Hastings County’s Community and Human Services Committee is recommending county council approve big changes in the way funding for the homeless is allocated.
The proposed spending will only guarantee stable annual funding for the three organizations now operating that meet more than one criteria that improves the lives of the homeless.
Director of Community and Human Services Jamie Lynne Osmond describes the plan’s focus.
“It supports funding only those that make a significant reduction in homelessness; Grace Inn Shelter, St. Leonard’s Home, and the John Howard Society, as our data indicates.”
Those three agencies will receive about half of the annual $6.4 million in funding available to combat homelessness.
The rest will go to selected community organizations, capital projects and a food redistribution centre.
Meanwhile, the number of homeless people has doubled in Hastings County in the past year, up to at least 291 in the first quarter of this year.
Osmond told the committee that studies show it costs taxpayers about $86,000 a year to provide services for just one homeless individual.
Services in the cost calculation include police, court and incarceration time, fire and ambulance call-outs, various kinds of medical care, detox and shelter care.
Osmond said that at $86,000 per unhoused person it would cost Hastings County $25 million a year to care for the current homeless population.
Members of the committee agreed there wasn’t enough money to properly handle the homeless situation now and likely never would be.
Below is the proposed homeless funding model for the next couple of years.
See complete detail on the planned Homeless Prevention Investment Plan here.
