The social services department in Chatham-Kent is getting ready for an influx of homelessness this winter and an increase in utility disconnections.
Program Manager with Employment and Social Services Chathal Perry told Blackburn News she expects both of those numbers to rise because of COVID-19. Many people are struggling because of job losses and layoffs, while moratoriums on evictions have expired and government emergency payments are running out for many. She said the best thing to do is to not panic and contact social services as soon as possible. Perry said it will take months to get evictions to landlord/tenant tribunal hearings because there are backlogs and that gives people time to work out a plan.
"Evictions don't happen right away. If you do receive an eviction notice there is a time frame and that could be months for that to happen but we need to start to work on a plan immediately. You might also want to work with your landlord on payment arrangements if that's possible," said Perry. "We really encourage them to call our office as soon as possible so we can start working with them on different options that could include payment arrangements, negotiating payment arrangements. We could also hook them up with supports and services through the Chatham-Kent Legal Assistance Clinic."
Perry said the social services department has been expecting more utility shutoffs and evictions, but how many is almost impossible to forecast. Perry said she doesn't have a hard number of how many disconnections or evictions are expected in the coming months because there are backlogs and those numbers are difficult to predict, but they will all be tracked to get a better picture next year.
"There is a backlog. There's also a backlog of tenant tribunal hearings that will be scheduled. So, it's going to take some time to trickle down," Perry said.
Perry said it's a problem everywhere but it's not as big a problem in Chatham-Kent as it is in urban centres such as Toronto.
You can call a social services case manager at 519-351-8573 if your utilities are being disconnected, you're behind on rent, or you have received an eviction notice.
