Hastings County is hearing how much it will cost to close a housing and homelessness funding gap.
A report to the County’s Community and Human Services Committee on Wednesday outlined a process from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario that aims to quantify current and projected homelessness, identify and cost provincial level solutions to achieve functional zero homelessness and to determine the investment gap between current and required funding across all government levels.
Through a Request for Proposal Process, HelpSeeker Technologies was the successful proponent to complete the project.
The HelpSeeker report emphasizes that there is no single answer to addressing homelessness and housing instability, and the report highlights two investment or
intervention scenarios.
The first examines what is needed to achieve an end to chronic homelessness to functional zero over a decade, while the second focuses on preventing and solving encampments through immediate action.
Through the scenario presented, AMO and HelpSeeker have identified that $11 billion is needed over the next 10 years, which is in addition to the current $4.1 billion reported annually by Service Managers for existing homelessness and housing programs.
The additional $11 billion would fall into two main categories: operational expenses and capital expenses. As stated in the report, the investment and categories reflect the resources needed to expand capacity, address critical gaps and align the system with
the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
The $11 billion, which equates to $1.1 billion annually, has been identified to be directed 30-per cent toward Operating Costs and 70-per cent toward Capital Costs.
Using the provincial data and investment required calculation, staff have determined that Hastings County would be subject to a minimum of $11.3 million and upwards to
$23.4 million additional dollars of the $1.1 billion needed annually to achieve functional zero homelessness locally.
Council voted to accept and receive the report but took no action.
