Unified Eastern Ontario Regional Homelessness Authority and Action Plan

 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.