The Ontario government says it has begun flowing up to $75.5 million to municipalities to help them remove encampments in public spaces.
The government said in a news release Monday that those funds, which were initially announced late last year, will help cities and towns create more emergency shelter spaces and affordable housing units and “help restore safety and order” to Ontario’s parks and other public spaces.
“Our government has delivered significant support to municipalities to address the challenges encampments can pose to public safety across Ontario,” Housing Minister Paul Calandra said in the release.
“Mayors have asked us for additional help and we have been clear that we will provide funding to municipalities that show results in winding down these sites. We can no longer accept encampments as a place to deal with mental health and addiction issues.”
The province said the funding that is being flowed to municipalities includes $50 million for ready-to-build affordable housing projects, allocated based on how close a project is to completion and its value for money, as well as to help projects near completion that are in need of additional funding to open their doors faster.
Also, $20 million will be given to cities to expand shelter capacity and create additional temporary accommodation spaces. Finally, Ontario will invest $5.5 million to top up the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) to free up emergency shelter spaces for people living in encampments.
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Earlier this month, the group representing most of the province’s municipalities issued a warning that Ontario’s homelessness crisis is “at a tipping point.”
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) said in a report that the recorded number of homeless people is ticking towards 100,000, particularly in the southern parts of the province.
According to the municipal association’s numbers, more than 81,000 people in Ontario experienced homelessness last year. That’s an increase of 51 per cent compared with the roughly 53,000 people recorded in 2016 and a 25 per cent increase since 2022.
AMO said the report is evidence massive change is needed in how the Ford government handles homelessness — and housing more generally – estimating local governments spent $2.1 billion on homelessness and housing last year alone, funding that is generally drawn from property tax revenues.
After months of pressure, Ontario announced its solution to homeless encampments at the end of last year.
Aside from the funds shared Monday, it unveiled new powers for police and a threat to local service managers who fail to deal with homeless sites in their cities.
The bill — which has not yet passed — is set to strengthen penalties for people who repeatedly break trespass laws and allow police and provincial offences officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.
The AMO report estimates Ontario needs to spend an extra $11 billion over the next decade on 75,000 affordable and supportive housing units, while another $2 billion is needed to house encampment residents.
–with files from Isaac Callan and Colin D’Mello
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