The municipality is helping to extend supports for those experiencing homelessness in the community.
During Monday night’s council meeting, members approved another year of funding for day programs and winter warming services at Hope Haven in Chatham, as well as housing-focused outreach services with ROCK Missions.
Mayor Darrin Canniff says homelessness remains one of the municipality’s top priorities, but it can’t be done alone.
“That’s what our biggest issue is, homelessness and affordable housing,” Canniff says. “We, as a municipality, need to be stepping up and add funding with that. But ultimately we need the federal and provincial governments to step in to help us with this.”
On average 102 unique individuals access Hope Haven monthly. In a report to council, Kim Crew, Chatham-Kent’s Housing Services program manager say roughly 60% of those individuals have housing, but cannot afford both rent and food.
Through both outreach and drop-in centres, ROCK Missions regularly helps close to 500 individuals each year by providing nutritious meals, hygiene supplies and other basic needs, emergency shelter, clothing and blankets, as well as mental health and crisis support, among other services.
The funding for ROCK Missions comes through the ESS Future Economic Downturn reserve, while the Hope Haven programs will be covered by the Homelessness Prevention Program Housing Assistance.
Earlier this week, council voted unanimously to move forward with a plan to build 50 temporary cabins on Park Street in Chatham, which Canniff says will cost about $3-million to build and over $2-million a year to maintain.
“It’s the same scenario right across the province that communities are paying a lot of money to deal with the homeless situation, so we need to make sure that we continue to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments to fund municipal governments for these scenarios.”
