It was an opportunity to learn more not only about an issue of local interest, it is one many people in Quinte are following closely.

Within a few minutes, between 50 and 60 people crowded the Meeting Room at the Belleville Public Library on Tuesday to find about the work and services nearly a dozen organizations do to help the homeless or at-risk homeless in Hastings County.

Those groups included the Not Alone Team, the Grace Inn and the Three Oaks Foundation just to name a few.

It's all being done to create a new Integrated Co-ordinated Access System to help those same people, something already done in more than 100 communities across Canada.

Steve van de Hoef is the Program Manager at the Bridge Street United Church, one of the groups involved in this project.

He was impressed by the quick turnout on Tuesday afternoon.

"You never quite know how many people are going to show up, but in a sense, I'm not surprised," said van de Hoef. "This is a very hot topic, homelessness is an issue of concern in our community, and rightly so and I think people want to know what's going on and how to be part of a constructive response."

One of the tools on display at the library on Tuesday was the HelpSeeker app and website -- another partner in the Integrated Co-ordinated Access System initiative.

Ryan, a student at Loyalist College, spoke about HelpSeeker and how anyone looking for any social service can find it.

"We're looking at food banks, counselling, addiction, mental health, bullying," said Ryan.  "If you're looking for housing, you would go on here, click on the box for housing and based on your location it would tell you how you would get to the agencies in your area that will help you find housing."

There have been more than 700 interactions between Hastings County residents and the app over the past three months, with food, legal, addiction and family services among the top searches.

"There's a really great team out in Calgary who came up with the idea and then Hastings County found out about it and brought them into the area," Ryan said, noting a Government of Canada grant also helped HelpSeeker locally.
 
Melony Rocco, a Housing Counsellor with the Hastings Housing Resource Centre, explained she sees people on a daily basis who are homeless, in a critical situation where they are about to be homeless or perhaps looking for housing in the future. 

"I will sit down with them, I will counsel them -- we'll go over techniques on how to obtain housing, budgeting, how to fill out a successful rental application," she said.

"I also build rapports with our local landlords, so I'm able to connect tenants with landlords if I feel they're a great fit for each other."
 
Rocco's caseload adds up to about 1,100 clients a year.
 
"We have more and more seniors coming to us, because CPP and OAS just does not cut it as a livable income," she said. "So we have people coming to us with only $500 a month to live on for accommodation and nowadays, you don't get much for that."

As for the next step in developing the Integrated Co-ordinated Access Initiative, van de Hoef said 'design labs' will be developed on March 10 and 11 to figure out how the system works for those involved.

"How will this system work for you?  What do we need to do in order for individuals to navigate the systems of care to get the support they need to make sure that it's effective in meeting those needs as they are?" he said.

The information from the design labs will be used to prototype the system and bring back to the community to become the basis for the Integrated Co-ordinated Access System.