The City of Ottawa has provided an emergency funding infusion that provides community health and resource centres with $500,000 to cover special costs related to the transit strike.
The funding will be available to health and resource centres for such costs as taxi fares for clients who need transport for medical appointments.
Some centres will receive more funding than others, depending on the programs they offer and the kind of community they serve.
Simone Thibault, executive director at the Centretown Community Health Centre, says she doesn’t expect the funding to last very long. The centre had been among those which raised concerns recently about the strain the strike was having on the city’s health services.
"The need and the demand is enormous," she said. "People can’t manage anymore, they’re at the end of their rope."
Health centres have been struggling to help their clients find transportation since the beginning of the strike in early December.
On Jan. 9, the city provided the health centres with $200,000 in emergency funding.
This funding helped centres to create and expand health services for clients in need of transportation.
The Somerset West Community Health Centre started a transportation helpline so people in the area could call to receive help getting where they needed to go.
The Centretown centre also benefited from the emergency funding. It expanded many of its outreach programs to include home visits to those clients who would normally come into the centre for medical services.
While the Somerset West centre and the Centretown location were both very pleased with the initial funding, it had run out, and additional funding was needed for the upcoming weeks.
City council motion approving the latest funding stated that the additional $500,000 would "cover ongoing transportation, and other related costs of clients due to the transit strike."