Housing support, integrated care planning, and 24-7 safe spaces were shared Tuesday as details, among others, as part of the City of London’s largely anticipated plan to combat homelessness in the southwestern Ontario community.
Now known as London’s Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response, the plan was first teased by Mayor Josh Morgan during his first-ever state of the city address last month. He said it would create a “permanent and sustainable system” to help people experiencing homelessness.
The proposed plan from London’s Health and Homelessness Summit, which was developed in around 100 days, will center around a connected set of integrated hubs that will use an “all doors lead here model,” allowing for flexible referrals, according to city staff.
Through that model, officials said that multiple locations could soon be distributed throughout the community that are “purpose-built for the most marginalized populations,” hosting a range of common and integrated care as well as service functions delivered through the help of both multi-agency and interprofessional teams.
Speaking at the summit’s news conference at RBC Place London Tuesday morning, Scott Courtice, executive director of London Intercommunity Health Centre, unveiled the draft plan and said that the system is also designed to offer “timely and direct pathways to housing in a range of supportive models.”
“This group said loud and clear together that housing is health care and a fundamental human right, and that is the founding belief on which this system response is built,” he said.
Courtice outlined a set of specific functions that each hub would offer, from 24-7 safe spaces to available access to basic needs as well as health care and justice system services and housing supports.
London police chief Steve Williams reflected on his 30 years of policing in the city, saying that the situation in the downtown “has never been more dire than it is today.”
“As one of the only first responder agencies that operates on a 24-hour basis, every day our members see suffering on our streets … they see people struggling and, unfortunately, they see people dying,” he said. “But out of all our discussions, I think something truly extraordinary has arisen.”
Additionally, community leaders highlighted that the plan would ensure an anti-racism, anti-oppression and harm-reduction approach along with a specific design that “ensures front line agencies are not asked to do more with already strained resources.”
“I know I said this in the state of the city (address), but there are front-line workers who have been working in this space for almost their entire lives and it has been a frustrating, difficult, (and) and challenging experience to continue to see things not get better,” said Mayor Morgan.
“This is truly an emergency for our city. This is a crisis. This is something that we cannot hesitate to act on.”
In a draft estimate, the plan said that around 12 to 15 total hub locations would be developed across the community, predicting an estimated five to start. Additionally, up to 30 people could be served at each location, “depending on acuity and population needs,” read the report.
One hundred high-support housing units could also be set for construction immediately, and 600 over three years, according to the plan.
The draft system response was the result of a three-month community summit process that brought more than 200 individuals, representing at least 70 local organizations, together in the hopes of “making a significant change” in helping London’s unhoused population.
The summits, which began back in November, saw representation from a range of sectors, including community health and social services, business and economic development, education, emergency services and more.
“This cross-sectoral group of committed Londoners agreed to work together in new ways, acknowledge and build on great work already underway, recognize the things that were not working as well, bring new people and new resources to this effort, and speak in one voice to the funders who have the ability to resource our system response,” said Beth Mitchell, co-chief executive officer of CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, who also kicked off the program.
In terms of system resources, Tuesday’s unveiling included an update from the Health and Homelessness Fund for Change which was first launched following a $25-million donation in support of the plan from an anonymous local family. The family offered an additional $5 million if community donations can reach that amount.
Fund for Change chair Marcus Plowright, as well as Diane Silva, director of philanthropy for the London Community Foundation, confirmed that the fund has since raised nearly $650,000 in new donations since the mayor’s address.
In reacting to London’s Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response plan and the funding raised by those in the community, Jenna Rose Sands, executive director of SafeSpace London, said that it’s all “a bit overwhelming.”
“When I think back to what started the hunger strike, and where we were in the months leading up to that, it’s incredible,” she said. “This entire process is essential and is the first step towards radical change.”
Sarah Campbell, executive director of Ark Aid Mission, seconded Sands’s statement, adding that “this has been an incredibly hopeful process to get to this moment.”
“It’s also very encouraging what the community together can do,” she said. “While this is just a draft, I’m very excited that we have aligned in all of our desires to see this issue be addressed, and with so many stakeholders and sectors reflected, it gives me a great deal of hope that we actually can shift the conditions meaningfully so that we have different outcomes than the past.”
“I feel enthusiastic. I feel hopeful, and I think that those are the feelings a lot of my colleagues in this sector echo,” said Ericka Ayala Ronson, executive director of Mission Services of London. “Having been present at some of the summit sessions and having had to keep some of this quiet, I’m just really excited for the collaborative conversations that this work has sparked in looking ahead at what the future will hold in terms of implementation.”
The proposed whole-of-community system solution is set to come forward to city council’s strategic priorities and policy committee for endorsement and potential funding allocation from the London Community Recovery Network fund on Feb. 28.