City OK's cash for homeless strategy

BY BILL BRADLEY

Greater Sudbury council have passed a number of  measures that would stabilize funding to develop a homeless strategy.

Their decision came following a presentation by Margaret Borley, member of the Community Solutions team on Homelessness and Penny Earley, a professor of social services Wednesday.

The term of the city's Community Solutions Team on Homelessness Initiatives was extended to Dec. 31, 2007 to help the team comprised of Sudburians representing city council, business, funders, social agencies and academic researchers,  finalize a a strategy.

Funding of $110,000 was allocated from the Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve to support all existing homeless initiatives such as outreach and support services.

A request for proposals (RFP) was approved to be issued to find a service provider to provide coordinated outreach services, effective April 1, 2007. 

Borley and Earley said a new approach to homelessness was needed based on a “Housing First” strategy approach successfully developed and practiced in cities such as Chicago, Toronto and Waterloo.

Those at risk of becoming homeless are best serviced by interventions before they end up in temporary shelters or worse on the street. That can involve ensuring that rent money can be found for them if they are at risk of being evicted from emergency sources of funds, and also that there are adequate sources of affordable good quality housing in the city to begin with, said Borley.

“We need to deal directly with the root cause of homelessness-poverty, a lack of income that leads to being without a home. Not having a phone or an address can compound other problems, said Earley.

For those already homeless, the task is to get them into housing quickly so they can rebuild their lives she said.

“There are services out there already but everyone who provides those services needs to be on the same page. There is a need for a comprehensive integrated approach. Let us use the mainstream social services such as Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program, Old Age Security, Legal Aid  and Employment Insurance in a co-ordinated fashion where everyone is working together on this issue,” she said.

Having a Homeless Charter followed up by a Community Homeless Report Card in Greater Sudbury would be good tools in a homeless toolkit said Borley.

“They help to raise awareness about the issue, pull the stakeholders together in a team fashion and promote a follow-up reportage of how Greater Sudbury is achieving its goals,” said Borley.

City councillors were supportive of a new approach to the problem though some had reservations.

“For once this excellent report we have received tonight from this homeless team cost taxpayers nothing-no fancy consultants were paid anything. That I find refreshing,” said Ward 11 Councillor Janet Gasparini.

“I know there are new resources out there for the homeless. There are two outreach workers with Ontario Works who talk to people on the street about being able to apply for Ontario Works. I also know there are four hospital social workers who are the streets from 2 pm to 10 pm. This plan by the Solutions Team is all about co-ordinating those services already in place so they can be delivered in a more effective fashion,” she said.

Councillor Ted Callaghan cautioned council to be more proactive in getting major funders on board.

“We can't get enough money from senior levels of government to fund social service programs that already exist let alone new ones. We need to convince the province and the federal government to be better partners in this problem. To do that I think we need to talk to other cities with this problem and lobby senior levels of funders together. Alone as a city we can't move them to act. We need a partnership of cities for this problem,” said Callaghan.