HOMELESS PROBLEM

BACKGROUNDER
14 February 2002
Flaherty to Help Homeless off the Streets

• Each year, the Ontario government spends approximately $2 billion to provide shelter to people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. A further $66 million is provided for emergency hostels. This figure is open-ended, in that provincial funding of 80 percent of a set per diem is provided for every hostel space that a municipality chooses to provide.

• In 1999, the government announced a comprehensive Homelessness Strategy. Some of the highlights include:

·        Housing and support services for people with mental illness. Phase 1 of this initiative provided funding of $24 million to help agencies develop 962 new supportive housing spaces. Phase 2 provides a further  $67.6 million to non-profit agencies to create 2,640 housing units and support services for mentally ill people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

·        $10.4 million annually for a Provincial Homelessness Initiatives Fund available to municipalities to fund innovative projects to address homelessness.

·        A commitment to spend $50 million for rent supplements for low-income people.

·        Donation of the former Princess Margaret Hospital site to the City of Toronto to provide shelter for the homeless.

·        A $4 million Provincial Sales Tax Grant program designed to encourage the development of affordable rental housing.

·        $2 million to increase the Community Start Up Benefit to help eligible families with dependent children to establish permanent residences.

• In 2000, the government introduced the Off the Streets, Into Shelter Fund. This $4.1 million fund is available to municipalities to address local circumstances. Depending upon municipal interest, this fund could provide money to hire 50 or more outreach workers who would encourage people to come into shelter.

• In 2000, the government enacted Brian's Law (Mental Health Legislative Reform) that grants greater authority to police and others to commit an individual to community treatment. The new provisions regarding community treatment orders (CTO's) contain new grounds for civil commitment criteria and authorize involuntary examination, assessment and detention at an earlier stage in a person's illness. Under Brian's Law, police officers no longer have to actually observe "disorderly conduct" before they can take a person for examination by a physician.

• The Safe Streets Act, which took effect January 31^st, 2000 protects the public's ability to have safe and secure communities. The Act makes squeegeeing and aggressive solicitation illegal and protects people's ability to use public places without intimidation.

• According to the Toronto Report Card on Homelessness (2000), the number of admissions to emergency shelters rose 75 percent from 1988 to 1998. During the same period, the number of children staying in shelters increased by 120 percent. Overall it is estimated that, in 1998, the numbers of people staying in emergency shelters was 28,800.

• An accurate number of people living on the street cannot be given. Street life is too transient in nature, making an accurate count extremely difficult.

Proposed Changes:

• Recognizing that homelessness is not a problem for all communities, Flaherty proposes to initiate his plan in an urban area with an urgent and immediate homeless problem. In the long term, the plan would be expanded to include other urban communities. These urban centres will work alongside government, police and members of the community to ensure that people are not sleeping and living in public places. Flaherty's initiative will ban sleeping and living in public places.

• To address homelessness on the front-lines, we will make additional resources available to hire and train Special Constables within police services. These newly trained Special Constables would have new functions including:

·        Identifying individuals who are a danger to themselves and/or the community.

·        Assessing and determining what intervention is required.

·        Providing the individual with a choice regarding what alternative they choose to sleeping and living on the street. (e.g. utilizing hostel spaces, going to hospital or crisis center, going to jail if the police determine they are engaged in unlawful conduct, etc.).

·        Liaising with community officials to ensure that all available services and resources to address homelessness are being utilized.

The New York City (NYC) Model

• Initiatives similar to Flaherty's have worked elsewhere.  NYC's programme, established in 1990, focuses on homeless people dwelling on transit property. A specially trained Homeless Outreach squad enforces statutes through patrols, continuous re-inspections of previously identified locations and places individuals with appropriate service agencies. Chronic services-resistant individuals are arrested. Since 1990, the number of homeless deaths on the transit system declined 86 percent. The number of homeless declined from 5,000 in 1990 to approximately 750 in 1997. And some 45,022 homeless individuals have been transported to shelters, residences and programmes. (for more information, please visit www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/home.html.)