A team of Lambton County social services workers recently received provincial recognition for its work with the homeless.
Ontario’s Municipal Services Association named the Lambton County Integrated Homelessness Prevention Team one of its 2022 award winners.
“I just think it’s really wonderful for the team to receive some recognition from their peers across the province,” said Valerie Colasanti, Lambton’s social services general manager.
“This successful initiative has demonstrated that an integrated approach to service system management can improve the lives of the individuals and families we provide services to within our communities,” the association said.
The number of individuals experiencing homelessness increased “visibly” as the pandemic hit, “which was something we had not seen in Lambton County before,” Colasanti said.
During the winter of 2021, about 260 individuals were using the county’s shelter system, compared to about 60 prior to the start of the pandemic.
The county reported in October that an estimated 170 individuals were homeless, including more than 50 said to be “sleeping rough” outside of shelters at some point in the previous few months.
“There’s still lots of work to do” but county staff worked “really hard to ensure those vulnerable populations were kept as safe as possible,” Colasanti said.
“We really pulled everyone together to work on the crisis that we saw during COVID with our homeless population.”
Colasanti said staff from social services’ division’s homelessness prevention and Ontario Works departments came together on the team to respond to the rise in homelessness as the pandemic began.
“We didn’t have community support workers doing that intensive work within Ontario Works before,” Colasanti said.
Ontario Works is the system of financial support and employment assistance provided by municipalities in the province to those in need of social assistance.
“All case workers work with individuals who are homeless but they have large caseloads and it’s really hard to do that intensive work,” Colasanti said.
“So we carved off a few workers and gave them a smaller caseload to really concentrate on the individuals” who were living in emergency shelter in motels, she said.
“As our numbers came down, and we were able to relocate most of the individuals at the motels, we found it was a really great model so we’ve continued on with it because our numbers are still quite high.”
The county reported this fall that, since March of 2020, 529 individuals have been diverted from emergency housing and 311 experiencing homelessness have been helped into more permanent housing.
Colasanti said the integrated model has been successful because the services individuals need are connected.
They might need financial support from Ontario Works, as well as help finding a place to live, as well as other services, including those provided by partners such as the Canadian Mental Health Association and Lambton Public Health, she said.
“The team is the core but we do a lot of outreach to our community partners to help us. Without them we would not have been as successful.”
The integrated team is a small group of individuals but Colasanti said she likes to say everyone in the Ontario Works and homelessness prevention departments are members.
Lambton’s housing and child care departments also get involved, when needed.
“While there’s a core team there’s a huge team all around them that provides supports as well,” Colasanti said.
“It is a unique model because not everyone has their teams working as closely together.”
Colasanti said the county has an integration co-ordinator who “works with us on all our initiatives to make sure we’re looking through that human services integration lens.”
That includes when the county recently renovated the Share Services Center in downtown Sarnia, where its social services departments are located. Planning went into having everyone who interacts with clients located together on the same floor after the renovations, “and all sort of inter-dispersed amongst each other so this type of integration work happens naturally,” Colasanti said.
“I think that human service integration is really important and that is what this award, really, is for.”
“We certainly are seeing positive outcomes. We’re seeing people getting housed on a regular basis.”
The fact the community is experiencing homelessness is sad and unfortunate, so “it seems a little odd to be celebrating” the award, Colasanti said.
“On the other hand, I think the fact that we are really trying to assist individuals in our community is something to be celebrated.”