Temporary housing shelters aren’t a solution, they’re a stop gap.
That’s according to United Housing Director Kathy Vassilakos.
Vassilakos and research intern Maria Erb recently published a report called The Social and Financial Cost of Non-Permanent Shelter Systems for Addressing Homelessness.
The report finds that while more municipalities are turning towards temporary shelters as a way to respond to the crisis, the systems don’t effectively transition vulnerable people into permanent housing.
Vassilakos said the expansion comes because visible homelessness has become more apparent in recent years, especially in rural communities.
“We’ve always had people that are experiencing homelessness, but it used to be, especially in smaller communities, something that would be hidden, people who are couch-surfing, staying somewhere temporarily, it wasn’t as visible.”
She said the crisis today comes after 30 years of not having a well-integrated, well-resourced national housing strategy.
“You have municipalities that are the front-line of handling the homelessness crisis, around encampments, around people sleeping rough, and they want to do something. It’s a compassionate thing to want to be able to make sure that people aren’t sleeping out in the cold when it’s minus 20, so they’re trying to do something quickly and now.”
Vassilakos says in the case of Stratford, the city is heading in the right direction in tackling the crisis, they just need support from the province and the federal government to expand what they’re doing.
Mayor Martin Ritsma told MyStratfordNow they know permanent housing is a solution.
“We see it with the Emily Murphy Centre, to a certain degree with Optimism Place, but certainly with our shelter for our youth where we help transition them back to permanent housing, but we need a place to start that’s a housing first philosophy.”
Ritsma said the report is in line with what council is committed to in terms of to supporting those in need.
The report was presented to city council at a special meeting on Monday. It opened up conversations from councillors, including Taylor Briscoe about how to address solutions and Jo-Dee Burbach, on presenting the findings to the province.
The report recommends municipalities in Perth and Huron provide more affordable housing, including supportive housing, and to pivot towards the housing first model, which provides a direct pathway to permanent housing.
Vassilakos says this model and the temporary shelters must be used in parallel to better combat the crisis.
