Federal Homelessness Initiatives

Announced in December 1999

The Community Services Committee recommends the adoption of the report dated December 30, 1999, from the Commissioner of Community and Neighbourhood Services; and reports having requested the Mayor of the City of Toronto to write to the Premier of Ontario urging the Province of Ontario:

(a) to co-operate with the Federal Government's initiatives on Homelessness; and

(b) at the upcoming meeting of the Premiers to be held prior to the end of January 2000 on housing issues, to seek the co-operation of all other Premiers in a joint partnership to implement the Federal Homelessness initiatives, having regard that such initiatives were as a result of requests from the various Cities across Canada;

and requesting the concurrence of Council in the foregoing action taken.

The Community Services Committee reports, for the information of Council, having:

(1) referred the communications from Councillor Brian Ashton, Scarborough Bluffs, and Councillor David Soknacki, Scarborough Highland Creek, to the Commissioner of Community and Neighbourhood Services with a request that she report thereon to both the Community Services Committee and the Advisory Committee for New Emergency Shelter Sites; and

(2) directed that the Commissioner of Community and Neighbourhood Services be requested to provide the Councillors for Scarborough Bluffs and Highland Creek with a brief list of requests to be made to the Provincial Government with respect to homelessness prior to their meeting with the Minister of Community and Social Services on January 31, 2000.

The Community Services Committee submits the following report (December 30, 1999) from the Commissioner of Community and Neighbourhood Services:

Purpose:

This report summarizes the Federal Government homelessness initiatives announced on December 17, 1999, comments on possible implications for the City, and identifies next steps.

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

Financial implications for the City are unknown at this time.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1) Council commend the Federal Government for its welcome announcements regarding homelessness initiatives and encourage the Federal Government to provide support for new affordable rental housing in the upcoming federal budget;

(2) the General Manager of the Shelter, Housing and Support Division, with support from the Mayor's Office, immediately initiate discussions with federal and provincial officials to begin implementing the new initiatives and to ensure that the City's needs are fully addressed; and

(3) the appropriate City officials be authorized and directed to take the necessary action to give effect thereto.

Background:

Since early in 1999, the City and other parties have been anticipating a federal announcement regarding the issue of homelessness. The December federal announcement provides a basic overview of the federal response, with most specific details yet to be filled in. The issue of federal involvement in the development of new affordable housing is not addressed in the announcement.

Specific federal homelessness responsibilities were identified by The Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force. These included providing capital for affordable housing and addressing some of the homelessness issues related to the refugee and Aboriginal populations. In March, the City and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities sponsored, with federal co-funding, the National Symposium on Homelessness and Housing. The federal Minister of Labour, Claudette Bradshaw, was appointed as Federal Co-ordinator on Homelessness at that time. She assembled a small secretariat to compile information and develop options, in consultation with various federal departments, and conducted a cross-county consultation during the summer, including three days in Toronto.

Minister Bradshaw's Homelessness Secretariat prepared options for federal action, which are understood to have been considered by the federal Cabinet this fall. The December announcements are the results to date of this process.

Comments:

Overview:

The federal announcement is a broad outline, with many details yet to be filled in. It has four key elements, in a three-to-four-year strategy outlined in the attached media release. (Lump-sum figures are expressed here in terms of equivalent average annual spending, although amounts may well vary each year.)

(1) The Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative:

Approximately $100 million annually ($305 million over three years) will be spent in a new program targeted to communities affected by homelessness. This will provide flexible funding to support strategies that are developed locally and respond to local needs. Significant contributions will be sought from other funding partners.

(2) Enhancing Existing Federal Programs for Youth, Aboriginals, and Abused Women:

Approximately $55 million annually ($170 million over three years) will be spent to expand existing federal programs, in three main categories, targeted to groups at high risk of homelessness. These include the youth-at-risk component of the Youth Employment Strategy, the Urban Aboriginal Strategy, and the Shelter Enhancement Initiative which funds shelters for abused women.

(3) Additional RRAP Funding:

Approximately $65 million annually ($268 million over four years) will be spent to maintain Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP) funding at an enhanced level, slightly higher than the level of the past year.

(4) Surplus Federal Property:

The Federal Government will set aside $10 million to make federal property available for community use. These funds would be used to reimburse government departments for lands that they make available. It is not clear if any funds will be available to assist in any site remediation and other costs of developing housing.

The Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative:

This is the keystone of the federal announcement, involving 40 percent of the funding and having the greatest potential to support collaborative approaches with the City and community-based organizations in Toronto.

The strongly stressed "partnership" theme has several aspects. The announcement envisages a local action plan developed by several key funders and stakeholders, with federal and other dollars brought to the table to implement it. There are clear indications that the Federal Government wants to attract substantial contributions from provinces and other funders. It is apparent from the announcement that only the essential framework of the program is in place, and that the final shape of it may vary from province to province and from community to community, depending on the results of negotiations. The emphasis on a continuum of supports and a seamless web of services suggests that the federal and other funding would go to support a full range of responses, from emergency responses to underlying causes and long-term solutions.

Enhancing Existing Federal Programs:

The announcement sets out specific extra funding to be allocated by program. Employment programs targeted to youth who are out of school and not settling successfully into the workforce will receive an extra $59 million. The Urban Aboriginal Strategy will receive an extra $59 million. The Shelter Enhancement Initiative will receive an extra $43 million for repairs or creation of emergency shelter space for abused women. Another $9 million will be allocated to support development of local homelessness plans and related research and sharing of "best practices".

These programs clearly target groups that are among those most of risk of homelessness.

Additional RRAP Funding:

RRAP is the one housing program which the Federal Government can most readily maintain or expand before revisiting the broader and contentious issue of the federal role in affordable housing. The enhanced RRAP allocation is in addition to the existing federal commitment of $50 million annually through the fiscal year 2002/2003. Its effect will be to maintain nationwide annual funding at a level of approximately $115-$120 million for the fiscal year 1999/2000 through the fiscal year 2002/2003. This is slightly higher than the $100 million level announced in December 1998 for the 1998/1999 fiscal year.

The announcement emphasizes the role of RRAP in repairing and preserving rental and rooming house accommodation occupied by low income people. The extra 1998-1999 funding was specifically targeted to the rental and rooming house stream of RRAP. At this point, it is not clear what the priority will now be for the rental and rooming house stream vis-à-vis other uses of RRAP. The announcement does include a new and desirable flexibility to use RRAP for conversion of non-residential buildings into affordable housing.

Specific Implications for the City:

Toronto, as a community with serious homelessness problems, is likely to receive a significant share of the new Supporting Communities Partnership funding. The specific processes for allocating among communities, establishing local planning strategies, and allocating funds to local projects, will depend in the first instance on federal negotiations with Ontario. Additional information will be emerging over the next few weeks.

The federal funds could amount to a substantial addition to spending on homelessness response and prevention in Toronto. For example, if projects in Toronto were to receive 10 to 20 percent of the Supporting Communities Partnership funds, this could amount to $10 to $20 million annually. Considering the time required to get programs up and running, however, it should not be expected that the additional federal funds will impact on Toronto's homelessness situation this winter.

It is likely that some of the initiatives to be supported will require contributions from the Province, the City and other non-federal funders. It is unclear at this stage whether and how the Provincial Government will respond to these initiatives and whether the City's access to funds is contingent on a provincial response. Also, although the general directions identified in the federal announcements are compatible with the City's strategies related to homelessness, some realignment may be required to take maximum advantage of available federal funding.

The enhancement of existing federal programs will be beneficial to Toronto. Additional resources for Aboriginal programs, coming at the same time as the start-up of a local Aboriginal steering committee, provide an opportunity for some stronger response in that area.

The added youth employment funds target an area where the City has become active and has established project-focused links with community agencies and Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) which administers the funds. Examples include the Toronto Youth Job Corps, Toronto Youth Outreach, Eva's Phoenix and the Squeegee Working Youth Mobilization project. These projects target "high risk" youth, many of them homeless. The federal announcement is an encouraging sign that the federal funding of these programs will be more secure and the successful program models duplicated by other groups. It should be noted that the Committee has before it two reports which describe the City's involvement in youth employment programs.

The Shelter Enhancement Initiative, in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario, relates to the system of abused women's shelters which is now provincially funded and administered. The City has advocated expansion of that system to lessen the need to serve abused women in the hard-pressed municipal hostel system. The new federal funds may provide an opportunity for such expansion, but would have to be accompanied by additional provincial operating funding.

The City will remain the delivery agent for federal RRAP funding, and staff are contacting CMHC to negotiate specific arrangements. Of the $100 million allocated in the 1998/1999 fiscal year, $9.7 million ultimately went to projects in the City of Toronto. It is to be hoped that a similar level will be seen in the next four years, and that a similar high priority can be given to projects that preserve and maintain the affordability of moderate-rent apartments and rooming houses for people with low incomes.

The allocation of funds for sites - to compensate federal departments - should make it easier to free up one or more federal sites in Toronto that are suitable for housing, and lease or sell them to affordable housing providers at nominal cost.

Affordable Housing:

With the exception of the welcome extension of RRAP at an enhanced level, and the potential availability of federal lands, the announcements do not directly address the need for affordable housing. There is nothing in the description of the Supporting Communities Partnership that prevents its being used in part for affordable housing. The scale of funding, however, could not support a significant level of housing activity along with service responses. The ability to direct funds to housing may also depend on the response of the Province.

It is understood that some options around an additional response on housing are still being considered in the federal pre-budget process. It is not yet known what priority, if any, these options may ultimately receive in relation to other federal priorities. City staff will actively work with federal and provincial colleagues to ensure that the City's interest in and need for federal support for affordable housing is clearly understood.

Next Steps:

Bilateral negotiations with each of the provinces will be the first step by the federal government. City staff and the Mayor's Office will be in touch with federal and provincial counterparts to ensure early City involvement.

It is desirable to move quickly beyond federal-provincial negotiations, into a federal-municipal or federal-provincial-municipal partnership on homelessness in Toronto, with community sector involvement. The Mayor has already written to federal representatives to encourage immediate and active collaboration among all levels of government. This report recommends that the General Manager of the Shelter Housing and Support Division, with support from the Mayor's office, co-ordinate the City's efforts to work with the federal and provincial governments to implement the federal announcements.

Conclusions:

The December 1999 federal announcements on homelessness are the result to date of the process initiated by Minister Claudette Bradshaw following the Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force and the National Symposium on Homelessness and Housing co-hosted by the City of Toronto in March. They involve significant additional spending. The announcements provide an outline, with many of the details yet to be filled in and with a larger question mark remaining, in regard to federal action on affordable housing. There are three main elements:

(1) the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, involving approximately $100 million annually in flexible funding targeted to certain communities;

(2) approximately $55 million annually to enhancing existing federal programs for youth, Aboriginals, and abused women; and

(3) approximately $65 million annually to maintain RRAP funding at the slightly above the enhanced level funded in fiscal 1998/1999.

It can be expected that projects in the City of Toronto will receive a significant share of the funding. The Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative will involve the City in a process to develop strategies and set priorities with other funders and service providers. While the nature of the partnership will be depending in the first instance on Federal-Ontario negotiations, it is important to move quickly toward a partnership with direct City involvement. It is to be hoped, although it is by no means certain, that additional federal responses will be seen on affordable housing.

Contact:

Derek Ballantyne

Acting General Manager, Shelter, Housing and Support Division

Tel: 392-7885/Fax: 392-0548

E-mail: dballant@torontohousing.com

List of Attachments:

Attachment No. 1. Government of Canada News Release, December 17, 1999

Attachment No. 2. Government of Canada Initiatives to Address Homelessness (Toronto)

(A copy of each of the attachments referred to in the foregoing report of the Commissioner of Community and Neighbourhood Services was forwarded to all Members of Council with the agenda of the Community Services Committee for its meeting on January 13, 2000, and a copy thereof is on file in the office of the City Clerk.)

The Community Services Committee also submits the following communication (December 20, 1999) from Councillor Brian Ashton, Scarborough Bluffs:

I am writing to you in light of the recent Federal Government announcement of an additional $750 million in aid for the homeless in Canada.

While I realize that the City of Toronto's exact share of these funds has yet to be determined, I believe this timing is most opportune given the City's recent commitment to phase out the use of motels along Kingston Road.

As you know, as part of the report passed by Council, the Councillors for Scarborough Bluffs and Scarborough Highland Creek were directed to meet with the appropriate Federal and Provincial Ministers in order to secure their share of the funding necessary to implement the report's various recommendations.

I am writing to request that the Committee and staff report on the following matters:

(1) how the program monies allocated by the Federal Government will contribute to the City's stated goal of phasing out the use of motels along Kingston Road as hostels; and

(2) should there be money committed in the Community and Neighbourhood Services Department's Capital Program for the provision of new purpose built shelter space to meet the needs of the "motel" population in Toronto.

As you know, the passage of this report has helped to restore confidence in the community of the City's willingness to phase out its use of these properties. The weakness of our position, if anything, is our reliance on funding from the other levels of government in order to realize this commitment. I believe that, with this money, we have been presented with the opportunity to make good on our commitments, not just to satisfy the community's concerns, but also to provide decent living accommodation to the residents of the family shelter program.

We should not let this opportunity pass.

The Community Services Committee also submits the following communication (January 13, 2000) from Councillor David Soknacki, Scarborough Highland Creek:

As a Councillor for the area directly affected by the use of motels for emergency shelters on Kingston Road, I am quite frustrated by the lack of progress in implementing the recommendations to develop a proper emergency shelter along the lines approved by Council.

Late last month, the Federal Government announced significant funding for the Toronto area for homeless initiatives. I was invited to a meeting with Scarborough East MP, John McKay, on the day after the Federal announcement was made, specifically to discuss how the shelter approved by Council could fit both the requirements of Council and that of the funding formula. At that time, I was advised that the Federal Government could give priority consideration to a project such as approved by Council, but a formal proposal with details should be submitted in the very near future.

Over the last two weeks we have been in contact with staff in Hostel Services. We were informed that about 100 sites for an emergency shelter have been reviewed, but all were deemed inappropriate. Hostel staff had thus far not applied to obtain financing under the Federal program, nor were they able to determine a date by which either a site would be selected or submit a proposal from the City of Toronto. Since Federal funds are not being "reserved" in any way for the City of Toronto, and since there seems to be no sense of urgency from staff, I write this note to request the Community Services Committee to direct staff to report to the next meeting of the Committee on:

- How the City of Toronto can best obtain funding for homeless shelter or shelters under the Federal Government's initiative.

- A realistic but aggressive timetable for implementing the Council's recommendations on this matter, given the City of Toronto's successful application for funding.

_________

The following Members of Council appeared before the Community Services Committee in connection with the foregoing matter:

- Councillor David Soknacki, Scarborough Highland Creek;

- Councillor Brian Ashton, Scarborough Bluffs; and

- Councillor Jack Layton, Don River.