The mayor of Chatham-Kent says it would take tens of millions of dollars from upper levels of government to address the growing homelessness in the municipality.
On the heels of joining Ontario’s Big City Mayors in asking the province to declare homelessness a state of emergency, Mayor Darrin Canniff told CK News Today that tens of millions of dollars are urgently required by Chatham-Kent to build more affordable and supportive housing and provide more frontline services and supports.
"Think about the cost of building supportive housing. If you're looking for one unit, $100,000-$200,000 a unit, times hundreds of units, it gets expensive real fast. So, just to build the housing and then the support mechanisms and everything, we just don't have all of that," said the mayor.
Mayor Canniff also said a Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub is needed in Chatham to deal with the mental health and addictions crisis driving homelessness.
The mayor noted the municipality has applied for a HART Hub before, but it wasn't in the cards at that time.
"Yes, it's very much needed. They put a number of them in the province, but we weren't fortunate enough to get one. It would make sense to have one here, yes. The next opportunity, if they're going to put more out, we will certainly put up our hand and say, yes, we would love to have one here," Cannif noted.
Canniff said increased funding is urgently needed to address the pressures municipalities face as frontline responders to a worsening humanitarian and community safety emergency.
He noted that municipalities are doing everything they can, but are past the point where local resources can’t keep pace with the need, adding that municipal staff, community partners, local businesses, and first responders are stretched thin providing supports to the most vulnerable residents.
"It is an emergency, and we need to treat it as such and put the resources that we need to fix it because all forecasts are pointing for it to get worse, not better. Band-aid solutions, we're putting band-aids on everything. We need permanent solutions for these things," Mayor Canniff said.
Canniff said the province must acknowledge the severity of the situation and enable a more coordinated, properly resourced response across the province.
According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, ending chronic homelessness in the province will require an investment of $11 billion over 10 years, focused on prevention, supportive housing, and sustainable exits from homelessness.
