Growth in homelessness outpacing services in Lambton County: report

People began experiencing homelessness in Lambton County last year at a rate that outpaces support to help them find stable housing, says the county’s 2023 housing and homelessness progress report.

Article content

“In 2023, our community will be faced with tremendous demand for housing and homelessness supports,” Ian Hanney, a social services program supervisor, told county council this past week while presenting the report.

“As seen in other communities across Ontario and Canada, the level of housing precarity continues to rise, along with the elevated levels of poverty and the ongoing opioid crisis.”

On the final day of 2023, there were 318 people experiencing some level of homelessness in Lambton, the report says. That includes people “couch surfing,” as well as those living in shelters, transitional housing or sleeping outside, he said.

Since earlier this year, there has been an encampment at Rainbow Park near downtown Sarnia.

Article content

Following Hanney’s presentation, county council backed a call by Warwick Township Mayor Todd Case to seek a meeting with Paul Calandra, Ontario’s municipal affairs and housing minister, about the need for more provincial support for local efforts to respond to homelessness.

“It’s a serious issue” and “one where the costs keep going up,” Case said.

The county is responsible for public housing, social services, and for overseeing local, provincial and federal funding for homelessness services in its 11 municipalities, which include Sarnia.

“I know there’s no silver bullet when we talk about an issue like this, but we really do need to try to advocate for the funding that we need to make this work,” Case said.

“When you have people who are homeless, that’s a situation,” he said. “But when you have people who are unlawful and are creating situations, and obviously impacts on communities, that’s another.”

Article content

Despite challenges last year, progress was made in efforts to increase affordable housing and maintain the existing local supply, Hanney said.

Partnerships with “dozens of local agencies” were also strengthened to deliver homelessness prevention services as efficiently and equitably as possible.

In 2023, the county council declared responding to homelessness and the need for affordable housing its top priorities, and it began putting aside more money in reserves for affordable housing.

Some of that funding was used to provide funding to three local non-profit groups looking to develop new affordable housing, Hanney said.

Two new public housing units were added in 2023 and two more were approved to be created this year using non-residential space at existing apartment buildings.

Article content

Last year, a county plan was adopted with the aim of adding hundreds of new affordable and supportive housing units and Lambton recently formed a two-year partnership with Indwell, a non-profit supportive housing provider, to begin planning new projects.

That will include “selecting locations, the design of projects, getting planning approval” and securing funding, Hanney said.

Supportive housing sites have staff onsite, such as mental health and addiction workers and others, to help tenants stay housed.

Along with its existing public housing units in the community, the county and agencies are working to provide housing supplements to help keep rent affordable for some households, as well as funding for renovations so seniors can stay in their homes longer, he said.

Article content

The county also funds shelter beds provided by the Inn of the Good Shepherd and in 2023 opened a housing and homelessness resource centre in Sarnia.

The county also provides support workers who help an average of 140 households a month maintain their rental housing.

Local efforts helped move about 200 households from homelessness into permanent housing in 2013 “despite the tremendously competitive and unaffordable housing market and prevented hundreds more from ever entering shelter, from ever experiencing chronic or unsheltered homelessness,” Hanney said.

The county’s 10-year housing and homelessness plan was adopted in 2019 but “the landscape regarding homelessness has changed dramatically” since then, “particularly since the outbreak of the pandemic back in 2020.”

Lack of housing and its rising cost, as well as opioid use and “stagnant low” social assistance payment levels “have led to dramatic increases in homelessness across our province and across our country,” he said.

Given the changes, there will be a “refresh” of the county plan in 2024 that will include “broad community consultation,” Hanney said.

[email protected]

Article content