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Kingston mayor says options embody ‘road outreach and low-barrier shelters, after which it’s remedy, after which it’s supportive housing.’
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Alison Jones • The Canadian Press
Revealed Aug 14, 2024 • Final up to date Aug 14, 2024 • 3 minute learn
Encampment resident Jason Wooden stands exterior his tent in Kingston, Ont. on Wednesday, March 26, 2024. Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Normal/Postmedia Community Photograph by Elliot Ferguson /Elliot Ferguson/Whig-Normal
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TORONTO — Cities and cities throughout Ontario noticed a minimum of 1,400 homeless encampments of their communities final yr, in accordance with the Affiliation of Municipalities of Ontario, which is asking the province for steerage on the best way to deal with them, in addition to extra assist to accommodate and help individuals.
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The quantity comes from an AMO survey of municipal service managers and is contained in a coverage paper the affiliation has launched upfront of their convention subsequent week, throughout which it’s hoping for some commitments from Ontario.
“While municipalities did not create the homelessness crisis, they are being forced to manage it without the resources or tools to sufficiently respond,” the affiliation wrote. “Municipalities are often caught balancing the important needs of unsheltered people living in encampments, who deserve to be treated with empathy and respect, and a responsibility to ensure our communities are safe and vibrant places for all residents.”
A number of municipalities have sought injunctions with a view to take care of encampments, with blended outcomes, and it’s time for the province to offer some steerage on the problem, AMO says.
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Kingston is one metropolis that has turned to the courts, and Mayor Bryan Paterson stated it’s costly, time consuming, divisive, and never a superb answer.
“How do we navigate these competing interests, these challenging, complex social and health issues that we see, in a way that balances those off?” he stated in an interview. “We’re looking for the province to engage on this issue, to weigh into it, and to help municipalities with that balance.”
The municipalities are additionally asking the province for extra assist to offer the individuals who find yourself in encampments with housing and health-care helps. Extra supportive housing, for instance, is urgently wanted, municipalities say.
The deeply reasonably priced housing consists of on-site sources, similar to for psychological well being and addictions, and Ontario wants tens of hundreds extra items, AMO says.
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“We know what the solutions are,” Paterson stated. “It’s street outreach and low-barrier shelters, and then it’s treatment, and then it’s supportive housing. So we know what those solutions are. The problem is municipalities do not have the resources or the expertise to be able to deliver those services.”
AMO can also be calling on the province to let individuals receiving welfare or incapacity help funds acquire shelter advantages, even when they’re homeless, which might increase their earnings by about $400 to $500 a month.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy stated he’ll proceed to work with municipalities, together with on homelessness, and stated he has 35 conferences scheduled over two days of the convention.
“We’re going to continue to have robust conversations and talk about the shared priorities that we have of course, homelessness, mental health and addiction, building more homes, building infrastructure,” he stated.
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A spokesperson for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra stated the province is spending $700 million a yr on neighborhood and supportive housing, and is giving Toronto and Ottawa greater than $240 million for shelter and homelessness helps.
Justine Teplycky additionally famous that the province’s spring funds included an extra $396 million over three years for psychological well being and addictions providers.
“We continue to call on the federal government to step up, pay their fair share and take more responsibility for the consequences of their policies that have escalated the number of individuals facing homelessness,” she wrote in a press release.
On the federal facet, AMO notes the parliamentary funds officer has stated that as a part of the Nationwide Housing Technique, the federal government places about $561 million a yr towards homelessness applications, however an extra $3.5 billion per yr can be required to cut back power homelessness by 50 per cent.
The Liberal authorities’s spring funds introduced an extra $250 million for addressing encampments, and AMO is urging Ontario to match that.
Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser’s workplace didn’t return a request for remark.
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