HOMELESSNESS POLICY Nick Falvo Carleton University 2013 ONPHA Conference and Trade Show Session: 308 A critical review of the federal and provincial record.

Homelessness policyNick Falvo

Carleton University

2013 ONPHA Conference and Trade ShowSession: “308 A critical review of the federal and provincial record in housing”

October 18, 2013

Overview• Background

• Housing First

• Changes Post-2006

• Emerging Themes

• Summary

Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18 2

Background


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


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


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.”


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.


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.


The Harper Years


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

10Session 308: Friday, Oct. 18

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.


Federal Budget 2013

• Unexpected renewal and extension of HPS through to 2019

• Even more emphasis on Housing First

• HPS is now $119M/yr


Aboriginal Peoples


Aboriginal Persons as a %age of Homeless Population

Toronto 26%Calgary 16%

Edmonton 38%Vancouver 32%


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.”


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.


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.


Recent Ontario Developments


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


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)


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).


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.


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…”


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…”


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.


CHPI: Stacking


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.


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.”


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.”


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


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.”


City of Toronto


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.”


City of Toronto


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?


Five Emerging Themes


1. Crowded Shelters




Permanent Shelter Beds (Toronto)


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


2. Homeless Seniors


Canada’s Population, 1978 and 2038


Homeless Seniors: Canada


Homeless Seniors: Toronto


3. HPS’ Erosion


Erosion by Stealth

Annual Value of NHI in 1999 (in 2013 dollars)

Current Annual Value 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.


4. Results of AHCS Study


At Home/Chez Soi (AHCS) Study


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.


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.’


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).”


Thank You

Nick Falvo

PhD Candidate (Public Policy)

Carleton University

[email protected]


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-Voices-50699.aspx

•Unheard Voices, 2011

•To see the clip in question, watch from 39:40 to 44:15


Appendix 2: Funding Pool for CHPI


HOMELESSNESS POLICY Nick Falvo Carleton University 2013 ONPHA Conference and Trade Show Session: 308 A critical review of the federal and provincial record.

Documents

myr session

shelters session

background session

aboriginal peoples session

harper years session

aboriginal component

hps program

housing of workers