Action Plan to End Homelessness & Address Housing Crisis in Leeds & Grenville Presented to City Council on Tuesday Evening

Brockville – Brockville City Council heard about the action plan to end homelessness and address the housing crisis in the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville at their regular council meeting held this past Tuesday.

City council heard a delegation from Alison Tutak, the Director of Community and Social Services with the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville and Graham Cubitt, President of Flourish which provides real estate development services to clients pursuing affordable housing and social-purpose projects and is a social enterprise founded by Indwell, a Christian charity organization that creates supportive housing opportunities.

Tutak told council that the By-Name Priority List (BNPL) which is a real-time list of all people experiencing homelessness across a Service Manager area, which helps prioritize people for the most suitable and available housing is currently at 120 people on the list, which is the highest number to date that the counties have had on the list for homelessness in Leeds & Grenville.

She went on to say that 30 plus of the 120 have been homeless for more than thirty-one months in Leeds & Grenville, with 74% requiring ‘high-intensity’ support.

“Through self-declaration, we know that for those that are on the by-name list currently, 53% identify as having mental health challenges, and a further 40% have substance abuse challenges,” said Tutak.

Graham Cubitt with Flourish and Indwell spoke to city council.

In the report, according to UCLG’s Joint Services Committee 2023 Homelessness Prevention Program Investment Update, 85% of homeless people and families live in Brockville. Furthermore, one-third of the Counties’ recently housed homeless people return to homelessness within six months. Focusing on supportive housing within Brockville with its existing health and community services and public transit, will be the best use of resources with the greatest effect in addressing the challenges of these homeless individuals.

The report suggested a series of steps to design programs and construct 150 permanent supportive housing apartments within the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville (UCLG).

The first proposal was the use of the city’s former Water Pollution Control Centre administrative building at 1805 County Road 2, which is currently being leased to a private school for a student residence.

The report goes on to say, “We understand this property will become available mid-2024 and has been offered by the City of Brockville towards the Counties’ supportive housing efforts. There has been much discussion in the community and at City Council about whether this facility would work for an Indwell-type program.”

The report continues with, “This property is an excellent candidate for a Specialized Supports program, similar to Indwell’s Railway City Lofts in St. Thomas. The building is ideally sized with a layout conducive to rapid and cost-effective adaptive reuse. An assessment of the existing floor plans suggests potential for 15 one-bedroom apartments plus staff offices, tenant amenity and health/programming space, and a servery to accommodate a daily meal program.”

The second proposal was a privately owned property for sale in central Brockville. The site is currently vacant, zoned General Commercial. The report said it will require a zoning by-law amendment to permit a multi-residential project. The location of the property was not in the report.

The third proposal was the reuse of Commonwealth Public School, which just closed at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

“This property is beside the new Brockville General Hospital and surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and industrial businesses. It is within a 15-minute public transit radius to all groceries, pharmacies, health care, and general shopping. Its proximity adjacent to the hospital provides an ideal opportunity for reducing service duplication through integrated healthcare delivery.” said the report.

The report also highlighted the financial contributions required to develop the four projects on the three sites proposed.

Community Donations – $3,000,720
Municipal Co-Investment – $6,851,910
MMAH Capital Investment – $22,500,000
CMHC Grants – $11,610,000
CMHC Financing – $11,271,760

GRAND TOTAL – $55,234,390

The full report can be found on the city’s website here:
https://brockville.civicweb.net/FileStorage/77C57F2AADA848FBB40CEDAF77B57E1A-Finding%20Home%20in%20UCLG%20Flourish%20Report%202024%2002%2028.pdf