Province puts more money into housing support services in Hamilton

A funding boost is being provided to so-called “wraparound” services which make up part of a strategy to end chronic homelessness in Hamilton.

Ancaster Dundas Flamborough Westdale Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin says $2.8 million over three years will be invested in the city’s Home For Good program.

Home For Good assists youth, Indigenous people, those transitioning from provincial institutions like jails and hospitals and the chronically homeless as they look to find stable housing.

McMeekin adds that the initative provides access to support services such as counselling, addictions services and life skills training.

He notes that he’s visited dozens of projects around the province and discovered that “those that provided wraparound services, all the things that can fall between the cracks, were successful” while those that didn’t “invariably were in trouble.”

The extra money is expected to assist over 500 Hamilton households.

McMeekin notes that while “no single program is substantive enough” to solve the housing problem, taken together he predicts “refreshing changes for people who are vulnerable.”

He cited as other key initiatives, the planned increase of Ontario’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and Hamilton’s 10-year, $50-million poverty reduction strategy which is focused on new and upgraded affordable housing units.