Sudbury's plan for Supportive Housing
Greater Sudbury is planning to build 80 supportive housing units.
A pre-fab supportive housing building in Toronto.
The goal is to end chronic homelessness and insure that people with mental health issues can live in stable housing as part of the community.
Ontario has set a goal of ending chronic homelessness. Significant proportions of those who are homeless either have mental health problems, are youth or are Indigenous. Ending chronic homelessness requires action on these groups.
This policy brief focuses on the two to three percent of the population that lives with a severe mental illness or addiction. This group will benefit from increasing housing affordability but also from access to supportive housing in order to live an independent life as part of the community.
—From the Wellesley Institute
Supportive Housing
Most people experiencing homelessness in our community are experiencing chronic homelessness and have identified as high acuity, requiring additional supports to obtain and maintain their housing. There is a need to have housing that is permanent, with 24/7 supports on site and deeply affordable for individuals’ experiencing homelessness with the most complex and often co-occurring needs. The collaboration between housing and health care services needs to be strengthened to plan, develop and invest in housing with the right level of supports.
The development of two 40-unit supportive housing builds is recommended to meet
the current need of individuals experiencing homelessness with high acuity on the By-Name List. Evidence highlights that “permanent supportive housing is an effective intervention for stably housing most people experiencing homelessness and mental illness who have complex support needs”.
(Greater Sudbury’s Roadmap to Ending Homelessness, Page 44)
Recommendation
3.1 Investments in Supportive Housing
Description
Develop 80 supportive housing unit spaces with 24/7 supports onsite that is deeply affordable for those individuals’ experiencing homelessness with the most complex and often co–occurring needs to meet the current need.
The collaboration between housing and health care services needs to be strengthened to plan, develop, and invest in housing with the right level of supports.
Whenever possible, partnerships should be explored to develop a mix of supportive housing, rent–geared–to–income, and affordable housing developments.
Estimated Cost
2x 40-unit supportive housing builds:
• $28 million in capital.
• $ 2 million/year for building operations/maintenance.
• $ 960K/year for rent supplements.
• $ 5 million/year for program operations
Total project costs:
$36 million for start-up plus continuous program costs.
Note: $8 million a year in operating costs, $100k a unit.
Alternative option
Purchase existing private rental stock and convert to supportive housing.
Total project costs are expected to vary based on market factors.
(Roadmap to Ending Homelessness Appendix A, page 1)
Acuity Levels
Acuity refers to an assessment of the level of complexity of a person’s experiences.
A score of eight or higher, indicates the individual requires additional support to obtain and remain housed, such as permanent supportive housing or a Housing First intervention. Seventy per cent (211 persons) who were added to the By-Name List in 2023, were assessed as high acuity.
(Greater Sudbury 2023 By-Name List Report, page 7)
Prioritization
The prioritization matrix prioritizes which individuals require more services and supports (high acuity) to retain and obtain housing, before supporting those who require lesser levels of support (low acuity).
From the By-Name-Priority List (BNPL), individuals are assigned priority levels
based on:
• their type of homelessness (i.e. chronic vs. non-chronic),
• their current location (i.e. sleeping outdoors, emergency shelters, etc.),
• the presence of tri-morbidity (i.e. mental illness, physical illness,
and substance misuse),
• their assessment score and the date intake was completed.
Once individuals have been assigned a priority on the BNPL, the Homelessness Assessment Review Team (HART) will work together to match the client to appropriate supports and housing services.
(HART) Coordinated Access System Process Guide 2021, Page 10
Cool Aid Society’s supportive housing complex in Victoria BC.
Unlike Transitional Housing where the residents are expected to stay for a limited time, (usually under one or two years), Supportive Housing is permanent housing.
They are Single Resident Occupied (SRO) units that are usually located in converted hotels or motels. Some municipalities build new ones use pre-fab buildings.
A supportive housing unit in Toronto.
The level of supports vary depending on the city’s requirements, the agency that has been contracted to operate the facility and on the residents’ individual needs.
These planned 80 units are “for those individuals’ experiencing homelessness with the most complex and often co–occurring needs to meet the current needs.”
Supporting Housing doesn't prevent residents from using drugs. That’s not their goal. Its mission is to get the homeless off the streets and into permanent housing.
It always amazes me how expensive “affordable housing” turns out to be, both to have it constructed in the first place and to keep it operating once in place.
I get it, these are needy people, so the operating costs aren’t just building operating costs, they also include social supports, etc. However, advocates of Housing First always say that once the housing situation is settled, the occupants can start to work on their other problems, which would imply that, over time, the need for social supports, etc. might decrease. Never seems to happen, in real life.
I totally get it. One way or another, these unfortunate souls burn through a lot of expensive societal supports, including police encounters, social workers, mental health workers, income supports, shelters, health care encounters (paramedics, emergency, hospitalizations, addictions supports, various other medications). The per night per bed cost to maintain our local homeless shelters is more than a room in a local luxury hotel!
Interestingly, all the advocates still complain that not enough is being done. The fundamental complaint of the homeless is often that they can’t afford a home on the money they have. That’s a gross over-simplification, given the complex issues many of them face. Nonetheless, if you gave most anybody the $100k each that it takes to house people in the affordable housing, most anybody should be able to afford a pretty decent abode.
I suspect there are at least two problems. First, the efforts of all those various “helpers” are not well coordinated. I suspect there’s a lot of duplication and waste. Second, there’s a growing industry around helping the homeless, and that, in part, explains the rising costs. Many of our local advocates seem to end up as employees, then as managers, then they end up running a business bidding for the contract to run local shelters.
Lots of money gets spent, most of it not going to the homeless. It’s going to buy expensive supports for the homeless, buying them from people who are making a pretty good living in this business. Even the guys who are executive directors of “not for profits” seem to do all right, financially!