
“Society seems so stressed out right now with all the changes going on with the cost of living, etc. Oftentimes, we’re looking for someone to blame because it’s easier than acknowledging it’s a societal problem or the issues are bigger than us,” said Schille.
“We want people to understand why there’s a housing shortage, why homelessness exists, some of the underlining causes and we want to end with hope.”
Lorenz hopes attendees leave with a better understanding of what’s going on with the local unhoused population.
“People often ask ‘Why is this such a difficult issue to tackle?’ Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” he said.
For Kneen, the goal is to get more local members of the community interested.
“There’s already a lot of people registered from Edmonton, Prince Albert and Saskatoon because they’re excited to see what we’re doing as a community,” he said. “We want to see local community members and businesses come out and learn.
“We tried to expand our shelter last fall and saw a lot of pushback. I think a lot of that is due to a lack of awareness and education. We want to open the doors and have open conversations to show the community we’re collaboratively finding solutions.”
Attendees will also be able to nominate community members making a different through various awards. There will be a volunteer award, a community partner award, a collaborative worker award and a front-line worker to name a few. Award winners will be honoured at a banquet dinner at a later date.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. and admission is $25. Tickets are available on the City of Lloydminster’s website.
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