Hastings County reviews 10 year homelessness plan

By Ryan Peddigrew

BELLEVILLE – The 10-year plan for Hastings County highlighted the successes of the plan at its midway point, focusing on revisions required due to the rapidly changing housing market in the Quinte area.

One of the highlights of the report was the Home for Good program, formed in 2017. The program is provincially funded and it assists chronically homeless people with getting into affordable housing. It provides individualized services to ensure they don’t become homelessness again.

Catherine Houard, the Hastings County Home for Good program coordinator, says it’s about getting people into housing and provide them with the necessary help in order to keep them there.

“A lot of other programs help people to get housed but then they’re kind of on their own when they get there. If they don’t have those skills to maintain that successfully, they kind of fall into that chronic homelessness category,” said Houard.

A 40-unit Home for Good building on Sidney Street, in Belleville, is expected to open in March. The building is provincially funded and the tenants are selected based on their circumstances through the partnerships they have with their support programs aimed at helping people combat the things that lead them to homelessness.

Houard told QNet that expanding Home for Good is on hold for now.

“We certainly would love to expand on Home for Good. There are no plans immediately to do that, those will all be tied to what funding is available. Unfortunately, there is no funding presently available but if something does come up we will certainly pursue that wherever we can.”

The report states that there were a number of revisions to certain parts of the plans due to the drastic shift in the housing market throughout Hastings County.

There are 230 new affordable permanent rental housing units built by mid-2020 aimed at helping people secure housing. The county has implemented new rent subsidy programs for over 200 households.

One of the focuses of the report was about providing both housing assistance to seniors by partnering with the Victorian Order of Nurses. The personal care at home and help with homemaking is aimed at allowing assisted living high-risk seniors to stay independent and live in their houses as long as possible.

The report also acknowledges the need for an emergency 24-hour shelter in Belleville. The Grace Inn, a new, long-awaited 21-bed emergency shelter is expected to open in Belleville on December 2.

There were a number of parts of the plan that were revised moving forward.

The recommendations include

• Supporting building a mix of new affordable housing aimed at being 80 percent or less than market value;
• Advocating higher levels of government for more funding to put into affordable housing;
• Encouraging home-share programs to encourage older people with space in their houses to take on tenants to help with the costs of living.
• Developing the Rentsmart program in Hastings County to educate and foster better relationships between renters and tenants.
• Looking into programming to move renters with more room than they need into smaller houses to free up space for people who need homes.

The report says that over the next five years, they’ll move forward with the adjustments and recommendations made at the review in hopes of creating more affordable housing for Hastings County.