By Warren Waters
I’m the new Board member for Housing & Homelessness, and I’m trying to understand why City spending to end homelessness has so far been … well, ineffective seems the most charitable description. The plan’s goals are perfect: a home for everyone, access to supports, effective services, but the plan does not address any housing- supply constraints caused by zoning, planning or development delays or costs. Over the first five years of the plan, the number of homeless has grown faster than efforts to prevent or reduce homelessness. The scale of the homelessness reality clearly exceeds the 10-year plan’s modest targets. Although we have met or exceeded most of the 10-year plan’s specific new housing and subsidy targets, emergency-shelter use continues to grow.
The 10-year plan assumed that savings from shorter stays in shelters could be re-allocated to prevent homelessness. This never occurred because shelter use, length of stay and costs all grew. While treating symptoms of homelessness, the number of homeless actually increased because there is simply not enough affordable housing to meet demand.
Which are you, housed or homeless? I’m affordably housed myself, but I have friends and family who’ve been homeless. And like everyone in Lowertown I meet homeless people every day. The City says it is “refreshing” the plan, not evaluating it, and I worry the City may say its goals were just too ambitious. I fear they may look for a way to back down from their commitment to end chronic homelessness and instead just shift the responsibility elsewhere.
The City says their Housing-First program model is being assessed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The report is still not available, so we can look forward to seeing those findings, and the “refreshed” 10-year plan to end homelessness, this fall. We need a plan with measures to actually increase the supply of affordable housing, not just supply bandaids for the poor. It is time to realize affordable housing is in everyone’s interest, not a matter of charity.
A narrow view of homelessness–thinking homelessness equals shelters and the solution is simply funding housing-first placements and housing for people chronically accessing shelters–will never address the real causes in a meaningful way. Wage increases have failed to match the increase in land values, something that greatly benefits homeowners, but makes housing unaffordable.
We need to redirect frustration over homelessness at those who actually have political power. We need to stop blaming the victims and build our community to include those being failed by the system. To create an affordable housing market in Ottawa, political accountability is needed, and we need to build a range of mixed-income and supportive housing in all neighbourhoods across the City.
Warren Walters is the Director, Housing and Homelessness on the Executive Committee of the Lowertown Community Association