HyLife gives $35,000 to Steinbach Community Outreach

HyLife held its annual HyLife Fun Days and during the event it gave a cheque for $35,000 to Steinbach Community Outreach.

“We are part of the community, and why it’s so important actually to give back, because it’s where we come from. Our employees are from the community, their families,” said president and CEO Karan Sangfai.

Sangfai said he chose to give to Steinbach Community Outreach after seeing homeless people camping in his backyard.

“We would like to actually ignite the awareness and then join forces with the community,” he said.

Steinbach Community Outreach (SCO) is an organization that provides support to people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Manager Charlene Kroeker said there are about 60 individuals that are currently either couch surfing or out on the streets in Steinbach.

“Today’s donation will go towards building housing – affordable housing – with supports built in, so that people who are experiencing mental health disabilities, they often also experience homelessness, and this will go towards housing somebody who is homeless.”

SCO has partnered with Eden Housing to build two apartment blocks on a 5.3-acre property west of Clearspring Centre along Thresher Road in the Langill Farm development. The $22 million project will see SCO build a 24-unit complex on 1.3 acres of land with the rest of the land used by Eden for a 45-unit building. Kroeker said the organizations are working on securing the land and are doing architectural drawings. She hopes the project will be built within a couple of years.

“It allows them to live in a home that is safe and secure and dignified, a home that they can afford, and that they can feel supported in so that they don’t end up becoming homeless,” she said of what the donation means to her clients.

HyLife’s cheque is enough to build one unit in the apartment complex.

Kroeker said anyone can become homeless. She said a lot of homeless people face mental health issues which can lead to eviction due to lack of rent payment. Other reasons are addictions, domestic abuse, or the loss of employment.

“Even recently, I mean on Friday, we had a lot of people coming in whose basements were flooded and now they had nowhere to go. They were living in a basement apartment and now they had nowhere to go. So, there are many reasons for homelessness in our community.”

She pointed out that three years ago Steinbach had “invisible homelessness,” but recently the homeless have become more visible as the places where they used to camp have been affected by land development forcing them out into other areas of the city.

“Now, they’re getting noticed more and more because those places where they used to go are not accessible to them anymore,” she said.

SCO executive director Madeleine Thiessen said people should treat the homeless with respect.

“I think it’s just important to note people experiencing homelessness and poverty, they’re people too, right? If we treat them with respect and dignity, you will get respect and dignity back. So just treat them with compassion.”

-with files from Greg Vandermeulen