Guelph mayor's task force recommends new homelessness action plan

The City of Guelph is in need of a funding boost in order to help deal with homelessness, according to city officials and agencies looking into the problem

The conclusion came as part of a report delivered by the city's recently formed task force on homelessness and community safety.

"We needed to get the right people together as a task force and determine quickly what recommendations we could try to implement within the City of Guelph, to help those people that are most vulnerable," Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie told CBC KW. 

Announced in December 2018, the goal of the task force was to form an action plan that could be implemented as quickly as possible and have a measurable impact on homelessness in Guelph.

"We [had] two meetings, very focused, and [said] let's get going on trying to implement them," said Guthrie.

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Through their consultations, the group came up with a list of five priorities which include:

• Developing permanent supportive housing with 24/7 staffing for 15 chronically homeless individuals with complex needs, .
• Re-opening a supported recovery room, which would meet sleep and recovery needs for clients for up to 72 hours. 
• Funding the Welcoming Streets outreach program which supports individuals and businesses in Guelph's downtown by educating, empowering and connecting them to services and supports.
• Restarting an addiction court support worker program.
• Implementing system and service improvements like expanding service hours to evenings, weekends and holidays.

Despite looking to implement a number of 'stop-gap' interventions like Welcoming Streets or the court support worker program, Guthrie says the ultimate goal of the task force is to put a roof over the heads of the city's most vulnerable.

"When someone has a safe place to stay, it really changes everything," he said. "It can change the trajectory that someone's life is on."

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Funding 

But the task force, which includes representatives from the Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, representatives of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy and city officials, agreed that the greatest barrier to achieving priorities is a lack of funding.

Guthrie says that discussions are now underway to secure funding for the most immediate priorities, which are the supported recovery room, the Welcoming Streets initiative and the addiction court support worker program.

He says the task force will continue to meet as needed and keep the community updated its progress.