Recently released by the City of Greater Sudbury, the Report Card on Homelessness for 2022 will establish a base of data, allowing the city to compare year-over-year data to see if their homelessness initiatives are working.
Gail Spencer, the city’s manager of housing stability and homelessness, told Sudbury.com that because the By-Name List was in place in July 2021, offering only half a year of data, 2022 is considered the baseline for comparison.
“We're going to measure those outcomes now, year over year over a year,” said Spencer. “And on Dec. 31, 2023, we're going to compare it to where we were in 2022.”
The report card is largely based on that By-Name list. A requirement under the federal Reaching Home strategy and provincial Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) funding agreements, it’s a real-time list of people experiencing homelessness in Sudbury.
In 2022, 346 people were added to the by-name list, 221 were moved into housing, and 37 of those returned to homelessness. (This number may include those who became housed, returned to homelessness and/or being housed more than once during the year.)
Of those housed, 189 people remained housed on Dec. 31, 2022.
As of Dec. 31, 2022, 164 people were on the by-name list, 92 of whom identified as Indigenous.
As well, 143 people were considered chronically homeless, in that they have been experiencing homelessness for at least six months in the past year, or intermittently over the past three years with a cumulative duration of 18 months.
There are 75 contracted emergency shelter beds in Sudbury, and 820 people used an emergency shelter program in 2022.
According to the Report Card on Homelessness for 2022, four indicators will be monitored on a yearly basis to measure progress. Essentially, has the city’s plan:
- Reduced overall homelessness, as well as for specific populations;
- Reduced number of people who experience chronic homelessness;
- Reduced number of people becoming homelessness;
- Reduced number of people who become housed and return to homelessness.
So far this year, said Spencer, 175 people have been added to the list (since Jan. 1.)
Of these, 24 have returned to homelessness. There are currently 188 people on the list.
“The majority of the people that have returned to homelessness are people that have chosen to leave a program,” said Spencer. “For whatever reason, they just felt they couldn't continue to participate and ended up back in homelessness; but that doesn't prevent them from being offered other housing programs in the near future.”
The data is effective not just to track the progress of their efforts, said Spencer, but also to advocate for necessary infrastructure.
“A large number of people that are homeless in our community right now have high acuity, which means they have been assessed as needing a higher level of support to get housed and stay housed.,” said Spencer. “And that data has helped us to really advocate for the Lorraine street transitional housing program.”
And the data that the By-Name List offers is much more fulsome, offering information beyond what other research offers; particularly the Point in Time Count. While it still occurs, the federally mandated survey only gathers data over a 24-hour period, and that can lead to gaps or omissions.
But the By-Name List allows for more information, consensually given and highly protected, which is then used by the Coordinated Access System (CAS).
A collaboration of community agencies that work together to support people experiencing homelessness to find and maintain housing, the CAS includes participating agencies who add names to the By-Name List, work collaboratively to support people experiencing homelessness, and meet regularly to match people to available housing that meets their needs.
High needs people will likely be funneled to the transitional housing unit. There is a temporary program for 13 people, run by ACTT 3 (Assertive Community Treatment Team) operating at a pilot site, and they will later run the Lorraine Street transitional housing complex. They specifically work with people who are chronically homeless, said Spencer.
“Then our housing first program or housing first case managers that are operated by the homelessness network, they also will only take people that have been chronically homeless, and had the highest acuity.”
Spencer said for those who are considered low acuity, “we support them by helping them to get onto the social housing waitlist, the Greater Sudbury housing waitlist, or into other housing that might meet their needs, especially if they don't need a lot of support,” she said. “We're trying to make sure that there are housing opportunities for everybody that's on the list.”
There are also people who are homeless who find their own solutions, said Spencer.
“We don't expect them to just sit around and wait for us to match them with housing,” she said. “We also expect them to try to find their own solution, because we know that there's not enough housing programs with supports available for everybody on our list.”
She said people are quite resourceful, and sometimes only need a little help with the last month's rent deposit, connecting with landlords, and learning more about their rights and responsibilities. “They can find their own apartments, we help them to let them know where there's rent supplements available, how to apply for rent supplements to the government,” said Spencer. “So there's a lot of help in that way as well so that people couldn't find their own affordable housing.”
It’s these supports and systems that will be evaluated at the end of this year, through data comparisons, and could give the city an indication of what is working, what isn’t, and what needs to happen to stop the homelessness crisis from worsening.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com.
