$50K boost for city rent supplements

City council has put an extra $50,000 into its rent supplement program to keep people from homelessness next year.

It was a last-minute addition to the 2018 budget on Monday, just as council was about to set in stone its spending priorities.

The motion came from Coun. Diane Therrien, who said it’s imperative to help keeping people from homelessness.

Rent supplements are meant to help pay the rent for people who can’t afford it and are at risk of becoming evicted.

The 2018 budget had already boosted the rent supplements by roughly $300,000, to just over $2 million.

But there’s still a homelessness crisis in the city, Therrien said.

She moved to take the extra $50,000 from reserve funds in 2018, meaning it doesn’t increase taxes in 2018. In subsequent years, the increase would come out of operating funds.

Coun. Dean Pappas agreed with it, saying the city has a responsibility to help its most vulnerable citizens.

“It’s not enough, the $50,000,” Pappas said.

Yet Coun. Henry Clarke, the budget chairman, didn’t support the motion – even though he said housing is “near and dear” to his heart.

He pointed out that council had already planned to boost its rent supplement program by $300,000.

He said the city is going to run into serious financial problems in 2019 if it spends any more.

“This creates a problem for next year that I’m very concerned about,” Clarke said.

Mayor Daryl Bennett said he was concerned that the cost will be difficult for council to manage, over the years.

He said he has trouble adding just a bit to the budget when councillors had asked city staff to stick to a 2.85 per cent tax increase for 2018.

He said he’s like to support the plan but couldn’t, in good conscience.

“It’s not sustainable,” he said. Earlier in the meeting, housing advocate Joanne Bezak-Brokking had asked for an increase of about $637,000 in rent supplements (as opposed to a boost of roughly $350,000, as council ultimately approved).

“It’s a basic, fundamental human right to have housing,” Besak Brokking said.

But Coun. Keith Riel said he went through the budget looking to see whether he would find enough to meet her request. But he couldn’t, without increasing the budget by three percent.

“I don’t know if there’s an appetite to increase taxes,” he said.

Bezak-Brokking said she knows it’s a complex problem, but meanwhile people are going hungry.

“The depth of suffering in this community is real,” she said. “It is urgent that another look is taken at this need.”

While it’s true the city needs new buildings and roads, she said, the “social infrastructure” should be the priority.

“We can’t ignore the absolute desperate situation people find themselves in,” she said.

Paul Armstrong, another housing advocate, said Peterborough has the worst need for housing anywhere in Canada.

Finding the money to help house people means council has to make difficult choices, when it comes to spending.

“It starts with willingness,” he said. “How much more important issue can we have, in this city? We have to do something.”

He asked councillors not to wait until the federal and provincial governments offer more money for housing.

“We’ve got to get into the game, here,” he said. “If not, what does it say about us?”

In this budget, council also includes more money to help run all of Peterborough’s emergency shelters for the homeless - and to also enough to keep the Warming Room open year-round, at least until 2020.

The plan is to give an extra $200,000 to Brock Mission, Cameron House, Youth Emergency Shelter and the Warming Room.

In 2018, the city will take that money from a homelessness reserve fund and then budget for it in later years.

The Warming Room will get the largest boost: its funding will go from $85,000 annually to $160,000 (an increase of $75,000).

That’s expected to be enough to keep the overnight shelter open year-round, rather than only in winter, for the next two years (until April 2020).