Question Period Note: COVID 19 AND THE HOMELESS

The Canada Broadcasting Corporation issued an article on COVID 19 and the homeless raising concerns around the potential risk of an outbreak in Toronto shelters

• One of the most important roles of our Government is to support vulnerable Canadians, including those who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

• This is why as a Government we are monitoring the evolution of the COVID 19 outbreak very closely. The Public Health Agency of Canada continues to work in close collaboration with provincial, territorial and local public health authorities to ensure appropriate responses are in place across the country.

• Through Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, we are providing the city of Toronto $124 million over five years to support this vulnerable population.

Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy is a community-based program that provides direct financial support to Designated Communities (urban centres), as well as Indigenous and rural and remote communities across Canada to support their efforts in addressing homelessness. Following a comprehensive community planning process, communities determine their own priorities, and develop local solutions. Reaching Home replaced the Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) on April 1, 2019.

Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy supports the goals of Canada’s National Housing Strategy, including the reduction of chronic homelessness by 50% by 2027–2028.

Reaching Home Funding streams (2019–2025)

Regionally-delivered funding streams

Designated Communities: This stream funds projects in urban centres identified as having a significant problem with homelessness.

Rural and Remote Homelessness: This stream funds projects in non-designated communities in rural and remote areas of the country.

Indigenous Homelessness: This stream provides funding, primarily targeted to Indigenous service providers, to address the specific needs of Indigenous people living off reserve who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness.

Territorial Homelessness: This stream provides funding to communities in the territories to address the unique challenges in the North.

Nationally-delivered funding streams

Community Capacity and Innovation: This stream supports communities with implementation of coordinated access systems and the provision of training and technical assistance.

Distinctions-Based: This funding is for priorities determined in collaboration with First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners. A portion of this funding has been earmarked for Modern Treaty holders.

Reaching Home Funding in Toronto, 2019 to 2024

Under Reaching Home, funding in the amount of $133,097,327 from 2019-2020 to 2023-24 is allocated to address homelessness in Toronto. This includes $124,171,697 through the Designated Community stream (provided to the city of Toronto) and $8,925,630 through the Indigenous Homelessness stream (provided to the Aboriginal Labour Force Development Circle).

 2019-20     2020-21     2021-22     2022-23     2023-24     TOTAL

Designated Communities Stream $23,437,027 $23,420,027 $25,777,431 $25,768,606 $25,768,606 $124,171,697
Indigenous Homelessness Stream $1,802,256 $1,785,256 $1,785,256 $1,776,431 $1,776,431 $8,925,630
Total $25,239,283 $25,205,283 $27,562,687 $27,545,037 $27,545,037 $133,097,327
Amounts include Community Capacity and Innovation (CCI) set-up funding used to support communities in implementing new program requirements pertaining to the coordination of homelessness services, as well as to foster innovation in the sector.
Key Components

Moving to an Outcomes-Based Approach: Under Reaching Home, the Government is working with communities to develop and deliver data-driven system plans with clear outcomes. The new outcomes-based approach will give communities greater flexibility to address local priorities, including homelessness prevention, and programming designed to meet the needs of vulnerable populations (for example, youth, women and children fleeing violence, and veterans). To track the progress being made by communities in their effort to prevent and reduce homelessness, communities will be asked to report publicly on community-wide outcomes.

Introducing Coordinated Access: Designated Communities are required to implement Coordinated Access, by March 31, 2022. The goal of Coordinated Access is to help communities achieve community-wide outcomes by ensuring fairness, prioritizing people most in need of assistance, and matching individuals to appropriate housing and services in a more streamlined and coordinated way.

Reaching Home in Quebec

In Quebec, Reaching Home is delivered through two Canada-Quebec agreements that respect the jurisdictions and priorities of the Government of Canada and the Government of Québec in preventing and reducing homelessness.

• the 2019–2024 Canada-Quebec Reaching Home Agreement (RH Agreement)
($172 million); and,
• the 2019–2021 Agreement to Implement the Reaching Home Community Capacity and Innovation Funding Stream in Quebec (CCI Agreement) ($2.8 million).

The Designated Communities (DC), the Rural and Remote Homelessness (RRH) and the Community Capacity and Innovation (CCI) streams are covered by the RH Agreement. The CCI stream is covered by a specific agreement for the years 2019-2021 (CCI Agreement).

The Aboriginal Homelessness funding stream is not covered by these Agreements. It is administrated by the Service Canada regional office in Quebec.

A Joint Management Committee composed of representatives from both governments serve as an official forum for policy decisions and discussions on all topics related to the two agreements.

The implementation model proposed in the RH Agreement promotes greater agility to support communities in consolidating services provided in Quebec to prevent and reduce homelessness. This implementation model is similar to the community entity model used by Reaching Home elsewhere in the country.

The Quebec Centres intégrés (universitaires) de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS/CIUSSS) are responsible for coordinating activities for their respective regions, including: the development of community plans, calls for proposals and the selection of projects. Starting
in 2021, the CISSS/CIUSSS will also be responsible for coordinating and administering the DC and the RRH funding streams for their region.

Key Stats on Homelessness in Canada

According to Employment and Social Development Canada’s National Shelter Study, the number of shelter users decreased from 156,000 in 2005 to 129,000 in 2016. This decline is mainly due to a decrease in the number of shelter users between the ages of 25 and 49. Despite a decrease in shelter users, occupancy rates have increased since 2005 due to longer shelter stays, especially among older adults, seniors and families, and have consistently remained above 90% since 2012. Other key facts from the National Shelter Study include:

• Women make up 29.7% of emergency shelter users, and the gender breakdown of shelter users has not changed since 2005;
• Indigenous peoples remain overrepresented in the emergency shelter system. The percentage of shelter users in Canada reporting Indigenous ancestry is approximately 31%, whereas 5% of the Canadian population was identified as Indigenous in the 2016 census;
• The number of youth using shelters decreased by almost 25% between 2005 and 2016;
• The number of shelter users between the ages of 50 and 64 has increased by 25% between 2005 and 2016. There are relatively few shelter users aged 65 and over, however, the number of seniors accessing emergency shelter services has increased by 50% between 2005 and 2016; and,
• The proportion of emergency shelter users who reported having served in the military declined from 2.2% in 2014 (nearly 3,000 individuals) to 1.8% in 2016 (an estimated 2,400 individuals).

Results from the 2018 Coordinated Point-in-Time Count show that in the 61 participating communities, 60% of the people that were homeless on the night of the count had been homeless for six or more months during the previous year. Additionally, key demographic findings show that:

• Nearly one third (30%) of all respondents indicated that they first experienced homelessness under the age of 18, and a further 20% between the ages of 18 and 24;
• 25% indicated they had not use a shelter in the past year;
• 36% of respondents identified as women;
• 11% of respondents identified as LGBTQ2;
• 30% of respondents identified as Indigenous;
• 4% of respondents reported that they came to Canada as a refugee claimant; and,
• Approximately 5% of respondents indicated that they were a veteran of either the Canadian Armed Forces or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Homelessness Partnering Strategy Results (2014–2019)

Between April 2014 and March 2019, Reaching Home’s predecessor, the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, demonstrated considerable success, including:

• 73,992 people were placed into more stable housing through HPS-funded interventions.
• 68,377 people have received a Housing Loss Prevention intervention; these activities provide supports such as one-time rent arrears assistance or tenant-landlord interventions for individuals or families at imminent risk of homelessness.
• HPS funded projects also:
o Assisted 74,455 people to access Social Assistance, Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan or other income sources to improve their income stability;
o Supported 24,307 people in finding full-time jobs or part-time jobs;
o Helped 16,495 begin a job training program; and
o Helped 10,318 people in pursuing education.

• As part of the National Housing Strategy (NHS), the Government of Canada announced an investment of $2.2 billion over 10 years to tackle homelessness. The NHS is a 10-year, $55+ billion plan to lift thousands of Canadians out of housing need and reduce chronic homelessness by 50% by 2027-28. On April 1, 2019, the Government of Canada launched Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy.

• Reaching Home investments will grow over time to reach $237 million annually starting in 2021–22, up from a base of $119.3 million in 2015–16.

• Under the program, funding in the amount of $124 million over five years is being provided to the city of Toronto to address local priorities.

• Over the next nine years, the Government of Canada aims to place close to 160,000 people into more stable housing and achieve results for vulnerable Canadians.