As the level of government responsible for addressing homelessness and housing in Simcoe County, the County of Simcoe has made strides with a few new initiatives set to roll out this year to help Collingwood’s most vulnerable citizens.
During council’s regular meeting on March 18, the county’s general manager of social and community services Mina Fayez-Bahgat presented a verbal update on the work the county is doing to address homelessness, which includes increasing shelter funding, outreach funding and working to bring a new $1.1 million transitional modular housing program to the area to serve both Collingwood and Wasaga Beach.
“The strategy here is to take those who are chronically using our shelter systems that are just stuck, and need some focus to get permanently housed,” he told councillors.
Fayez-Bahgat announced the $1.1-million investment into a new modular housing program that would serve Collingwood and Wasaga Beach. The new program builds on a pilot project originally done in Barrie that can house people seeking shelter in the winter, and in the summer works as a rapid rehousing program to transition people from the emergency shelter system into permanent housing.
“(Clients) are given 120 days in this program where they pay a rent/user fee to have a private room, and they focus on permanent housing in those 120 days,” he said, noting that during the Barrie pilot, 20 people participated, and 18 of those moved into permanent housing within that time frame.
“We wanted to invest in more of these facilities and place them across Simcoe County,” said Fayez-Bahgat.
This year, these facilities are expected to be placed in South Simcoe, Orillia and Collingwood/Wasaga Beach. The program is currently going through a request-for-proposals process with social service agencies to determine who will operate them, with Fayez-Bahgat noting the new facilities are expected to open by May 30. He said location will be determined based on those proposals, with town land being given consideration for the project.
“It is a bit of a race here,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to maximize some federal surplus funding.”
Fayez-Bahgat noted other efforts the county has made on homelessness this year, and said the county has increased motel voucher program funding in Collingwood by $25,000, allowing more vouchers for people in need of housing who aren’t suitable for the shelter system.
Collingwood’s current emergency shelter program – Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay – was also given a major funding boost this year, with the county giving the program an additional $400,000 for a total of $500,000 in annual funding.
Outreach funding for Collingwood was also doubled this year, from $100,000 previously to $200,000. The county is spearheading a new street patrol program that will focus on addressing homelessness impacts on downtowns. A new storage facility specifically for the belongings of people experiencing homelessness is also planned to come to Collingwood this year.
Fayez-Bahgat spoke about specific programs the county provides all municipalities in Simcoe County, such as deep rent subsidies for Housing First and outreach teams to dole out to those who might benefit. He said the county has focused on housing-retention programs that help prevent evictions in the first place.
He talked about a new centralized intake system for after-hours services that can be accessed by all service providers across the county, and can arrange transportation for clients to access supports. He said the county is hoping to have it running by this coming winter.
“We’re still working on it,” he said. “These are all things that have been applied across the system, but will benefit the Town of Collingwood.”
In regards to the town’s current proposals being considered by the county for new affordable housing developments on Poplar Sideroad and Birch Street, Fayez-Bahgat said the county received 11 proposals across the county from that call, and is currently working through them all.
“It allows us to create a longer-term 10-year strategy for how we can create more affordable housing,” he said.
