Municipal conference in Sudbury focuses on homelessness

How cities approach homelessness was a main topic of discussion at Day 2 of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities conference in Sudbury.

Greater Sudbury's presentation on homelessness at FONOM emphasized the need for collaboration among municipalities.

“We know that we are the largest urban centre in northern Ontario but there is a lot of people here representing small communities,” said Gail Spencer of the City of Greater Sudbury.”

“I think collaboration is probably even more important in their communities when you’re trying to deal with social issues like homelessness.

The presentation was attended by numerous mayors of municipalities big and small, who are all seeing the effects of homelessness in their own communities.

“It’s always nice to hear that you’re not alone,” said North Bay Mayor Peter Chirico.

“All those same problems you have in your communities are shared and working together, we can solve them.”

Temagami Mayor Dan O'Mara said homeless people in smaller centres naturally gravitate to larger communities with more services.

“In a small community like Temagami, we don’t have the capability or infrastructure to support that,” O'Mara said.

“So a lot of them will end up in places like North Bay or Sudbury or the larger centres.”

Tory Delaurier, mayor of Iroquois Falls, said all communities are feeling the pressure.

“Timmins, north of us, is seeing a lot more,” Delaurier said.

“It's 45 minutes away but it's affecting us.”

The presentation reflected on the city's strategy to close the homeless encampments at Memorial Park in 2021, the transitional housing pilot site and the Lorraine Street development.

A proposed solution set to be presented to council this month is the city's strategy to end homelessness by 2030, presented by Coun. Mike Parent last fall.

“The goal here is to stop what we're doing and look at a new way to be able to have the outcomes we want, which is reducing homelessness on our streets, helping persons who are suffering from mental health and addictions and get them into a home,” Parent said.

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“So the ‘housing first’ approach is going to be the lead theme

FONOM will wrap up Wednesday with presentations about health care, roads and the northern immigration pilot program.