A Chatham councillor says he heard some valuable ideas to reduce homelessness and encampments while at a recent forum in Montreal, some of which could be used in Chatham-Kent.
Councillor Michael Bondy told CK News Today that the 12th annual National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Montreal at the end of October had several consultants presenting solutions and ideas to address homelessness, an issue that's gripping the country.
Bondy liked the idea of using vacant buildings, such as vacant churches and warehouses, to house homeless people rather than building new and costly supportive housing, because municipal resources and finances are scarce.
"The idea is to lower the bar a little bit. It doesn't have to be a new build every time, and dumb it down a little bit. You don't need millions and millions of dollars to build supportive housing and have staffing," said Bondy.
Ideally, Bondy noted the vacant housing or bridge housing would get people in from the outside with a maximum of 25 people per location for 4-6 months before moving them to transition and supportive housing.
"Find middle ground and don't try to solve the problem immediately. Slow walk into this solution rather than trying to hit it with supportive housing, and everybody has to go to therapy," he said. "That's ideal if you have a very small group of people and an endless sum of money, but nobody is in that boat, right?"
He said he will now ask staff to explore how feasible it is to use vacant housing to address homelessness, and if there's enough vacant housing stock in the municipality to do it.
Bondy also said it's worth looking at the idea of using independent outside consultants to look at homeless problems facing communities because they have fresh eyes, no vested interest in the community, and no connection to decision makers.
"Fresh eyes in here that are totally objective. They don't know Michael Bondy, they don't know Victoria Avenue versus Wood Street. They'll just say this is what we see and this is what we suggest. This is going to be chicken feed compared to buying empty schools and deciding to build 95-unit apartment buildings," Bondy explained.
Conference officials reported that more than 85 per cent of attendees said they've made a change in their community's response to homelessness as a result of something learned at one of the conferences.
According to officials, the conference had more than 2,200 people attending and over 250 speakers.
