Poverty funding
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Poverty funding
‘Who has a plan for reducing homelessness?’ As Ontario voters head to polls, non-profits beg for funding
Tents in parks. Packed shelters. Hospital emergency rooms used for warming. Supportive housing is touted as a critical part of the solution — but non-profits say more provincial funding is needed.
Feb. 15, 2025
Hamilton Spectator
The bitter cold. The predators. The rampant thievery. The racism.
For Yaungtinec Samana, all those threats melted away in the warm embrace of her new downtown Hamilton home.
“None of that (is here). So that was a big cloud gone.”
Samana moved into 257 King William St. in December after eight years of homelessness.
Through a unique partnership, Indwell, a non-profit that specializes in deeply affordable and supportive housing, operates a new 24-unit building owned by CityHousing Hamilton.
Indwell provides an on-site team to assist Indigenous, Black and other racialized residents with nursing, addiction, psychosocial and food services —the kind of wraparound care that characterizes supportive housing.
Samana, who hails from Papua New Guinea, hesitated before moving in, “because I’m from outside and I’ve been homeless for a long time.”
But the 49-year-old soon realized it was the right mix.
“When I came in and got my own room, it was very comfortable, like extremely comfortable.”
She has a small but bright apartment with a big window. It has a kitchen, cupboards, furniture. Add to that the support of staff and fellow residents alike.
“It makes me feel great. It really does, like a family,” Samana says over a cup of coffee with staff in the dining area.
Indwell holds up the King William building as an example of what’s needed to turn the rising tide of homelessness that’s washing through Hamilton and the rest of Ontario.
Through a unique partnership, Indwell, a non-profit that specializes in deeply affordable and supportive housing, operates CityHousing’s new 24-unit building on King William Street.
It’s a crisis that has seen parks used as encampments, beds filled in overburdened shelters and hospital emergency wards transformed into de facto warming centres.
But securing provincial health dollars through a “predictable and adequate funding model” to operate more supportive housing is the “No. 1 problem,” says Graham Cubitt, director of projects and management.
The vexing task of trying to marry provincial health funding with government housing dollars to advance projects is a long-standing complaint of the sector.
“The issue is that it doesn’t always feel like health and housing is speaking together, in particular, at the provincial level, where they could, in fact, make things happen,” says Brother Richard MacPhee, CEO of Good Shepherd, which also operates supportive housing in Hamilton.
The lack of co-ordination means Indwell must embark on capital building plans without assurance that operational dollars will be there in the end, Cubitt explains.
“We’re a faith-based organization, so we say it’s building on faith.”
Mayor Andrea Horwath says her calls for more help from senior levels of government to respond to homelessness through affordable and housing has become her “refrain.”
More dire than ever
With Ontario voters set to cast ballots in the province’s Feb. 27 snap election, the homelessness crisis looms large.
More than ever, with encampments dotting urban landscapes, public pressure is bearing down on governments to solve the catastrophe.
Across Ontario, the crisis has deepened in recent years, found a report released by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) last month.
The headline was sobering: 81,500 people were homeless in 2024, a more than 25 per cent increase since 2022.
By 2035, the number could spike to 128,122 even under “optimistic economic conditions,” and as high as 294,266 during an economic slowdown, the report warned.
In Hamilton, of roughly 1,600 people who are homeless, about 250 are known to live outside as shelters struggle to keep up with demand and housing costs remain unaffordable.
Meanwhile, with about 6,100 households in the queue for social housing, the wait for subsidized units can be many years for some applicants.
Adding to the grief, a toxic supply of street drugs and untreated mental illness have overlapped with the core problem of unaffordable housing.
In a voluntary survey of 545 people who were homeless in Hamilton in November 2021, 60 per cent reported having mental-health challenges and 59 per cent substance-use issues.
“The landscape is more dire than I have ever seen it, and that is definitely connected to the fact that people have fewer and fewer choices,” says Katherine Kalinowski, Good Shepherd’s chief operating officer and a 32-year veteran of the sector.
“We know what the solutions are, which is the really, really frustrating part.”
Affordable housing, supportive housing, adequate social-assistance rates, guaranteed basic income and health services are among the remedies, says Kalinowski, whose organization also operates emergency shelters.
The deepening problem of homelessness has led to bottlenecks in emergency shelters, which face the increasingly difficult task of directing people back to housing.
“We now have people staying in shelter for months and months,” Kalinowski says.
‘You’re an animal now’
At 257 King William St., Samana reflects on what drove her to homelessness:
The loss of her children to foster care, which she says was unjust and she had no say in.
Then, the death of her first-born in a hit-and-run at age 19.
“Very difficult, every day, believe you me.”
Staying in rooming houses, she faced the unwelcome advances of men, including unsavoury landlords, Samana recalls.
As a Black person, harassment from women staying at a drop-in program pushed her to the Niagara Escarpment woods, she says. “I used that as my wellness program.”
But when the temperature dropped, survival became the focus.
Samana took heating pads, normally used to alleviate pain, and stuffed them into her shoes and coat to stay alive. “Four times, I thought I was going to die.”
And in a tent, there was little security.
“I had to literally say: ‘OK, Yaungtinec, you’re an animal. You’re an animal now. You don’t trust a human. You must hide.’ And that’s how I kept alive.”
These days, she has a different outlook. Unlike before, the future suddenly holds many possibilities.
“And the reason being: I’m housed. I’m happy.”
Indwell says a trauma-informed approach that sees staff and residents collaborate on service plans is crucial to the 257 King William program.
“It’s not about us. It’s about what folks want,” program manager Ashlynn Hill says.
Systemic racism, in addition to the stigma of drug use, can prevent people from seeking health and social services, notes Yvonne Onyango, housing team lead.
Over time, while contending with the grind of homelessness, problems can fester, Onyango said. “So it’s really important to have that supportive team in the building where they’re residing to reduce those barriers.”
Too much for property taxes
Homelessness falls on the doorsteps of municipalities, more than any other level of government.
Moreover, Ontario is the only province where the responsibility for social housing has been downloaded onto municipalities.
As the homelessness crisis unfolds, cities are least equipped to respond, despite carrying most of the burden, local officials say.
That’s what Mayor Andrea Horwath told a provincial prebudget panel last month, noting Hamilton put $125 million toward housing and homelessness in 2024, covering 67 per cent of the overall $186-million tab.
This has become her “refrain,” Horwath remarked during a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new $28-million CityHousing building downtown.
“The fiscal capacity of a municipality on its own to build buildings like this and house residents who need housing desperately is limited.”
Securing provincial health dollars for supportive housing like 257 King William is of particular urgency, Horwath added.
For that $14-million capital project, the city has provided $1.2 million a year for Indwell’s services with the hope that the province will step up, the mayor said.
Such costs “do not belong on the property tax base. They belong with the provincial government.”
Meanwhile, tents have become fixtures of Hamilton’s landscape, fuelling public concern for those living outside, but also backlash over such ripple effects as garbage, fires and open drug use in parks.
In response, council recently decided to scrap a protocol that has allowed tents in public spaces, subject to certain rules, with a plan to return to bylaw enforcement in March.
That decision followed a judge’s ruling in December that dismissed a Charter-based legal challenge over the city’s pre-protocol approach to encampments amid a shelter and housing crunch.
In an emergency effort to get people out of tents, the city has forged ahead with a multimillion-dollar plan for 192 additional shelter beds and 40 modular miniature cabins for up to 80 people on a municipally owned property off Barton Street West.
But recognizing housing is the solution, Hamilton has established a secretariat that’s tasked with evaluating applications for municipal funding according to set criteria.
The secretariat and non-profits recently signed $8.2 million worth of agreements toward more than 800 units of affordable and supportive housing between 11 projects by 2027.
Municipal skin in the game is key to lining up larger amounts from upper levels of governments.
Here’s how Lori-Anne Gagne, CEO of Victoria Park Community Homes, put it after signing a funding agreement with the city: “It’s really challenging for us providers to be able to get all levels of government aligned, which is what’s mandatory to move these projects ahead.”
‘A housing problem’
As Ontario’s snap election flashes by, the competing parties have focused on homelessness to varying degrees.
So far, Marit Stiles’ New Democrats have pledged to create 60,000 supportive housing units, vowed to double social-assistance rates, which includes Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, and end rent control “loopholes.”
Under Bonnie Crombie, the Liberals have also focused on social assistance, but specifically with a plan to double ODSP and index it to inflation. The party lists building new supportive and rent-geared-to-income housing as important measures in its literature, but has yet to release a specific plan to do so.
Among their plans, Mike Schreiner’s Greens say they’ll work with non-profits to build 250,000 affordable and co-op homes, as well as 60,000 supportive homes. They’ll also bring back rent control for all units and limit increases between tenancies.
Just before Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford called the election, his government announced $75.5 million in funding for municipalities to expand shelter spaces, help people exit homelessness and create more affordable housing.
Specific to Hamilton, the Tories told The Spectator they’re investing tens of millions for new transitional and supportive housing, but a campaign spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for details.
Contentious proposed legislation to enshrine more powers for police and municipalities to deal with trespassing and public drug use died on the vine when the writ dropped.
Such crackdowns won’t solve anything, says Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.
“The money that could be put into shelter and housing is now put into policing, court and jail.”
It’s important to not lose sight of the fact that homelessness is a “housing problem,” which Ontario has failed to address, Richter says.
When voters consider their choices Feb. 27, they should look for the party that most seriously proposes to tackle that core issue, he suggests.
“Who is going to remove barriers to new housing? Invest in social and affordable housing? And who has a plan for reducing homelessness that’s focused on creating permanent, durable, affordable solutions?”
Teviah Moro is a reporter and editor with the Hamilton Spectator who specializes in municipal politics, housing and homelessness. Reach him at tmoro@thespec.com.