COUNTY OF WELLINGTON – A delegation to Wellington County council on Thursday was a reminder that homelessness isn’t just a city issue and more funding for housing is needed to address chronic homelessness.
Gail Hoekstra, executive director of The Drop In Centre in Guelph, said that poverty and homelessness may be seen as primarily a city issue but that isn’t necessarily the case.
She said those who are precariously housed or homeless seek services that are more common in the city.
“Just know that many of the individuals from the county, or rural places, come to places like Guelph,” Hoekstra said to council. “When you are on the streets, it is easier to live in a city setting.”
Hoekstra originally started working at The Drop In Centre in the 1990s, where it was primarily a place to support people who needed a meal with 18 beds. When she returned in 2012 she noted the increase in people experiencing homelessness was overwhelming.
She noted that the centre saw 764 unique individuals with 130 of them experiencing chronic homelessness.
The County of Wellington is the service manager for housing and homelessness for Guelph and Wellington County. This means the county has funded the warming centres, interim COVID housing and all programs to help the homeless.
“At this point we also need the county … to support ending homelessness,” Hoekstra said to council. “We need the county to help provide resources to create solutions, not just supporting the experience of homelessness itself.”
On affordable housing, she noted that St. Joseph’s Housing Corp. request for proposal was successful for their affordable seniors’ housing project. The company received funding last year as well and this approval meant $2.8 million in total funding.
Hoekstra said The Drop In Centre also applied for funding this year and they were devastated to be denied.
Their plan was to convert the Parkview Motel into 36 affordable and supportive housing directly for the homeless population. She said they felt it was unfair to pit the needs of seniors against those of the chronically homeless.
“My common sense style couldn’t believe and struggles to believe that a priority in the request for proposal competition was not given to our community members who don’t have a home,” Hoekstra said to council.
“Ending chronic homelessness by 2023 is your goal as a county. To quote your housing and homelessness plan ‘Everyone in Guelph and Wellington can find and maintain a safe and affordable place to call home.”
Dominica McPherson, coordinator of the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, said the area has made some ground on the issue but more a lack of supporting housing is holding it back.
“What is preventing it from working faster and more effectively is a lack of units and support to help individuals with complex needs maintain housing,” McPherson said to council.
She explained that those with co-occurring issues, such as addiction or mental health issues, need support after they are housed to ensure they don’t end up homeless again.
“In recent years it's been hopeful to see agencies in our community come forward and support permanent supportive housing projects,” McPherson said to council. “Funding has been the largest barrier to making these projects possible.”
McPherson said this is why it was disappointing to see another round of funding not go to a project for the chronically homeless.
Social Services Committee chair David Anderson said in his observations that those in affordable housing need support so they don’t become part of the homeless population.
“There’s been so many issues with residents that people need help and there’s that delay of supportive help for them,” Anderson said. “If they don’t get the help immediately, what happens is they do eventually become homeless.”
Hoekstra agreed and noted many of their clients have come from county affordable housing to now being homeless.
“Last week because the supports are so dire, I ended up going to Arthur where three of our people are housed in the county units and they are struggling,” Hoekstra said.
Guelph/Eramosa mayor Chris White brought the issue back to the lack of funding which makes it a difficult issue to tackle.
“It’s unfortunate that it comes down to we’re getting very limited money on these issues now and I know this is an absolute priority and needs to be dealt with,” White said. “We need to figure out how to get the feds and the province to step-up.”
