July 27, 2020
Council Meeting – Item 10.2
Additional Information
July 23, 2020
TO: Mayor & Councilors
FROM: Marina Clemens, Chair of HHAC
RE: Emergency Shelter Review Report
Although, this report has not been reviewed at a formal meeting of HHAC, many members have been part of the consultation process including myself. A review of the Shelter system was also a goal within the updated Windsor Essex 10year Housing and Homelessness Master Plan which is certainly within the mandate of HHAC, “To serve as an advisory body to city council on issues relating to the supply, demand and need for affordable housing and homelessness supports in Windsor Essex County” Therefore I believe as the chair of HHAC I can offer both some comments and endorse the Council report C 145/2020 and the Recommendations presented by Administration under the author of Jennifer Tanner, Manager, Homelessness and Housing Support. I would also endorse the Final Report dated July 14, 2020 as prepared and presented by VINK Consulting.
As outlined on page 3 of the report, Under Goal 3 of the 10year plan challenges were identified and to name a few, ---- 24/7 access is not available and individuals living in Essex county must make there way to Windsor to access a shelter. Page 4 outlines 5 action steps that can be taken to better the system as a whole including, opportunities to improve shelter services, establish quality and accountability standards, to name a few. Of course, the COVID crisis brought to light a number of other challenges and VINK outlined both the challenges and action steps that would benefit and ensure a clearer system for the immediate need and future configuration of the Emergency Shelter System.
I was pleased to see on page 8 of the council report the comparison of monthly costs of housing someone while homeless which was taken from https://www.homelesshub.ca/about- homelessness/homelessness-101/cost-analysis-homelessness and on page 16 of the council report another chart that demonstrates the saving under the Housing First program which reduces E.R Care utilization. Source: Orgcode
Page 10 of the report also identifies six recommendations that are already in place for non-profit housing providers such as Operational reviews, site reviews and shelter standards. It seems reasonable to ask shelters to conform to these same requirements.
I would like to draw your attention to page 6 of the report paragraph 2 under Discussion: “The only solution to end homelessness is housing”. This must be the goal of those running Emergency Shelters and will always be the main goal of HHAC. We have worked with the planning department to ensure that the Secondary Suite By- Law was passed and now expanded to allow another unit, plus we support other models of housing e.g. modular units, container units and Tiny Houses. Unfortunately, during this COVID Crisis, we as a city and county are seeing many vacant signs for both businesses, office suites that