Shelter staff to try absence forms in effort to monitor safety of Iqaluit's homeless

Itwas 14days from the last time Jake Angurasuk was seen at the Uquutaq Men's Shelter in Iqaluitto when his body was found by search and rescue volunteers 10 kilometres outside the city.

His death has raised questions as to why a search wasn't started sooner.

Jimmy Noble, the search co-ordinator in the case, said Search and Rescue first heard about the disappearance through social media on Dec. 14.

On Dec. 15, they met with RCMP and Nunavut Emergency Management and after a delay due to a storm on Saturday, the search started Sunday morning.

"It was four hours by the time we actually started, to the time we found him," Noble said.

Douglas Cox, executive director for the men's shelter, said questions were also raised after Benjamin Palluq, another homeless man, went missing in March 2014. Palluqhas not been found but family and friends held a memorial for him earlier this year.

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"That's the hardest part ... I keep getting questioned by people in the public, like 'why aren't you looking after these guys? What are you doing?'" Cox said.

"From the shelter point-of-view, technically our responsibility ends at 8:30 a.m.when we've given them their meals and shelter for the night. The daytime thing is on their own."

Monitoring a challenge

The shelter is open from 5 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. and while there is a sign in/sign out sheet, Cox said "We can't stand at the front door every morning and say 'Where are you going,''When are you coming back,' 'Are you going away?'"

He said sometimes people don't want to tell them and it can cause friction.

"For us to figure out where they are and how many days they've been gone and then decide if they are actually missing or not is a very tough thing to do and I don't know if it's even physically possible."

There are 22 beds, which are always full, and anywhere between 10 and15 people sleeping on sofas, recliners and the floor every night.

Of the men who have the beds, many are regulars, Cox said. Somehave been coming to the shelter since 2005, so he gets to know them. He said Angurasuk had been around since 2007-2008.

"In Jake's case ... he had a fairly regular routine. He was known to go away for three or four days at a time, and I have no idea where he was when he was gone, but he would come back," Cox said.

"It was just this time, I kept looking at the regular spots where he visited. Again [this is] above and beyond the call of the shelter's duty, but when I saw a break in Jake's pattern, that's when I started asking questions."

When he realized Angurasuk'sabsence was unusual, Cox said he alerted the police.

Notification forms

Cox has a plan to convert staff vacation request forms into going-away-notification forms for his clients.

"They don't have to do it, but if you know you're going to be away for a couple of days or a week, tell us," he said, adding that often people do verbally tell them.

"If we implement that form, hopefully people can say 'I'm going to be staying at my brother's.' One guy just told me yesterday that he's going to be housesitting for a week."

In the meantime Cox is working with supporting anyone at the shelterwho is affected by the death of Angurasuk. He said most of the men keep to themselves or talk to each other.

"Some of the clients have talked to me about it. We have nobody on staff that is professionally trained to deal with that kind of crisis management," he said.

"We're just frontline workers."