10 years to end chronic homelessness

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: MINISTRY OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS AND HOUSING / ONTARIO GOVERNMENT
With the help from an Expert Advisory Panel, the Ontario government has committed to ending homelessness in 10 years.

The Ontario government has committed to ending chronic homelessness in 10 years, implementing recommendations from an Expert Advisory Panel on Homelessness.

Chronic homelessness is defined as an individual, often with disabling conditions, who is currently homeless and has been for six months or more in the past year.

The Expert Advisory Panel, established in January of 2015, suggested a number of immediate and long-term actions, and Ontario is committing to their suggestions.

Some of the suggestions include placing a 10-year deadline to end chronic homelessness, providing up to $10 million over two years in targeted funding to help prevent and end homelessness and accepting the definition of both homelessness and chronic homelessness.

The suggestions also included prioritizing provincial action to reduce youth, Aboriginal, chronic homelessness and homelessness that occurs in the transition period between jails and hospitals back into society.

Finally, the panel suggested planning to require lists at the local level to gather data about homelessness.

“As a province, we will continue to work with our partners to ensure that no one is left behind and that every Ontarian can achieve their full potential,” said Deb Matthews, deputy premier and president of treasury board and minister responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy in a press release.

With regards to London, the homeless situation is still prevalent, but manageable.

“This is a reasonable goal, it is ambitious, but it isn’t unreasonable,” said Abe Oudshoorn, chair of the London Homeless Coalition.

According to the Homeless Hub website, as of 2010, the number of individuals utilizing the shelter system in London was 12,000 over a year-long period, but according to Oudshoorn, only a fraction of those individuals are chronically homeless.

“Only a portion of [the homeless population] is chronically homeless, less than a thousand,” Oudshoorn said. “It isn’t out of the realm of what’s possible, [we meet with] each of those individuals and understand their unique situation and understand what they need to be housed.”

Oudshoorn believes that ending homelessness in London can be done without building anymore housing.

“We have an income gap and that’s people in social assistance at $376 a month for their housing allowance, they simply can’t afford to get into housing.”

What Oudshoorn suggests is to do a housing first model to bridge the income gap, to add supplements to their income and attach the rights supports to their housing.

“This is an individualized approach, person to person, asking ‘why are you in a shelter, what do you need for your housing, where do you want to live, what is going to move you there and keep you stable in that housing?’”

And thanks to the government’s initiative the hope of ending homelessness is becoming a little more realistic.

“This is exciting to see a real strategy and more funding to come with it,” Oudshoorn said. “Smart goals need to be measurable and timed… we now know who we are going to be focusing on and where the resources are coming from.”

According to Oudshoorn, he believes London can beat the province’s goal and end chronic homelessness in a shorter period of time.

“If it’s a human caused problem, then humans can solve it.”