Towns in southwestern Ontario are looking for new ways to address the growing issue of homelessness.

Joanne Vanderheyden, the mayor of Strathroy-Caradoc, said homelessness often goes unseen in smaller, rural communities.

"It's not as visible in rural Ontario, because it's bigger distances, where in a big city people are laying on sidewalks," Vanderheyden said.

"While we haven't gotten to that point yet, we do know that people are having little campsites here and there."

In St. Thomas, Mayor Joe Preston said homelessness has become more visible as the city has grown.

That's especially true in a city with no permanent year-round shelter, he said, adding that many people living on the street don't have a place to go during the summer.

Finding out where the need is

Preston has put together a mayor's task force on homelessness, which has been working on plans to keep the city's emergency winter shelter open throughout the year.

"We're a big enough city. We should have this," Preston said. "We've got to quit turning our backs on homeless people and let's see if we can make this work."

St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston says the community needs a year-round homeless shelter to help people living on the street find support. (Submitted)

Strathroy has also been taking action with regular community meetings, including one on Wednesday night.

One of the goals is to find out where the need is in the community, Vanderheyden said.

"That's why we have this initiative going forward, so that we can find out where the issues are, who we have to look out for," she explained.

"What the numbers are, that's pretty hard to figure out. But we're working on all of those particular things and gathering that information, trying to process it so we can put as much help out there as possible."

Vanderheyden said Strathroy is also working with Middlesex County, which takes care of social services for the area.

Pathway to permanent housing

Both mayors laud the work that's already being done by local organizations and community groups, including churches, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Women's Rural Resource Centre.

But Preston said some deep-rooted causes, like a lack of affordable housing, are going to require solutions beyond the local level.

He points to a shortage of rental units in St. Thomas, where an old school that was recently converted into 37 apartments drew 500 applicants.

"For the last decade and a half, no one has really been building market rental homes, market rental apartments. Certainly not in communities our size," he said.

Preston hopes the new shelter in St. Thomas will be able to offer more people a pathway to more permanent housing, but said that will only be possible if there is housing in the first place.