Planning key to tackling homelessness, says expert

By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on April 4, 2025.

A researcher from York University who published a paper about neurological disorders and mental illnesses among people experiencing homelessness shared his findings to a group of U of L students on Thursday afternoon, after performing extensive research in Thunder Bay.
Frederic Fu, a postdoctoral fellow at York University’s School of Health Policy and Management, said the goal of his research is to help government make informed policies to help those experiencing homelessness.
“The target of this paper is to show the people who have the money, who have the power, who make the strategies, (we) want to show how the situation is and the significance of those people and eventually end homelessness.”
He adds that ending homelessness is a community effort, but the data needs to be front and centre in order to end the stigma.
“After we, not only (us), but some other researchers like me, produce more studies, I believe it will change the way people think about people experiencing homelessness,” says Fu.
One of his findings was how important funding for accessible housing is to end homeless encampments.
In Thunder Bay, encampments were almost eradicated through such funding, except for a handful of people who chose to live outside. But once the funding ran out, people had no choice but to leave the housing unit.
Rebecca Schiff, deputy provost at the University of Lethbridge, noted that this significant decline of encampments came without the police force that is normally used as a tactic against encampments.
“We saw a lot of cities where the city sent in and forced people to move out of their tents and encampments and forced them to go to the shelter, but what happened in Thunder Bay was the complete opposite, (it) was just organization over a really long time reaching out and developing relationships.”
Fu said he hopes through education and collaboration of policy makers, health care systems and everyday citizens we can expedite the end of homelessness.
“Only that we could walk together from different levels, different aspects together, we probably could end homelessness even sooner.”

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