A recent review of the County of Simcoe’s homelessness system, and subsequent recommendations, is expected to help officials “do better” in their battle to help the unhoused.
The system review was conducted by VINK Consulting between October 2022 and January 2023.
Lora D’Ambrosio, the county’s manager of community services, said its goal was to provide a better understanding of the current state of homelessness in the region, as well as get a close-up look at the current system so the county can better plan, create and invest to make improvements.
“In its role as a consolidated municipal service manager, the County of Simcoe is legislated to plan, lead and manage the local system of homelessness prevention services and supports across the county, including the cities of Barrie and Orillia,” she explained during a presentation to county councillors at this week’s committee of the whole meeting.
“The county funds programs, services and supports across the continuum of housing and people experiencing homelessness must first be located through community outreach programs," she said. "Once Identified, the goal is to connect them with service providers, which often begins with our shelter system."
The county's funding allocations are data-driven, said D’Ambrosio, with information derived from county-wide enumeration, census analysis and the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS).
“The county leads the local system of homelessness supports across the region with partnerships and funded service agreements with over 30 agencies,” she said, adding the review was initially planned to begin in 2020 and was moved to 2022 once the county authorized funding to move shelter participants into a motel model.
“Through this model, we were able to identify successes in the system, as well as complexities, including the opioid crisis, lack of access to primary care, discharge from institutions into homelessness and mental health issues," D’Ambrosio added. "The COVID response identified the importance of a community working together to create and improve outcomes."
The review has helped officials better understand the current state of homelessness within the system, she said.
As a result of the review, consultants provided recommendations as a 'road map' for the county in the future, said D’Ambrosio, adding the system review and recommendations were made prior to a recent announcement regarding provincial funding through its Homelessness Prevention Program.
“It will serve as a critical tool to guide our investments, which will be strategic and data-informed," she said.
In late March, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced a provincial investment of more than $200 million to the Homelessness Prevention Program.
"In Simcoe County, we were very pleased to receive an increase of 86 per cent from our previous funding," D’Ambrosio said. "Our current (allocation) was just over $11.3 million and (we will) now receive an allocation of $21 million per year starting with 2023-2023."
This is the first year the ministry has done multi-year funding, which will allow the county to plan out for this investment. Last year, the county also received an increase in federal funding, from $601,782 to $3.7 million for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
“We are now In a better position to address recommendations through significant investment of provincial, federal and municipal funding,” said D’Ambrosio.
Among the recommendations gleaned from the system analysis were centralized intake, Indigenous services and supports, system mapping, housing retention funding, and data-informed planning managements and funding allocations. The report also included a recommendation for the creation of four new positions, all of which would be 100 per cent funded with zero impact on the tax levy, said D’Ambrosio.
“There are stronger expectations from our federal and provincial governments to submit solid and reliable data that demonstrates program outcome, financial accountability and client success," she added.
Staff will return to county council again in May with an updated report.
The second phase of the system review includes further analysis on youth services supports, regional programs, and supportive and transitional housing.
“An extra $9 million is something we desperately need and certainly could use,” said Barrie Coun. Clare Riepma, who asked about integration of services across the county. “What we see often is we have a lot of (organizations) that do good work, but then we see gaps and duplication. I wanted to get more of a flavour of how you see the county working together with all of these organizations in order to make a plan."
Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the county’s general manager of social and community services, says they ultimately want to develop and strengthen the overall system, not necessarily individual services.
“That’s the shift you are seeing in these recommendations … (and) designing a system that supports people experiencing homelessness in the different stages of their experiences," he said, noting that includes from the early stages all the way through to an offer of housing.
"In order to create and strengthen a system overall, you have to strategically invest in certain parts of those service deliveries, specifically in those gaps that you shared. This review, and the set of recommendations, identifies those gaps clearly,” Fayez-Bahgat added.
The main focus, he said, is to maintain things the county is doing well and then find ways to improve in other areas.
“That is our overall strategy,” he said.
“It’s good to see other levels of government have realized they need to ante up,” said Springwater Deputy Mayor George Cabral.
Barrie Coun. Bryn Hamilton wasn’t as quick to celebrate, however. She questioned why the county even needed a consultant to point out what she believes were basic observations.
“I don’t want to be the only negative one in the room. I read this report and I was alarmed," she said. "Seeing some of these recommendations, I was quite concerned that we needed a consultant to tell us some of these things.
"I don’t mean to sit here and be critical … but we have to do significantly better," Hamilton added. "I don’t know if that’s because we were so underfunded in the past and hopefully we can’t use that as an excuse moving forward … but we cannot continue to do things the same way we’ve done things in the past.”
