With the County of Simcoe set to receive more than $22 million in provincial and federal dollars over the next two years to help prevent homelessness, county councillors learned how that money will be allocated and just what the county is doing to address the issue.
Andrew Scavarelli, the county’s acting director of housing and homelessness services, and Jonathan Katz, manager of policy, research and analysis, provided that information during Tuesday's presentation to committee of the whole. They outlined key areas of the county’s 10-point plan, which the county launched about 18 months ago.
“Homelessness was only really downloaded to county in 2014 … and historically always focused on the municipalities providing funding to a lot of not-for-profits, faith-based groups or social service organizations to support more high-risk tenants and applicants in social housing,” Scavarelli said.
Scavarelli noted the shift to prevention has really only occurred over the last several years.
“Certainly, just looking at the landscape and increasing homelessness and seeing encampments, that is where we are seeing the shift has occurred," he added.
Scavarelli addressed the 10-point plan, which was drafted in 2023, following what he said was a “comprehensive community-based evaluation of the current homelessness system."
The timing of this plan was “rather lucky,” he said, noting the same year the county received an 85 per cent increase in provincial funding followed by another increase federally in 2024.
“It’s afforded us quite a bit of opportunity to further some of these initiatives and really make meaningful and impactful changes,” said Scavarelli, noting the county has been working to “action” some of those key items for about 18 months.
“People are in shelters because there’s no place for them to go. (Some) places are not appropriate as they don’t have the appropriate support or they’re not attainable, which typically comes down to affordability,” he added.
To address that, the county introduced a subsidy that Scavarelli said works to drive down the price of market rent to something that's considered affordable.
“Over the course of the project, five months, (we have been) able to provide 172 subsidies with an average of over $700 per subsidy for those experiencing homelessness or at risk of being homeless," he added.
The county is also in the process of bringing all rent subsidies in-house, Scavarelli noted.
Councillors also heard how the county is creating new supportive housing programs — including its pilot project modular facility, which served as winter shelter overflow in the city of Barrie on Rose Street.
While that initiative ended in April 2023, the structures have been repurposed as part of the rapid rehousing program (RRP), which provided 24/7 on-site support for people who demonstrate a “strong likelihood of being rehoused and rehoused quickly,” said Scavarelli.
“Individuals accessing shelter but who do not have high, acute complexity were then transitioned to this program, which freed up shelter space for those in encampments, etc.,” he said.
Additional RRP facilities opened in Collingwood and Orillia, as well as one slated to open on Blake Street in Barrie next month.
Having a safe and secure place to keep belongings is often a barrier for many experiencing homelessness to accessing shelter, said Scavarelli, which is why the county piloted a “solution” to address that concern.
Initially, the pilot was launched at the Rose Street site; however it has since expanded to include a second site in Barrie as well as one in Orillia.
“It’s something on the surface we may not realize … a lot of times what little items they may have does prevent them from coming into the shelter," he said. “We will continue to work to find more permanent solutions, because it really is a barrier.”
Scavarelli pointed to some “forward-thinking initiatives” that have been created in other municipalities to address the issue, including tying a mailing address to a storage solution.
“Not having a mailing address is a barrier whether someone is looking to apply for housing, employment. Addresses are just as crucial as storage solutions,” he said.
The Community Safety Foot Patrols is another key element of the plan, which was piloted in Barrie in 2024 and then expanded into Midland, Orillia and Collingwood, as was the centralization of the motel voucher program.
Previously, people were required to connect with the nearest shelter provider, Scavarelli said. This year will begin the process of designing a centralized shelter intake model, explained Scavarelli during the meeting, noting the hope is to have a target completion date of sometime at the end of next winter.
“There will certainly be some efficiencies by removing some of the administrative functions,” he said.
Part of the county’s strategy also focused on improving community shelter services and standards, increasing eviction prevention services and access to housing for families and improving shelter on the housing "continuum."
Following the presentation, Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc wondered how, or if, the plan works to help those who may be close to “falling off the edge” and into homelessness.
“We can see it with our food banks," Leduc said. "Where in our plan are we at least helping those folks not drive into homelessness? Is there something in there that helps us prevent that from happening?”
Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the county’s general manager of social and community services, said the plan includes several strategies, such as housing retention programs where the county has invested in ways to ensure people who are facing evictions don’t lose their housing should it be based on things like arrears in utilities or rent, or damages.
The county spent $1.6 million last year just to prevent people from entering into homelessness, he added.
“All of our housing programs providers, etc., implement eviction prevention strategies first before engaging in landlord-tenant processes and then, of course, for those on the edge, we do different types of assistance,” Fayez-Bahgat said.
“We have invested in tenant navigator programs that are just to help people in hanging on to their leases," he added. "There are different things we do across the system to prevent homelessness as best we can, but … we are nowhere close to functional zero. I think there are unfortunately more people falling in than exiting and hanging onto housing."
Fayez-Bahgat said this is why the county is investing in assisted living and trying to access other provincial and federal dollars for various programs.