City explores options for moving people staying in rec centres

The City of Ottawa is considering leasing a private-market facility as part of plans to transition from pandemic-era temporary homeless shelters as the need for beds still far outstrips capacity.

Short-term solutions approved by the community services committee also included boosting subsidies for one-bedroom apartments amid high rents and low vacancy rates.

The province caps maximum allowable rent at $1,347 — far below the $1,800 median cost logged by the city.

"In the short term, no one goes unsheltered," said Clara Freire, the interim manager of community and social services. "We will tackle housing affordability through a localized housing allowance, while stabilizing people."

The city began using community centres as overflow shelters in 2020 to allow for physical distancing. Over the next three years, the centres would provide overnight accommodation to more than 2,500 people.

What was once a short-term solution has become a necessary way of dealing with surging rates of homelessness.

The centres were supporting 114 people on June 5, according to a staff report, with community shelters operating beyond capacity and another 115 people "living unsheltered."

In a response to a councillor inquiry, staff suggested it would cost about $3.5 million to house those 114 people, plus more to cover the capital costs for new supportive housing. 

How the system looks now

Five hundred thirty-five community shelter beds are available in Ottawa, with another 191 for specialized programs, city staff wrote in their report.

Shelters also have 60 overflow mats — meant for emergencies — that are regularly in use, for a total of just under 800 beds.

The shelter system has seen "nearly no growth for decades" despite a steady increase in the city's population, according to staff. In 2022 there was never a point where those kinds of shelter beds above would have met demand.

"While the Physical Distancing Centres began as a mechanism to reduce density in the community shelters and allow for physical distancing, they are now addressing a critical capacity gap," staff wrote. Failing to address that capacity gap would result in even more people sleeping on the streets or in encampments.

The city said the centres have also been an important learning opportunity, which underscored the need to provide what it calls wraparound supports to ensure people can easily access programs to both gain housing and to thrive. 

That will require a collaborative approach.

"The strategy is light on details, by design, because one of the most exciting parts of this vision is that we're going to build it out together with the community, with supportive housing, shelter, other service providers and with people who've had and continue to have lived experiences," Freire said.

With the right resources and people, staff said this plan should help them eliminate chronic homelessness by the end of this term of council.

Need for supportive housing emphasized

In the medium to long term, staff put the emphasis on creating more supportive housing and a new community hub where people who become homeless can access a variety of services.

That kind of assistance makes a huge difference, said Peter Tilley, CEO of the Ottawa Mission, which is one of four shelter providers in Ottawa.

"It keeps them housed and it keeps them fed, and it provides them with other necessities," he said. "Without it, under these market rents, we're just not going to be able to afford to house people anywhere."

Tilley also told the story of a man who spent years struggling with substance use only to relapse when he took a room in a boarding house close to an area known for drugs.

"People need and deserve the dignity of permanent housing with support if it's needed," said Kaite Burkholder Harris, who leads the Alliance to End Homelessness.

"The fastest way to do this in this case is through flexible increased rent subsidies … and leveraging existing vacancies from the nonprofit housing providers," she said.

She challenged the city to leverage rent subsidies not to create another overflow shelter, but instead find housing spaces for all 114 people before physical distancing centres are closed.

She told councillors: "It is doable."

Community centre programming set to resume

The city aims to be out of the remaining two community centres — Bernard-Grandmaître Arena in Rideau-Vanier and Dempsey Community Centre in Alta Vista — by mid-August.

Staff said the arena ice likely will not be ready to be accessed until later in the fall.

It's also unclear where a new overflow centre or community hub would be located, but staff said they would consider the burden placed on some neighbourhoods that provided respite during the pandemic when making their final decision.