City of Ottawa gets $10.5M to bring homeless in from the cold
Mayor, staff say they're grateful for federal help to relieve pressure on shelter system
The federal government has bypassed Ontario to give homelessness funding directly to cities, including about $10.5 million over two years for projects in Ottawa.
The department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities said Wednesday it could not reach a deal with the province before winter, so it's going ahead with individual deals for 10 municipalities.
That news brought a sigh of relief to staff at Ottawa city hall.
"We're hoping we can get the funding approved fairly quickly," Clara Freire, the city's general manage of community and social services, told CBC on Wednesday. "The key is to work now on a strategy to implement, which will take some time, especially if we're looking at some capital development."
Freire said the funding will go toward the city's $14-million encampment strategy.
WATCH | How Ottawa frontline workers are keeping people safe from the cold:
The city has been focused on addressing a growing homelessness problem for years, and created an emergency task force in 2023 to relieve overwhelmed shelters and save lives that could be lost in Ottawa's harsh winters.
But with an influx of new arrivals adding pressure to the strained system, the city is angling for more help.
"We know that about 60 per cent of our shelter system population is newcomers, and that's just something we cannot sustain," said Coun. Laura Dudas, a member of the city's emergency shelter crisis task force.
"We need to address that. We need to provide more options including not just shelters but transitional housing, and the city is moving at a very rapid pace."
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The city is still negotiating details of a funding proposal to temporarily house and support refugees and asylum seekers. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has told CBC it has so far provided $40.4 million to support "various components" of the plan.
Plan to boost shelters this winter
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told reporters Wednesday that this funding will go "a long way" toward supporting the city's latest plans, which include boosting shelter capacity and adding 400 new beds of transitional housing.
"It's very challenging right now. The needs are growing and we want to be as responsive as possible. We don't want people sleeping outside in our community," he said. "Every amount of support helps."
Dudas said city staff responded to 375 encampments in 2023, with most inhabitants ready to leave voluntarily.
The city's plan for this winter aims to ensure those leaving the streets have somewhere to go by boosting shelter capacity and adding 400 new beds in transitional housing — units where people live temporary as they look for a permanent home.
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Ottawa is operating a temporary emergency shelter from a federal building at 250 Lanark Ave., though its lease will expire at the end of next month. It's looking for other opportunities to make use of surplus government properties.
The city purchased an empty office tower on Queen Street that it transitioned into temporary accommodation, as well as a former convent, and is now also running a transitional housing property out of a downtown YMCA.
WATCH | Take a tour of a former office building that's becoming transitional housing:
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