Housing First start faces delay
Northern News Services
Friday, June 17, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For months, Coun. Linda Bussey has said the city's Housing First plan would see at least one homeless person housed by the end of August. That's no longer the case.
At a Community Advisory Board on Homelessness meeting yesterday morning at city hall, Dayle Hernblad said there will now be a several-week delay. Hernblad, the city's homelessness co-ordinator, said because the city's request for proposals for an organization to run Housing First was delayed two weeks, now a training session has also been pushed back from mid-July to mid-September. That means Housing First won't be up and running until after that, she said.
"What we're hoping is that we'll be beyond ready at that point and that we'll start housing people immediately," she said.
The news comes as city staff continues to examine the lone proposal from the Yellowknife Women's Society to run Housing First. Hernblad said the city is clarifying a few points in the society's proposal.
Members of the committee, chaired by Bussey with representatives from GNWT departments and organizations dealing with homelessness, also considered how to divvy up newly announced federal funding.
The city has three priorities on which to spend the funding through the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, which totals $299,574 per year over two years. No final decisions were made. One priority is Housing First, the second is youth homelessness and a third is a more general priority that in the past has seen the city contribute to the Safe Harbour Day Shelter. More discussion is expected next month on the city's priorities before a decision is made about dividing up the funding.
