HOMELESSNESS POLICY
Nick Falvo
Carleton University
2013 ONPHA Conference and Trade Show
Session: “308 A critical review of the federal and provincial record in housing”
October 18, 2013
Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18
Overview
• Background
• Housing First
• Changes Post-2006
• Emerging Themes
• Summary
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Background
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National Homelessness Initiative (NHI)
• Established in 1999, along with a Homelessness
Secretariat within HRSDC (which is now
“ESDC”).
• Initially, a 3-year, $753M initiative.
• It has since been renewed multiple times
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Expansion of Services
• 1999-2000: ↑ homeless services across Ontario, in part
due to Golden Task Force, in part due to SCPI.
→Rent bank, eviction prevention programs, more housing
of workers in shelters
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Expansion of Services (cont’d)
• Increase in number of all-day shelters and the revamping
of Seaton House
• 2000-2005: Ontario gov’t ↑d supportive housing units.
→ # of supportive housing units in Toronto ↑d from 2,400 to
4,200.
• A substantial proportion of NHI funds were used for “long
term transitional housing.”
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Housing First
• The principle of providing a homeless person with
permanent housing has been embraced and promoted by
activists (especially persons on the “left”) at least since
homelessness became a pressing public policy issue in
the 1980s.
• But “Housing First” (as a term) started to enter into the
mainstream lexicon with New York City’s Pathways
program in the 1990s. And it got ‘cool’ in Canada with the
advent of Toronto’s Streets to Homes program, which
began in 2005.
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Housing First (cont’d)
• ESDC (specifically, the HPS program) has embraced it.
• But that does not mean that ESDC (or any ministry or
dept. at any level of government in Canada) has
committed to acting with the scale necessary (i.e. with a
sufficient amount of resources) to eliminate homelessness
at any point in the future.
Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18
The Harper Years
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The Harper Years (cont’d)
“The prime minister is a complicated man. He is at
heart deeply ideological, a Margaret Thatcher
conservative who believes firmly in the primacy of
markets. However, on broad issues, Harper has
been willing to demonstrate a surprising streak of
flexibility.”
— Tom Walkom, Toronto Star
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The Harper Years (cont’d)
• In Dec. ‘06, the Harper government brought in the
Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS). This replaced
the NHI, but retained many of its key features.
• NHI’s focus had been emergency responses to
homelessness. But, since Harper, HPS has had more of
a Housing First focus.
• HPS: $135M/yr. (representing a slight reduction)
• Sep ’08: HPS extended through to Mar ‘11.
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Federal Budget 2013
• Unexpected renewal and extension of HPS
through to 2019
• Even more emphasis on Housing First
• HPS is now $119M/yr
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Aboriginal Peoples
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Aboriginal Persons as a %age of
Homeless Population
Toronto
Calgary
Edmonton
Vancouver
26%
16%
38%
32%
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NHI (now called the HPS)
• The NHI included $59 M “in targeted funding for an Urban
Aboriginal Strategy for Homelessness
• Initially with SCPI, “there was no requirement for
participating cities to work with the Aboriginal communities
in developing community plans and funding priorities.”
• “Learning to compete with large, well-staffed, and highly
professional non-Aboriginal service providers at a
municipal level and through the competitive Request for
Proposal mechanism was often a frustrating and
discouraging exercise.”
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Aboriginal Component of HPS
• There is now an Aboriginal Component of the HPS that
represents approximately 11% of its annual budget.
• Many Canadian cities (including Toronto and Vancouver)
now have two CABs devoted towards ending
homelessness—a ‘mainstream’ CAB and an Aboriginal
CAB.
Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18
Scale
• HPS today: $119M/yr.
• # of unique individuals: 147,000
• Annual support per unique individual: $800
• This translates into <$70/month for every “unique
individual” who experiences homelessness across
Canada in a given year.
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Recent Ontario Developments
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CHPI
• Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI)
• Combines funding from 5 homelessness programs.
• To be administered by Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal
Affairs and Housing.
• Implementation date: January 1, 2013
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CHPI (cont’d)
CHPI replaces these five programs:
1.
Consolidated Homelessness Prevention Program (MCSS)
2.
Emergency Energy Fund (MCSS)
3.
Emergency Hostel Services (MCSS)
4.
Domiciliary Hostel Program (MCSS)
5.
Provincial Rent bank (MMAH)
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CHPI (cont’d)
• Annual cost of CHPI: $246M
• To be funded 100% by provincial government
• “The CHPI program provides each of the 47 Service
Managers in Ontario with a funding envelope.”
• No matching funding required by municipal governments
(even though matching funding had previously been
required for both Domiciliary Hostels and Emergency
Hostel Services).
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CHPI (cont’d)
• Such a consolidation was an outcome of the
Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery
Review.
• CHPI ostensibly gives municipalities more
flexibility in designing services to homeless
persons.
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CHPI (cont’d)
•CHPI includes an amount equivalent to 50% (i.e. $63M) of
what the provincial government had previously been
contributing to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance
Benefit (CSUMB), which was eliminated in the 2012
provincial budget (effective January 1, 2013).
•Previously CSUMB had been part of the OW and ODSP
programs, helping clients “with the costs of a establishing a
new principal residence, preventing eviction or
dicontinuance of utilities, or maintaining a new
residence…”
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CHPI (cont’d)
• Service Managers are allowed to use CHPI funding for
the following:
• Emergency Shelter Solutions
• Housing With Related Supports
• Other Services and Supports
• Homelessness Prevention
Note: Service Managers “are not required to fund activities under all four categories…”
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CHPI (cont’d)
• “All services and activities that were eligible to receive
funding under the previous five homelessness-related
programs being consolidated are eligible under the CHPI.”
• CHPI will not fund capital expenditures. That is: no new
construction; no conversions; no repairs; no renovations;
no retrofits; no purchases of existing buildings; no buying
of land.
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CHPI: Stacking
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CHPI: 3-Year Plans
• Beginning in Year 3 of the CHPI (i.e. 2015/16), Service
Managers “will receive notice of their planning allocations
for the following three years. Based on these planning
allocations, SMs will be expected to develop a three-year
Investment Plan outlining how their annual allocations will
be used in subsequent years (after March 31, 2016).”
• The plans should “align” each respective Service
Manager’s local Housing and Homelessness Plan.
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CHPI (cont’d)
• The CHPI claims to embrace the Housing First approach
(while also funding transitional housing).
• But, like the HPS, it does not commit to meeting the scale
of the problem.
• Like the federal government, the Ontario government is
saying: “We believe that homeless persons should have
housing; but we are not going to provide every homeless
person with housing.”
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Ontario First Nations
•“Policy and funding responsibility for First Nations for the
Emergency Energy Fund, Emergency Hostel Services and
the Community-Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit will
remain with MCSS.”
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Net Reduction in Funding
“[CHPI] provides greater flexibility…However, the City will
receive less provincial funding for homeless prevention
services as a result of the elimination of the Community
Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) in the 2012
provincial budget.”
—Deputy City Manager
City of Toronto
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New Risks for Municipalities
“The CHPI also changes the funding model for emergency
shelters from an open-ended, demand-based model to a
capped funding envelope, which presents new financial
risks to the City.”
—Deputy City Manager
City of Toronto
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New Risks (cont’d)
“If there are sudden increases in demand due to serious
economic downturns, increased numbers of refugees or
emergencies like the fire at 200 Wellesley St, the Province
will no longer provide additional funding for increased
shelter beds to accommodate the demand.”
—Deputy City Manager
City of Toronto
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Lack of Coordination on Supp. Housing
• Provincially-funded supportive housing is administered
through the LHIN network.
• Meanwhile, Service Managers are developing 10-year
plans to address homelessness.
• Should the role/coordination of supportive housing as a
policy response to homelessness be left as a matter for
the 47 Service Managers and 14 LHINs to work out?
• Flexibility sure sounds nice, but how ad hoc should
supportive housing really be across Ontario?
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Five Emerging Themes
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1. Crowded Shelters
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Permanent Shelter Beds (Toronto)
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More Emergency Beds?
•“The Province has indicated that enhanced
funding will not be likely in the future if
municipalities subsequently open any new
emergency and transitional housing initiatives.”
- Adelina Urbanski
Commissioner of Community and
Health Services, York Region
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2. Homeless Seniors
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Canada’s Population, 1978 and
2038
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Homeless Seniors: Canada
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Homeless Seniors: Toronto
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3. HPS’ Erosion
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Erosion by Stealth
Annual Value of NHI in Current Annual Value
1999 (in 2013 dollars)
of HPS (in 2013 dollars)
$331M
$119M
Ergo: HPS’ current annual value,
adjusting for inflation, is a mere 36% of
the NHI’s original value.
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4. Results of AHCS Study
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At Home/Chez Soi (AHCS) Study
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Summary
•Prior to the 1980s, the “homeless” in Canada were
generally not eligible for social housing. This started to
change in the mid-1980s, especially in Toronto.
•Likewise, it has become more common to talk about
Housing First in Canada beginning in 2005.
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Summary (cont’d)
• I personally don’t believe that the Housing First approach
itself is new. Rather, I think the branding is new. There is,
in effect, an aspect of marketing occuring here.
• And remember: there is an important difference between
funding Housing First for some individuals in need versus
funding Housing First for all individuals in need. Ergo:
‘Housing First, but not necessarily housing.’
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Summary (cont’d)
• Ontario’s latest shift in homelessness programming
appears to have been inspired by federal programming.
Indeed, similarities between HPS and CHPI are quite
evident.
• That said, CHPI says very little about Aboriginal peoples
and/or First Nations. The Nov. ‘12 Program Guidelines (a
40-page document) has just one sentence devoted to
either group: “Funding and policy responsibility for First
Nations on-reserve for the Emergency Energy Fund and
Emergency Hostel Services will continue to be
administered by MCSS (p. 1).”
Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18
Thank You
Nick Falvo
PhD Candidate (Public Policy)
Carleton University
galvo.nicholas@gmail.com
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Appendix 1: Unheard Voices
A video clip that many City of Toronto officials (and many
proponents of Housing First) would prefer you never see…
http://www.homelesshub.ca/Library/Unheard-Voices50699.aspx
•Unheard Voices, 2011
•To see the clip in question, watch from 39:40 to 44:15
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Appendix 2: Funding Pool for CHPI