Grey County is looking at a variety of ways to address the growing need for emergency shelter.
One option being considered is acquiring a facility the County would operate as emergency housing.
Grey County Manager of Housing Programs Josh Gibson says “The idea was generated primarily through the addition of need. We’re seeing the demand for program services continue to rise and in looking at what the costs to run our current model are, we were developing some ideas around how we can decrease the cost so that we can look at increasing our overall capacity for the program.”
“That’s where these ideas started to come from– how can we save money and enhance services?,” says Gibson.
In report presented to County Committee of the Whole last week, Gibson and staff explain the current emergency housing system has barriers that include cost, not having enough capacity and not having as much control due to the program’s current use of private businesses to house people.
Gibson says the expected demand for nights stayed in emergency shelter is 13,000 a year. Staff say over the summer, demand for shelter continued to grow, despite being a time of year when the demand would normally go down. In order to be able to afford emergency shelter in the winter when it’s more dangerous to sleep outside, the County capped the program at 15 stays per night with the exception of emergencies.
Right now, the County uses private motels to house people needing emergency shelter. The average cost for a room for the County is $120 a night, or about $1.68 million for 14,055 nights of shelter.
Staff have presented the idea of using money in the Affordable Housing Fund (expected to have $3.3 million in it by year’s end) to purchase a facility that would have separated accommodations for those using the service as well as office space for staff. Thursday’s staff report says its forecasted capacity would be up to 30 households a night depending on the property. It would have overnight staffing and each unit would have its own washroom.
Gibson says compared to other shelter models with congregate living arrangements, the separate rooms would provide an increased sense of dignity for users who would have their own bathrooms, food storage and even perhaps be able to bring family pets.
It would also enable the county to use its own discretion when there is damage to a room or an issue, which has led to the banning of some individuals from private motels.
The projected cost of running a County owned facility is about $66 a night or $656,000 a year for 9,855 nights of accommodation.
Staff say they would also continue t use the private motel option for about 4,200 stays in the winter at an estimated cost of $504,000.
A chart included in the report shows estimated costs for the whole program if the County buys a property to be about $1.16 million a year, which is about $526,000 cheaper than the current model.
Gibson says councillors met following the open report to view a closed report for information outlining specific options with regard to the County possibly acquiring its own property to run.
He notes the County is also working to open its transitional housing facility of 14th Street West. He gives an example of how local services might help someone, explaining, “It’s a growing opportunity for someone to go from short-term shelter into 14th Street and then potentially they could move from there to a wellness centre like the new Brightshores wellness and recovery centre, and then from there they could transition into rent-geared-to-income housing.”
Gibson adds, “The County continues to look into ways that we can enhance the services of our short-term shelter options while at the same time, trying to come up with ideas and plans around increasing the capacity of that program.”