‘Our homeless response is already stretched thin’: Council opts to maintain two-year service contracts with local agencies

Council is extending contracts for frontline agencies to two years, providing stability for their services going forward. CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell reports.

Local agencies that help homeless Londoners are breathing easier.

On Tuesday night, London city council voted to extend their contracts to two years, providing them with some stability and allowing them to better retain staff. But the decision didn’t come without exhaustive and sometimes emotionally charged debate.

“The federal government’s pulling out $4.2 million in funding locally. I said to all of you, ‘That is terrible,’ but I can’t backfill that from the property tax base,” said Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis.

Lewis was among councillors who wanted contracts with agencies like London Cares and Ark Aid Street Mission to go to one year, with a renewal option for a second year.

Council ultimately voted to maintain two-year contracts.

Ward 13 Coun. David Ferriera sparred over the issue with Lewis, arguing in favour of two years.

“So our homelessness response is already stretched thin. Why are we cutting off the hands, our main hands of doing the work that we need to do. It’s baffling to me,” said Ferriera.

Also supporting two-year contracts was Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow, who pointed out council’s penchant for second-guessing its own plans.

“We second guess whether we want to take action under the action plan. We don’t take action under the action plan, then we wonder why the action plan isn’t working. Then somebody says, ‘You know, we really need an action plan.’ And it’s a perpetual, it’s a death loop,” he stated.

Council also endorsed using $250,000 from the Social Services Reserve Fund to allow community agencies to open additional warming spaces at their discretion when the temperature dips to minus 5 C.

Meanwhile, $290,000 was allocated to lower the threshold to open the Boyle Community Centre in the Old East Village as an emergency warming centre.

The new standard is minus 15 Celsius or minus 20 windchill, as opposed to the previous standard that both conditions had to be met.

The change would add roughly 20 nights per winter to the existing ten nights the facility is used as a warming centre.

“I’m fully supportive, even though it’s oversaturated in my ward. Even though it’s been the same thing year after year. It’s the right thing to do. I appreciate the work of my colleagues, but we can do better than this,” said Ward 4 Coun. Susan Stevenson.

A proposal to have ice and freezing rain added immediately to the new warming centre standards did not pass. Instead, council directed staff to examine options to align with Extreme Weather Alerts issued by Environment Canada, including freezing rain and drizzle, ice storms, and other weather events.

“This mainly came forward because we didn’t open during the ice storm at the end of December,” pointed out Ward 11 Coun. Skylar Franke.

Meanwhile, a pair of controversial proposals failed to get tabled. One called for funding to London Cares Project Home to be redirected. The other was for a so-called Good Neighbour clause in the contracts with service providers that would have required shelters to maintain stricter property standards.