Housing First faces tight timeline
Councillor remains committed to housing at least one person by end of August
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, June 3, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's commitment to start addressing homelessness through a Housing First program is facing delays.
The deadline for organizations seeking to administer the program, which aims to reduce homelessness by moving people into market housing with support services, has been pushed back two weeks. And a slower meeting schedule during the summer means it will take longer for committees and council to finalize the agreement.
Coun. Linda Bussey has been leading the plan over the past few years and has committed to having at least one person housed this summer.
However, the deadline for a request for proposals seeking an organization to administer and co-ordinate Housing First has been pushed back to June 6. The deadline - originally set for May 26 - was moved because a mandatory information meeting for potential proponents had to be rescheduled.
The proposals submitted will be reviewed by the city's Community Advisory Board on Homelessness, which Bussey chairs. That group is next set to meet June 16.
The successful proponent would then be formally approved by council. The next council meetings are set for June 13 and June 27.
Bussey remains optimistic the timeline is achievable.
"I am adamant that we're going to meet our commitment to house someone by the end of August," she said Tuesday.
Bussey pointed out that the Housing Corp. has now committed to spend $150,000 per year over three years for Housing First. Roya Grinsted, a spokesperson for Housing Corp., stated in an e-mail Tuesday the funds can be used for spending on Housing First for things like rental supplements.
Bussey called confirmation of funding from the GNWT "very exciting." Previously, there was an informal commitment and it wasn't clear if it would be ongoing.
There is a growing perception the homelessness issue is getting worse due to more people staying in shelters. The police have also changed the way they handle intoxicated people in the city - unless the intoxicated person is a threat to his or herself or others, officers have stopped responding to calls and lodging them in cells.
In late April, Caroline Cochrane, the territorial government's minister responsible for homelessness, convened a meeting of dozens of people and organizations that deal with homelessness. The goal was to come out with a concrete plan to address the issue. There were mixed reviews of the meeting that resulted in a list of at least 60 action items and the creation of two new committees.
A month later, the government still hasn't said what exactly is on that list.
Within a week or so, the NWT Housing Corp. expects to finish a report summarizing what was raised at the two-day meeting, after which the list should be released, according to Grinsted.
The list is important as the city will lead a committee reviewing it to decide which items are highest priority.
Mayor Mark Heyck went into the meeting in late April saying it should result in action, rather than more talk.
After a month, that committee has yet to meet and its terms of reference are not in place. Those terms set the ground rules for what the group will be doing.
In an e-mail, Heyck stated a draft of the terms are being circulated to those who attended the meeting. They don't have to go through council for approval as its not technically a city committee, just one led and supported by the municipality.
"I'm hoping to get the first meeting together in the next couple of weeks," the mayor wrote Monday.
The mayor made an election commitment to create a task force to address social issues, including homelessness, mental health and addictions.
That task force was put on hold when Cochrane announced the April homelessness meeting.
