‘People are freezing:’ Hotel-turned-homeless shelter with empty rooms under scrutiny | Canada News Media
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‘People are freezing:’ Hotel-turned-homeless shelter with empty rooms under scrutiny

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The Dartmouth, N.S. hotel-turned-homeless shelter known as ‘The Bridge’ has been operating for several months now — the largest facility of its kind in the province.

However, a staffing shortage on the designated health floor means some rooms remain empty.

“There is seven (clients) right now that live on the health floor, and what is a challenge right now is just finalizing the complement of the staffing,” explained Nova Scotia Health (NSH) Community Transitions director Wendy McVeigh.

According to NSH, there is currently one client support worker (CSW) on the health floor working alongside continuing care assistants (CCA).

Five CSW’s are required to fill the 24/7 schedule for the floor to operate fully — meaning 21 out of the 28 rooms on the floor are currently unoccupied.

“Empty rooms going and people are freezing, I don’t understand this,” said Richard Young.

He’s been living in a tent at Grand Parade in front of City Hall and lives rough on the daily.

The thought of empty rooms that could otherwise provide shelter doesn’t make sense to Young.

“It was minus four the other night, some people didn’t have sleeping bags,” Young recalled “We don’t have heaters, we have summer tents, so it’s just like putting a thin sheet over you — you’re freezing.”

While space may exist on the health floor, Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services (DCS) says The Bridge is typically at 95-100 per cent capacity.

There are 152 rooms available for clients, not including the health floor, but the numbers of clients served may be higher as some people share rooms with partners or siblings.

Even though NSH are working on the staffing shortage to get CSW’s on its floor, medical staff at The Bridge have been kept busy — serving the entire building rather than just the designated floor.

“The early stage of this was, ‘we needed a health floor,’ but as we’re evolving it’s not a health floor because the health services go wherever the person is,” said McVeigh.

She says it’s about wraparound coordination of services for clients: health, housing and social supports.

“We have health services throughout the building now, we have the health clinic operational seven days a week on site,” said DCS spokesperson Joy Knight.

“I think it’s already showing evidence that having that integration of health and homelessness services together makes a really positive impact on people.”

Upwards of 200 people that have lived in The Bridge have used the facility’s health clinic since it opened, averaging 80 visits per week.

“If there’s a health change in a person’s health, help is there providing a resource and support,” said McVeigh. “The last stage of this is to open those remaining 21 rooms on the health floor.”

Nova Scotia Health says a plan is in place to start ramping up staff on the health floor by next month, but that some rooms will remain unoccupied in case hospital patients need to be transferred.

McVeigh says that, on any given day, there are multiple homeless community members that NSH identifies as people that would benefit from intake on the health floor at The Bridge — if staffing allowed for it.

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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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