The issue of homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse is a complex and ever-increasing problem affecting various regions of Ontario, including the cities within the Eastern Regions. While individual cities and regions have attempted to address the issue, they have not been successful in finding a long-lasting solution. In this regard, a collective effort under a unified Regional Homelessness Authority (RHA) and Plan is the way forward.
The RHA
should be designed to unify and coordinate the existing funding, policies, and
programs of the regions and cities within the Eastern Regions. It should
combine the goals, funding, and resources of the existing networks for
permanent housing, health care, child welfare, mental health, education, and
employment through collaboration and sufficient resources from service
providers, low-barrier shelters, shelter programs, and temporary housing
services. By doing so, the RHA can effectively and economically solve these
complex problems.
It is also
important for the RHA to engage and collaborate with systems and partners
outside of existing homelessness financing, plans, and systems response. This
includes regional local industries, developers, and employers to assist in
solving these complex problems and to show these communities that homelessness
is solvable together as opposed to a fragmentation of the homeless, mental
health, and substance abuse systems currently in place.
To
accomplish such goals, the RHA must have accurate, reliable accounting data on
the number of people experiencing homelessness in the regions and cities within
the regions and what services and support might be most helpful for them. The
RHA should be aware that statistics worldwide suggest that approximately 26% of
homeless individuals have a severe mental illness, 34% have a substance use
disorder, leaving perhaps 40% who have simply decided to drop out of society to
live off the handouts from others by seeking this itinerant way of life at the
direct expense of Cities and Municipal governments and their electorate.
The RHA
should also understand the various types and scales of emergency, temporary,
shelter/barrier-shelters, and permanent housing solutions necessary to meet the
needs of people who are honestly and truly experiencing homelessness.
Therefore, the RHA must resource and scale on evidence-based policies,
programs, and practices that will increase the permanent capacity and
effectiveness of the existing and non-existing overall service systems already
in place or contemplated.
Once the
RHA has accurate, reliable accounting data on the number of people experiencing
homelessness, it should prioritize the individuals' most impactful needs and
requirements first. The RHA should then connect these individuals to supportive
services to address medical, mental health, substance use, employment, and
education needs in an effort toward individualized self-sufficiency and
reintegration into the community.
The RHA
must be conscious of the fact that continued handouts from well-intended
government programs and citizens that endlessly give handouts of tents, food,
clothing etc. have proven over the past decade not to be the solution to
solving this problem of homelessness for the numerous individuals seeking an
itinerant way of life removed from society and its rules, regulations, and
laws.
The RHA
must be conscious of the fact that continued handouts
from well-intended government programs and citizens that endlessly give
handouts of tents, food, clothing etc. have proven over the past decade not to
be the solution to solving this problem of homelessness for the numerous
individuals seeking an itinerant way of life removed from
society and its rules, regulations and laws.
Finally, the jurisdiction of the RHA must not be limited to existing
low-barrier shelters, shelter programs, temporary/permanent housing, or housing
services. To dramatically reduce homelessness combined with drug addiction and
mental illness low barrier shelters, shelter programs, and temporary housing
services. The new RHA must work with and include a network of builders,
developers, local industries, permanent housing, health care, child welfare,
mental health, education, and employment through collaboration from and with
federal and provincial governments and sufficient resources from, and for all
such service providers by improving the behavioural health systems through
restructuring the existing service systems to improve capacity, supports, and
efficiencies on a factual evidence-based approach.
In
conclusion, the formation of a Regional Homelessness Authority and Plan, with a
unified regional approach that includes the cities within the Eastern Regions,
is the best way to tackle the ever-increasing homelessness, mental health, and
substance abuse problems affecting these regions. Through this unified
approach, it will be possible to combine the resources and collaborate with the
existing networks for permanent housing, health care, child welfare, mental
health, education, and employment to solve these complex problems effectively
and economically.
