City to review 10-year housing and homelessness plan

The City of Greater Sudbury will be reviewing its ten year housing and homelessness plan during Monday's Community Services Committee meeting.

The plan was created in 2013 and is now undergoing a five-year review.

When the plan was created it identifiedsix priority areas, including "theneed to strengthen approaches to preventing homelessness, increasingthe diversity of emergency shelter options and supporting individuals with multiple barriers in obtaining and maintaining their housing."

Councillor Deb McIntoshsays she's happy that work is being done to improve resources for the city's vulnerable, especially in the wake of theannouncement that the Salvation Army's New Life Centre - Sudbury's only year-round men's shelter - will be closing in May.

One area that's prioritized in the review is consistency for emergency shelters, and McIntoshagrees.

"Creating a consistency of the funding, a consistency of the services that we provide so that they're the same across the board, in the different facilities that we fund that provide these services," she said.

Low-barrier emergency shelters are also a priority. Currently theCanadian Mental Health Association Sudbury/Manitoulin'sOff The Street emergency shelter is the only low barrier shelter. It's also a seasonal shelter.

The review states: "a low barrier shelter system involves shelters accommodating people regardless of substance use, but also involves accommodating people in a variety of other scenarios. Shelters must accommodate people regardless of criminal history, or other perceived barriers to entry, like previous non-compliance with a housing plan.

"It also means taking approaches that address reasons why people may be reluctant to access shelter."

McIntosh says she believes that because the city only has one low barrier shelter, some people are reluctant to go to the other shelters.

"If more shelters are low barrier then we will have less people sleeping on the streets,"she says.

"We can't have people sleeping outside in the winter time. So if you have a need then we need to take care of that need, so I can't prioritize one person over another person...I wouldn't want anyone sleeping outside," McIntosh said.