More than three years after a pilot program started, city housing staff are looking for $4.5 million to dust off a program that helped pay rent for homeless Londoners.
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One proposal in the 2024-27 draft budget calls for the permanent reintroduction of a revamped head lease program, where the city takes on the lease for citizens experiencing or at risk of being homeless. The estimated cost to the city over four years is $4.5 million.
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“We heard good things from the people who were part of the program, obviously, that were able to secure and maintain housing, working with our community partners that were supporting those individuals,” said Craig Cooper, director of housing and stability services.
The city launched a pilot program in December 2020 that ran for 19 months to lease 16 units for 20 people at a cost of nearly $145,000, a much lower amount than traditional shelter services. Program participants also were connected to life skills development in order to “promote successful tenancy.”
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Of the 20 people served by the program, 11 were able to secure permanent housing, including with their original landlords, and five people moved to transitional housing, Cooper said. Two people returned to homelessness, and two people moved away from London.
Part of the city’s involvement included assuming the risk of signing leases for the individuals, who either didn’t have the money, had bad credit or no identification. The majority of the pilot money went to paying rent, with some revenue recouped from what tenants paid to city hall. Damages and other costs, such as utilities and keys, were less than $15,000, officials said in a presentation at city hall in 2022.
Now, the city wants to establish a more productive and lasting relationship with landlords who participate. After initially shying away from the proposal when the pilot launched, small landlords and development companies came forward after reporting by The London Free Press.
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“We have a landlord commitment retention piece,” Cooper said. “We don’t currently run a program that does that. We are kind of modeling other communities for this multi-year budget request. We see it being very successful in St. John’s, Halifax.”
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The pilot program was fully funded by the city, but Cooper said the city could share the program and its results with federal and provincial partners with the hopes of getting more dollars from them.
The program was more administratively intensive than expected, he said. Assuming the funding is granted, the city hopes to contract management out to a third party which may have more expertise and staff in the field.
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Cooper suggested a request for proposal, similar to the process for the homeless hubs, could be used to help find a contractor. Otherwise, some of the funding may be needed to find additional city staff members, which could further affect the number of units leased out by the city.
The strategy is one of many the city is considering to address homelessness in the community.
“We want to see people achieve housing, be successful and maintain that housing, whether they stay in that unit or use that as a stepping-stone to another permanent unit to improve their lives,” Cooper said. “That’s really the outcome, and we know that the only solution to homelessness is housing.”
The first public participation meeting for the multi-year budget is scheduled for Jan. 29 at 4 pm at city hall, while council’s first deliberation session is set for 9:30 am on Feb. 1.
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