Waterloo Region aiming to end chronic homelessness by 2030
$245M to be invested in affordable housing in 2024
Waterloo Region’s community and health services committee has endorsed a Plan to End Chronic Homelessness by 2030.
“This is not one and done,” said regional Chair Karen Redman. “What we have been doing isn’t working.”
The final plan presented to committee members on Tuesday is intended to serve as the official blueprint to prevent, address and end chronic homelessness in Waterloo Region within six years and details 30 actions developed by more than 40 organizations and co-creators over the past year and a half.
The “all-of-community approach” will enhance and emphasize the role of community organizations, leaders and lived experts in decision-making and focuses on shifting investments to more permanent solutions rather than emergency based and reactive responses to homelessness, according to a staff report.
Critical in the new model is increasing data-driven decision making and creating a quality data strategy that focuses on key performance indicators, predictive modelling and system outcomes, it says.
“I come today to speak to the plan to end chronic homelessness to endorse it as a good plan,” said Shelley Campagnola, from the COMPASS Refugee Centre, one of about 20 delegations in support.
“It is also, though, an ambitious plan,” she said, with population growth over that same period expected to be 84,000 people.
Since January 2020, chronic homelessness — defined as being homeless for a total of at least six months over the past year or a cumulative duration of at least 18 months over three years — has increased 129 per cent.
As of February, 558 people were on the Prioritized Access to Housing Supports (PATHS) list — the list of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Waterloo Region. The average number of days individuals on the PATHS list have been without permanent and safe housing is 1,403 days.
The underlying problem is lack of funding from upper levels of government, said Coun. Doug Craig.
In its role as designated service system manager, the region is supplementing the lack of investment from other levels of government with property tax, the staff report acknowledges.
“This is an unsustainable use of municipal tax levy dollars and incongruent with the intentionality of this funding source compared to provincial and federal sources,” it says.
In 2024, the region will invest more than $245 million in affordable housing and homelessness, from all sources.
This year’s homelessness operating budget of $56 million includes $10.2 million for the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, with $7 million funded from property taxes and $3.2 million funded from the tax stabilization reserve, as well as an additional $3 million capital investment funded through reserves.
However, it’s estimated a total capital investment of $110 million in emergency shelter, transitional housing and supportive housing will be required, necessitating operational increases of $5 to $8 million per year. The range will depend on the extent and nature of capital financing costs required, the staff report says.
Not everyone wanted to see the plan passed as is.
“Current systems have created doors and windows in, but not doors out,” said Stephen Jackson from the Anishnabeg Outreach Employment and Training Inc., who argued the plan should be rooted more in supports for mental health, substance use and life skills.
“In the next five years, you're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on this, but not achieve the outcomes you're hoping for,” Jackson warned.
“I share many of the same concerns that you do and although it was an interesting philosophical read, I do struggle that it's not hitting the root causes,” said Wilmot Mayor Natasha Salonen.
Salonen was the only councillor to vote against the plan in principle, with council requesting a more detailed list of recommendations.
The 30 actions recommended in the plan include:
developing a comprehensive and integrative “lived expertise process,” including a lived expert working group to support ongoing learning and system reviews.
updating the plans for the transit hub to ensure the continuation of 100 Victoria Street as a sanctioned encampment until functional zero homelessness has been achieved.
launching a data strategy to monitor and track progress on ending chronic homelessness and establish data-informed decision-making processes. establishing a tenant rights hub. creating a strategy to respond to the unique needs of youth experiencing homelessness
launching a lifelong support worker program to provide continuous support for individuals navigating the housing stability system during and after experiences of homelessness, as well as a peer mentorship program to facilitate transitions from lived experience to employment.