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Permanent supportive housing the real answer, say those working closest with city marginalized citizens

Things like a 24/7 drop-in centre are seen as helpful, but only Band Aids to a problem that requires permanent solution
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The service providers working closest with Guelph's marginalized population say permanent supportive housing is the number one priority to come out of the mayor’s Emergency Task Force.

Several of those service providers are scheduled to attend Guelph City Council Wednesday night as delegates on the 2019 budget to support a proposal that came out of the task force work calling for the creation of that housing for 15 chronically homeless individuals with “complex needs.”

But that plan comes with a cost and a timeline.

Mayor Cam Guthrie released a report Wednesday morning that showed 15 units of such housing would cost $4.5 million to build and another $915,000 annually in staffing and operational costs.

The report also says it would take up to four years to make it a reality.

But, supporters say, it is a real and long-term answer.

“I want people to have a place to live versus making shelters more beautiful and having warming stations,” said Gail Hoekstra, executive director of the Drop-In Centre. “You kind of want to say ‘let’s focus on getting people places to live.’”

Raechelle Devereaux, executive director of the Community Health Centre, said short-term assistance helps, but long-term answers are needed.

“We need to do both (short term and long term) ... so that you’re not just putting Band-Aids on a burst artery,” she said.

“One of the primary drivers of continued complexity and instability for people is the lack of housing.”

HOPE House executive director Jaya James said that until the issue of supportive permanent housing is addressed, “everything else is, to some degree, a Band Aid.”

James said that having the attention of all three levels of government interested, which “rarely happens,” now is the time to try and get that supportive housing.

"Now we have to do something. Getting together and talking about it is the easy part. There's been talk for decades and at the end of the day, if this is just another talk session, we failed," James said.

The mayor’s task force resulted in five recommendations. Three of them: the re-establishment of a supported recovery room, the continuation of the Welcoming Streets Downtown Guelph street worker and a support worker in the courts - are likely to be part of this year’s budget deliberations.

The mayor’s report released Wednesday puts the total costs of those three initiatives at $853,000 annually, plus space to host the supported recovery room.

"The Task Force agreed that the single largest barrier to achieving these priorities is lack of funding. Discussions are now underway to attempt to secure funding for the most immediateterm priorities: the supportive recovery room; Welcoming Streets; and addiction court support worker program," the mayor said in his report.

Discussions are also underway to find a host location for the supportive recovery room, once funding is secured.

The fifth was some sort of expanded drop in centre, mentioned initially as a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week space in Downtown Guelph, where people could warm up, cool off, have a bite to eat and maybe grab a cup of coffee.

That has since changed “improvements or expansions to services that already exist” that could include expanding hours at current facilities.

But that doesn’t appear to be something that will happen anytime soon and the mayor said in an interveiw that "the ball is in the court of service providers" on that recommendation.

Such a centre would need trained mental health professionals and perhaps an overdose prevention site in order to properly deal with the range of people who would use it.

“It’s a coping mechanism. A 24/7 drop-in model is a coping mechanism, and so too, arguably is a supportive recovery room,” Devereaux said.

She isn’t downplaying the role a 24/7 centre would play in helping people, but that it needs to be part of a bigger picture.

“We can’t say we’re only focusing on the long-term solution of supportive housing, we know we need these interim community supports while we all commit to addressing the root cause,” Devereaux said.

“I think the community’s vision is to build integrated, cohesive services, and 24/7 is certainly on the table for that because we know that needs don’t end at 5 p.m.”

Hoekstra said warming stations and shelters are “a stop gap.”

“That’s fine. If a church community said we’re going to do that or whatever, no one would be opposed to it, but we still have to be reaching for supportive housing.”

James said that finding space for a 24/7 centre would be the easy part.  

“The greater obstacle would be ‘how can you run that space so that it would be safe,” James said.

She said there are a group of marginalized people who do “really well” and would benefit from a 24/7 centre but there’s another group who aren’t doing well who could make such a centre unsafe.

“They’re just really, really unwell,” James said. “How can we run a centre that will actually be safe?” she said.

She feels an overdose prevention centre on site would be needed plus some high level mental health intervention support.

“That’s where it gets complicated,” James said.

James said the mayor's task force was a very positive endeavour.

"What it did, was it got everybody in the same room," she said. "Rather than just the normal players having the conversation ... it got everybody there and that's something that can definitely be said for the mayor."


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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