All levels of local government gathered in Belleville, Ont., on Thursday for the city’s first-ever summit on homelessness.
First-hand testimony and expert advice were the main features of the inaugural Belleville and Hastings County homeless summit.
“We lived in a car for three weeks,” says Mary, who experienced homelessness and is now in transitional housing.
“My mom passed away in Bridge Street United Church.”
Politicians from all levels of government, as well as community partners, were all in one room — the gymansium at the Quinte Wellness Centre — looking for solutions to the growing homelessness problem in the region.
“There is some poverty here, obviously, and high rents, like every municipality now faces,” says Neil Ellis, mayor of Belleville.
“A time with inflation and rents and the story about evicting tenants to renovate, we’re having a few of them.”
According to the latest numbers, there are at least 142 people experiencing homelessness in Hastings County and Belleville.
Local residents at the summit say the crisis has put pressure on Belleville as the major urban centre.
“As Belleville becomes the centralized point for services in Hastings County, there are byproducts that then endanger health and put extra onus on people like the library staff, the police, and everyday residents,” says Belleville resident Kim Fedor.
“I think people need to understand that it’s not always the people that they see on the street,” adds Sydney Jarvis, a local shelter employee.
“It’s people that they work with that are experiencing homelessness — whether that’s staying at our shelter, the Grace Inn, living in their cars, living in motels for prolonged periods of time.”
It’s a message echoed by the president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, Tim Richter, who called in to the summit from Alberta.
“Homelessness, as we see it today, is driven by policy and poverty and the lack of housing,” said Richter in his address.
“It is not caused by mental illness or addiction or any personal fault or failing.”
It’s the policy element that drove the focus of the event.
“Get ideas, make a plan today, get it back to Hastings County, which is the service provider, and the Canadian Alliance on Homelessness,” says Ellis.
“Set goals, and then bring them back to council to approve.”
At the end of the summit, the partners in the room came up with the following aims for the region:
- Confirming and sustaining a reliable By-Name List
- Improved information sharing and reporting of homelessness data
- Improved Coordinated Access System development (including expansion of health and justice partners)
- Complete a housing/homelessness resource needs-gap analysis; use it for provincial and federal funding advocacy efforts
- Expanded transitional housing units and housing allowances to support housing affordability
- Reduce chronic homelessness by 25 per cent by March 2027
- End veteran homelessness (reach Functional Zero) by April 2025
Mayor Ellis says these findings will be turned into an action plan.
In the meantime, Hastings County expects an announcement from the provincial government on an increase to the Homelessness Prevention Fund to come soon.