New permanent emergency shelter in Waterloo region part of plan to end chronic homelessness

Waterloo region needs a new, permanent, long-term emergency shelter to help the growing number of people experiencing homelessness in the community, a report to regional councillors says.

As well, regional staff are recommending a second hybrid, managed shelter be set up early in 2024, modelled off the current tiny home shelter located on Erbs Road.

These two recommendations were among several in an interim report into the region's plan to end chronic homelessness, which was presented at the community and health services committee meeting Tuesday.

"Since March of 2020, regional staff and partners have opened and implemented 17 new shelters across Waterloo region. That's one every two-and-a-half months," the region's commissioner of community services Peter Sweeney told council when speaking about the need for a new, permanent shelter.

"This constant … whack-a-mole approach to finding shelters — supporting those as winter arrives every year, as it does — is disruptive to neighbourhoods, it is disruptive to our staff teams, to our partners and most importantly, to the people we're trying to serve."

The report comes with a large price tag. Staff are recommending adding more than $11 million to the housing services operating budget — a figure not included in the preliminary 2024 budget numbers until now.

Of that, $3.2 million would be funded from the region's tax stabilization reserve fund and $7.9 million would be part of the property tax levy. That's just for 2024.

More money — a preliminary figure of $15.9 million was suggested — would be needed in 2025.

North Dumfries Mayor Sue Foxton called the funding request "a tough pill to swallow."

"It's a lot of money. But this is a tough time and the worst of times," Foxton said.

During an interview with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Tuesday before the meeting, regional Coun. Jim Erb said it's a lot of money, "we can't afford not to do it."

LISTEN: Regional Coun. Jim Erb discusses regional report on plan to end chronic homelessness:

Questions over how to move people into housing

Wilmot Mayor Natasha Salonen pushed back on the report, saying she failed to see how it meshed with the federal government's Housing First program. Through the program, the region can receive funding for different projects.

"Housing First involves moving people experiencing homelessness, particularly experiencing chronic homelessness, rapidly from street or emergency shelters into stable and long-term housing with supports," she said.

She said she understood how initiatives, like having funding available to help people who were facing eviction pay their rent, could fit with the Housing First approach. But she said she didn't think new shelters did.

"Housing First is to get people out of the shelter model. There seems to be a disconnect in the understanding, or at least my comprehension of Housing First, and where we're to be investing in," she said.

Salonen said she was trying to figure out, legislatively, whether the region should be investing in temporary solutions or in building affordable housing.

Sweeney responded by saying "we need to do both."

He said the region needs to offer people stability in temporary housing before they can move them into more permanent housing.

"I guess I'm not seeing how this is ending chronic homelessness. I'm seeing us investing money, but I'm not seeing, what are the deliverables," Salonen said.

Sweeney noted the report on Tuesday was an interim one and the full plan to end chronic homelessness is expected to come before regional council next April.

"There is more work to do and more conversations to have," Sweeney said.

He said if staff had opted not to engage with local groups — members of a group called co-creators of the plan — then, yes, there could have been a report ready for Tuesday but it would have been a more "bureaucratic approach with a group of staff putting this forward."

"I would also be very confident to say it would be less fulsome and less realistic and less practical. We chose a different path to engage with community in a very different way, so it's taking a bit longer," Sweeney said.

More budget discussions

Regional councillors voted unanimously to pass the report at the committee level. It will now go forward to budget discussions, which will take place Wednesday starting at 11 a.m.

Other items set to be part of Wednesday's budget discussions are:

• Housing, including specifically housing and supports for seniors.
• Region of Waterloo International Airport.
• Plans for the LRT into Cambridge.

People in the community who wish to speak to any issue in the proposed 2024 budget can take part in the second public input meeting, which is scheduled to take place Nov. 29.

The regional budget is expected to be passed on Dec. 13.