Ending homelessness in Sudbury would cost $350M: report
A successful strategy to end functional homelessness in Greater Sudbury would cost $350 million, a report headed to city council concludes.
The city’s share of the cost would be more than $100 million, with the rest coming from the federal and provincial governments.
The report comes on the heels of a motion councillors passed last October calling for staff to come up with “a roadmap to end homelessness in the City of Greater Sudbury by 2030, which included financial and staffing requirements to transition services from temporary shelters to transitional and permanent housing.”
Ending “functional homelessness” means getting to the point where homelessness is rare and people who become unhoused are homeless for a short time.
“Achieving functional zero homelessness requires a complete system transformation to ensure there is access to housing for all citizens and adequate supports available to maintain housing,” the report said.
To succeed, the report said a transition has to be made from passive services – such as shelters and cooling stations – to active services.
Active services include building affordable housing, having preventative services in place before someone is homeless, and housing-first supports.
“Without an investment in active services, this creates a bottleneck of persons entering homelessness with a lack of opportunities to become housed,” the report said.
“Similar approaches have been taken by other municipalities, including Waterloo Region, which highlight significant investments required for affordable housing and homelessness (approximately $245 million) in order to end chronic homelessness by 2030.”
The $350 million breaks down into $322 million for capital construction costs, $13.6 million in annual operating costs and $11 million a year for rent subsidies.
800 affordable housing units
In terms of new construction, the top priority is building 800 units of affordable housing ($280 million to build, $9.6 million in annual rent subsidies and $600,000 a year for maintenance.)
Another $36 million would be spent building two, 40-unit supportive housing, which would require $5 million a year for program costs and $960,000 for rent subsidies.
Other planks of the plan include creating 24-hour emergency beds for youth ages 16-24, as well as expanded services for women and First Nations clients.
The report said a major challenge is the shrinking number of landlords willing to participate in rent supplement agreements and the lowest rental vacancy market in a decade.
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
“A two-fold increase in the length of time to become housed through urgent status since 2021, and the loss of various affordable housing units in the downtown core, among other factors, have amounted to significant challenges for individuals experiencing homelessness to obtain housing, even with significant efforts and supports provided through the homelessness-serving sector,” the report said.
Current efforts to invest in passive services without a long-term plan only create a growing “bottleneck” of people in need of a place to live in the shrinking housing market.
Read the full report here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6928617.1718492429!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
Ottawa Food Bank receives largest donation in its 40-year history
210,000 pounds of food was delivered to the Ottawa Food Bank on Saturday, the largest donation in its 40-year history.
Your father’s diet before you were born could have affected your health, a new study suggests
Your father's diet before you were born could have played a role in your health, a new study has found.
Singh 'more alarmed than before' after reading full foreign interference report
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he is 'even more alarmed than before' after reading the un-redacted report alleging there are MPs and senators who are participating to some degree in foreign interference efforts.
Prince William shares childhood photo of him and King Charles III for Father's Day
Prince William on Sunday shared a photograph showing him as a child with his father, King Charles III, to mark Father’s Day in the United Kingdom this year.
Clooney and Roberts help Biden raise US$30 million-plus at a star-studded Hollywood gala
Some of Hollywood's brightest stars headlined a fundraiser for U.S. President Joe Biden that took in a record US$30 million-plus for a Democratic candidate, according to his campaign, in hopes of energizing would-be supporters for a White House contest they said may rank among the most consequential in U.S. history.
A new tax filing system could give Canadians more than $1 billion in unclaimed benefits: PBO
Canadians would get more than $1 billion in unclaimed benefits each year through an automatic tax filing system, according to a report published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
Less than 10 per cent of homeless shelters N.S. promised last year currently in place
Nova Scotia has installed fewer than 10 per cent of the 200 shelters it promised to set up for the province's homeless residents more than eight months after first making the pledge.
No injuries reported after camper engulfed in flames in parking garage: Regina fire
A fire in an underground parking facility in Regina led to no injuries, according to the city's fire department.
'We're in pretty good shape': Calgary goes low in water consumption after state of local emergency declared
On a day that a local state of emergency was declared in Calgary, city residents answered a request from the mayor and emergency officials to use less water.