With winter approaching, new research suggests supportive housing may be the best long-term solution for those most vulnerable to the colder temperatures in Ottawa: those without a permanent home.
The new study, released recently by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, echoes a message that Centretown groups such as the Cornerstone Foundation have been trying to share with the community for years.
Research conducted by the CHRN’s Stephen Gaetz shows that the most cost-effective way to deal with homelessness is to provide supportive housing.
Police services, the justice system and emergency acute care costs thousands of dollars a day to manage homeless people, while supportive housing costs only about $30 per day per individual, says Lorraine Bentley, chair of the Supportive Housing Network of Ottawa.
The Cornerstone Foundation’s Booth Street centre is one of the 16 sites in Ottawa that are part of the city’s supportive housing network. Cornerstone offers permanent, secure and affordable housing for 42 women who have had “some form of mental illness, may have had addictions, or been abused in their life,” says Carol Burrows, chair of the foundation’s Journey of Hope campaign. The campaign has raised $2.4 million for the Booth Street centre.
Although the Cornerstone Foundation initially received federal and provincial funding, Burrows says obtaining consistent financial backing for supportive housing is a challenge. “The City of Ottawa is putting a good sum into affordable housing each year, but a lot of that is going to repairs of existing stock,” she says.
Bay Coun. Mark Taylor, chair of the city’s community and protective services committee, says Ottawa is making good progress in terms of implementing and expanding supportive housing.
Part of the reality is that most support systems for homeless people are in the downtown core, says Taylor, which is why they tend to linger in the downtown.
“We have something called the Transitional Emergency Shelter Program – we’re trying to take homeless folks out of the downtown core and give them shelter opportunities or housing opportunities across the entire city, so that they don’t necessarily have to be immersed with people who will take advantage of them,” says Taylor. “We’re constantly looking at other opportunities to do that.”