HALDIMAND—Haldimand-Norfolk Health and Social Services General Manager Sarah Page was on-hand at last week’s Council-in-Committee meeting to provide an update on the efforts of Haldimand’s Homelessness and Homeless Prevention program in addressing some of the root causes behind the issue.
“It exists not only in our big towns, our Simcoe, Hagersville, Caledonia, but across Haldimand County, Norfolk County, all of Ontario, Canada, and worldwide as you’ve seen on the news,” said Page. “The main issues are that it’s very resource intensive. There are individual needs.… There’s widespread poverty, a lack of physical care and mental health supports in our communities, a full-blown housing crisis … and economic increases we all face across all our daily needs on a universal basis.”
Haldimand-Norfolk’s By-Name List (BNL) is a voluntary survey that provides partial information on the size of Haldimand-Norfolk’s homeless or at-risk of homelessness population. The list currently includes over 100 names, but Page noted the actual number is likely much higher.
Page iterated the reality that Haldimand’s lowest income earners have “very little ability” to compete in the local, highly competitive housing market. She promised a new report, coming to both councils in November, that will provide more information on the comprehensive program evaluation work currently taking place.
The waitlist for affordable housing in the two municipalities is up 67% over the past five years, with over 400 individuals or families currently on the list. Over 2023-24, 83 households received housing, while the stats, provided by the Haldimand Norfolk Health Unit (HNHU), indicate 22 households lost their homes locally over the same period. The current wait time is between 2-10 years; even high priority clients are now waiting over a year according to the data.
“So what are our housing and homeless prevention teams doing? You may not always see what we’re doing in the community, but we are out there. We’ve assisted over 15,000 households in Haldimand-Norfolk in many different avenues. The four main focuses we have are emergency housing, the BNL management, eviction prevention, and community outreach and supports,” said Page.
Page said that the region’s top minds are working together on new solutions to these age-old problems: “We’re in the midst of assessing any new emergency or traditional housing opportunities across both counties at all times. We know there’s a gap in service.”
She cited her team’s eviction prevention programming as a resource many in the community may not know about.
“Over 400 households across Haldimand-Norfolk are being assisted in terms of things like rent arrears, utility arrears, system navigation of what assistance or grants are available, tenant landlord issues, and things like that. This is an important part of our program to keep people who are precariously housed in our communities housed permanently.”
“There are usually multiple reasons why someone is precariously housed or homeless,” continued Page. “We’re definitely gathering more data and monitoring the program itself, so that we have some qualitative analysis to ensure we’re providing the best services we can, and ongoing education, awareness, and programs in the community.”
She said to expect more updates throughout the remainder of the year on initiatives including:
A “new and exciting” update on Dunnville’s affordable housing project this fall.
Lighthouse Community Strategy – Page said that an updated presentation on the teams’ drug and alcohol strategy would be coming to Council soon.
Community Partners Collaboration Strategy – Page said that her team has “pulled together anyone who is even remotely involved in providing services for homeless individuals or people in danger of being homeless. We’ve had one community meeting. The next meeting is in a couple weeks.”
Housing strategy – Beyond planned new affordable housing projects in Dunnville, Delhi, and Port Dover, Page noted that her team is looking into other areas to address the current housing crisis, including supportive, transitional houses with partnerships: “We’ve trialed one in Norfolk County currently, with the addictions supportive housing program, we’ve trialed one here with True Experience (in Dunnville).… We continue to look for programs were we can have that private/public partnership.”
“We are looking at a consolidated emergency shelter strategy partnership with the community, looking at whether there are community agencies who can help us provide a more permanent solution to some of our emergency needs. We are looking whether we can increase the rent-geared-to-income levels. Those levels are subsidized by the federal and provincial government, but we can also look at municipal pathways to enhance our numbers,” she said.
Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley asked Page if her team is planning to implement the Icelandic Prevention Model that has earned international acclaim and was shown to be effective by targeting youth and using a combination of community engagement, family, and school involvement to steer them toward a more successful outcome in life.
Page responded by sharing the news that Haldimand Norfolk has been named as one of only a handful of recipients across the country to be approved for funding for a Youth Substance Use Prevention Program, supported by Planet Youth, a team of experts in deploying the Icelandic model.
“These projects will focus on the Canadian adaptation and implementation of the Icelandic Prevention Model and its collaborative approach to preventing substance use harms among youth. With Planet Youth’s guidance, the IPM emphasizes a community-driven strategy to address the root causes of substance use,” read an excerpt from Planet Youth’s website.
Page concluded, “It has been launched in several countries around the world. We’re happy and excited to get the funding to launch our program. We are definitely looking at more preventative side and how we get out of the cycle of mental health and addictions we experience at a high rate.”
