SALLY ANN: YES OR NO
Visions of need differ
The heated debate on the Salvation Army’s proposed Vanier project reminds me of Henry Ford’s quote, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
The Salvation Army has been a leader in social services since it first arrived in Canada in 1882. Today, it plays a leading role in nearly every homeless system in Canada, including Ottawa.
As an early adopter of “Housing First,” homelessness data systems, prioritization and co-ordinated access, the City of Ottawa has been breaking new ground in the drive to end homelessness in Canada. The Salvation Army has also been a key partner with the city in the delivery of Housing First.
Both the city and the Salvation Army have shown a willingness to collaborate and drive innovation, which is one reason the project the Salvation Army proposes in Vanier seems so out of place. By keeping a focus on shelter and transitional housing, the Vanier project is more of what we’ve always done.
The controversy over the Vanier project presents an opportunity for the City of Ottawa and the Salvation Army to do something truly transformational.
Let’s look at the numbers. Today, there are 943 emergency shelter beds in Ottawa. According to data released by the Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness, 7,170 different people used an emergency shelter in Ottawa in 2016. Of them, 618 people were experiencing chronic or episodic homelessness.
This means that, for most people experiencing homelessness in Ottawa, the experience is short-term; they are likely in and out of homelessness within days and never come back. A minority are homeless long-term or repeatedly. This minority, about nine per cent of the annual total, uses a disproportionately large share of the shelter beds — potentially as many as 50 per cent.
While there will always be a need for some emergency shelter for short-term use, if we want to reduce homelessness we need to get people into permanent housing and keep them there. A significant part of Ottawa’s shelter demand comes from people who are effectively using shelter as housing, which begs the question: Should we replace a shelter with a shelter, or replace a shelter with housing?
What if we took the Salvation Army’s proposed $50-million investment in shelter and transitional housing and instead put that into permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people? What if we combined that new housing with the city’s Housing First investments and affordable housing construction; shifted shelter operating dollars to shelter diversion and rapid rehousing programs; and used city homeless system data to target these interventions?
Ottawa would soon find its homeless system transformed and be achieving dramatic reductions in homelessness.
Admittedly, this is easier said than done, but Ottawa can look to Finland for inspiration. Faced with similar shelter statistics, the Finns shifted focus to a Housing First approach and began by converting a 236-bed Salvation Army shelter in Helsinki to an 86-unit permanent supportive housing complex. In the last three years, Finland has reduced homelessness 10 per cent nationwide, when every other European country has seen increases. In Finland, the Salvation Army is a leader in the housing system, but it has shifted toward permanent housing and away from shelter and transitional housing.
There are lessons closer to home too. Facing a rise in family homelessness like Ottawa, the Region of Waterloo developed a family shelter diversion program in 2014 that reduced family shelter use by 64 per cent. Using a Housing First approach, Hamilton has reduced chronic homelessness 35 per cent in just two years and Edmonton has reduced overall homelessness 43 per cent since 2008.
There’s no better time than now for the City of Ottawa and the Salvation Army to forge a new path. The federal government is about to release a national housing strategy, while Ontario has made a commitment to end chronic homelessness, and both governments are making long-term investments in housing and Housing First initiatives. Leadership and innovation will find strong support from senior governments.
I would look at the heated debate on the Vanier project as a blessing in disguise: It’s a chance to take a step back and dream up a bigger, bolder plan to transform Ottawa’s homeless system with the Salvation Army taking a leading role.
The Salvation Army’s mission includes a desire to be a “transforming influence in the communities of our world.” Revisiting the Vanier project would be a good start.