Ontario ‘pausing’ homelessness count
Critics say data key to informing policy decisions
•A program aimed at measuring homelessness in Ontario has been put on hold by Premier Doug Ford’s government, raising concerns that lack of access to data could prevent some municipalities from addressing the problem.
The enumeration was launched by the former Liberal government in 2018 as part of a broader strategy to eliminate chronic homelessness in Ontario by 2025. The Liberals issued a ministerial directive making the count mandatory for municipal housing service managers.
But in a recent letter to those managers, a top civil servant with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the government recognizes some things have changed since last year, including that some communities are using real-time data to track homelessness.
“For those reasons, the ministry is pausing the requirement for service managers to conduct local homeless enumeration to give us time to review in more detail enumeration requirements,” assistant deputy minister Janet Hope said.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said the Progressive Conservative government wants to address data gaps and other limitations ahead of any future counts, but noted that communities can continue the work on their own if they wish.
“We just want to take an opportunity to look at the best practices,” Clark said earlier this week. “I think there are a number of emerging strategies ( and) we want to work with the homeless enumeration data to make sure that it’s effective.”
But some critics are concerned the decision could signal a shift away from the collection of key data used to help address homelessness.
Michael Jacek, a senior adviser on housing and homelessness policy at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, said communities across the province use the data to develop local plans to address the issue.
The longer the pause goes on the greater a problem it could present for municipalities as they continue their work, he said.
“This is important data used for evidence- based decisions which inform homelessness prevention programming and housing,” Jacek said. “For many, this is an indispensable tool.”
Tim Richter, the CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said the province’s decision doesn’t concern him provided it is just a pause and not a full stop on the provincial count.
“I would say if they’re not doing anything, if they’re not interacting with their service managers to understand homelessness in those communities, then there would be a problem,” he said.
Richter said the federal government is planning to complete its own homelessness census next year and some municipalities felt the provincial duplication wasn’t necessary.
The Canadian Press has also learned that in its bid to cut spending, the Ford government offered to pay up to $ 1 million for an outside contractor to help it cut costs in a sector supporting some of the province’s most vulnerable residents.
A contract looking for bidders — issued in August and obtained by The Canadian Press — sought a management consultant to find ways to “streamline” the delivery of services to 40,000 adults living with developmental disabilities, with an eye to the “savings targets” in the spring budget. According to the expected timeline, the project should be well underway, but the government would not confirm that or how much it may have ended up paying.