Housing & Homelessness Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes

4.4 Amendments to the Zoning Bylaw & Official Plan Permitting Additional Units

Councillor McKenzie reports that City Council enthusiastically supported the amendments to the Zoning Bylaw and Official Plan permitting additional units.

G. Robinson states that the regulations will go into effect on June 26, 2020. He adds the Planning Department is in the early stages of drafting brochures for interested parties that will outline information related to additional units.

4.5 Establish a Housing & Homelessness Advisory Committee 10 Year Housing & Homelessness Plan Subcommittee

The Chair asks for three to five members of HHAC to sit on the Subcommittee.

J. Brunet provides the following examples from other communities that are using housing as a response to the pandemic:

From a national perspective, Windsor-Essex is facing similar challenges in the housing and homelessness sector to other communities. Communities are shifting their pandemic response to long-term housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness. Here are examples from other communities that are using housing as a response to the pandemic:

• Kawartha Lakes-Haliburton had a media release and a call for landlords that you can find here . This is the call that mentions three months of pre-paid rent as one of their solutions.

• Peterborough has changed their approach to congregate housing by providing landlords with first/last then finding people to move into rooms and sign leases individually. They found that they were able to house people faster this way.

• Sudbury changed their rapid rehousing approach from just people experiencing chronic homelessness to anyone experiencing homelessness and has resulted in housing additional households.

• Stratford-Perth-St. Marys has a whatever-it-takes fund to support housing people. They use the funds to have conversations around diversion (i.e. where have you been staying these past few weeks, is it safe to go back there, what would it take to keep you housed there); landlord mitigation; housing visits (i.e. gave laptops to people they housed to support them with maintenance checks and home visits).

Meeting Dates

As HHAC meets quarterly, the following meeting dates are proposed:

• Wednesday, September 23, 2020

• Tuesday, November 24, 2020