The group formed to end homelessness in St. John’s insists the city can be the next community in Canada to achieve that goal.

But executive director Doug Pawson says that requires leadership at all levels, and people doing the jobs they were hired for.

Then there’s the global issue of recruiting and retaining staff, and securing long-term funding to ensure their work continues uninterrupted over multiple years.

“We’re finding it more and more difficult to support frontline staff who are increasingly doing the work of first responders,” said Pawson. “We have uncertainty with the ability to recruit and retain staff, especially where there’s not multi-year funding, that security of multi-year funding. There’s lots of missed opportunity caused as a result of that.”

Pawson was speaking yesterday during the release of End Homelessness St. John’s most recent plan to eliminate the need for the organization in the first place.

In order to do that, they estimate 4,400 new units are needed by 2028, up to a total of 12,000 by 2033.