The City of Greater Sudbury’s community services committee is pleased with city staff's handling of the homelessness crisis in Sudbury over the past year.
At a June 20 meeting, the committee not only praised the work of city staff, but voted to continue funding for the service providers that supported the city with shelter beds and housing support.
The committee meeting featured a progress report regarding service enhancements for persons experiencing homelessness and a presentation of that report by Tyler Campbell, director of children and social services.
Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland called the additional shelter beds recently created a success story and commended staff for their work.
“The team has been able to expand shelter services and create more low-barrier spaces – after many years of under utilization of existing high-barrier shelters – and so I think this is a really great success story,” said McCausland. “And amongst all the other things that are outlined in this report, it really has been a transformative change over the last year and kudos to everyone on the team,” he said.
Campbell told the committee that city staff and outreach teams continue to work with the vulnerable populations of Sudbury using the Greater Sudbury Encampment Response Guide, as designed by Iain De Jong of OrgCode Consulting. The guide was presented to city council on Oct. 12, 2021 and discussion continued at the meeting of Oct. 26 that same year.
Later, Carol Kauppi and Kevin Fitzmaurice, directors of the Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy at Laurentian University, joined the encampment response leadership team, as set out in the guide, to offer consultation based on their experience and research.
However, both Fitzmauraice and Kauppi told Sudbury.com they resigned from the team when the choice was made to shut down the Memorial Park encampment, in line with guide recommendations, as they felt the closure was a human rights violation.
At the initial two October 2021 meetings, a motion was passed for a report to be written that would assess the potential for increasing the availability of indoor shelter for vulnerable population members. Staff returned to council on Nov. 23, 2021 with the report entitled “Service Enhancements for Persons Experiencing Homelessness.”
Some of these enhancements were renewed at the June 20 committee meeting, including the Elizabeth Fry Society of Sudbury and their operation of the low-barrier shelter called Safe Harbour, a now 10-bed shelter for women and gender diverse people. The agreement will be in place from July 1 to June 30, 2023.
As well, the Canadian Mental Health Organization Sudbury/Manitoulin entered into a sole source agreement with the city to continue to operate the 35-bed Off the Street shelter, located at 200 Larch Street. The agreement will cover a five-year period.
Additionally, the Homelessness Network, with lead organization, Centre de santé communautaire du Grand Sudbury, entered into a sole-source funding agreement to continue delivery of Housing Navigator positions for a two-year term effective Jan. 1, 2023, with two further one-year extension options.
These enhancements are funded through Provincial Homelessness Prevention Program funding and Federal Reaching Home funding.
The sole-source funding was chosen because, the report notes, there have been “no qualified applicants responding to request for proposals (RFP) for similar services over the past three years.” A report will be brought back to the Community Services Committee towards the end of 2022 providing information on the future of these programs.
The city continues to work on the conversion of Greater Sudbury Housing Corporation’s two-bedroom units to one-bedroom, noting that an additional 10 two-bedroom Greater Sudbury units were renovated to create one-bedroom units at a cost of approximately $7,853 per unit. In total, 30 units have been converted.
Funding has also been used to support persons who wish to relocate, return to home communities or for situations that “cannot be resolved by existing funding sources.”
An amount of $100,000 annually was approved for flex funds. And the city report states that between Dec. 1, 2021, and May 5, 2022, “31 people have been supported through flex funds and less than $6,000 has been expended for these supports to date.” As well, there are those staying in bridge housing while awaiting housing, which the city reports as 35 individuals between July 2021 and May 5 of this year.
An additional amount of $150,000 annually has been allocated to the Homelessness Network, assisting participants in meeting market rents when applicable. An expression of interest was posted in November 2021, seeking a private landlord to come forward with an opportunity for a “master lease program,” a type of lease that gives the lessee (in this case the city) the right to control and sublease the property during the lease, while the owner retains the legal title. Unfortunately, there was only one applicant through this process, and their submission did not meet the required criteria, notes the city report.
“The housing market is quite competitive and there is little capacity available to meet the request,” it states. “The funding will be reallocated to support community partners and address gaps in the homeless and shelter system.”
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com. She covers the diverse communities of Sudbury, especially the vulnerable or marginalized, including the Black, Indigenous, newcomer and Francophone communities, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ and issues of the downtown core.
