Case Study: Homeless Initiatives Fund

Background

The City of Toronto Homeless Initiatives Fund (CT-HIF) combined the City of Toronto’s Homeless Initiatives Fund, created in 1992, and the Ontario Homelessness Initiatives Fund, established following the release of the report of the Provincial Task Force on Homelessness in 1998, into one program.  It also had a common application, selection and evaluation process. The City of Toronto's Shelter, Housing and Support Division managed the newly integrated fund.

Goals and Objectives

The CT-HIF provided the City of Toronto with a mechanism for responding to homelessness across the City and to the recommendations made by the Mayor’s Homelessness Action Task Force. The ultimate goal was to reduce the number of people using emergency shelters. The intent of the CT-HIF was to expand the City’s responses to homelessness across the City by funding a broad range of new initiatives that have a measurable impact on preventing homelessness; helping people across emergency shelters or moving from hostels into more permanent forms of accommodation; and freeing up space within the shelter system.

Reporting requirements built into CT-HIF funded initiatives were intended to allow the City was monitor homelessness more concretely.

Operations

Given the size of Toronto and the scale of programs and services, a case management approach to integration was considered neither desirable nor feasible. Instead of trying to offer “single window access” to services, the objective was to ensure that services were co-ordinated, that people understood how to access services, and that communication was effective within and across departments. Linkages within the City’s organization structure and within external groups and organizations supported co-ordination.  An example was an intra-departmental committee established by the Shelter, Housing and Support Division to ensure that strategies developed to address homelessness issues takes into account the needs and variety of clients and that they were consistent with work underway in other parts of the Department.  Another inter-department working group on homelessness included representatives from various divisions within the department as well as staff from Urban Planning and Development Services Department and Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.  The Shelter, Housing and Support Division itself was a mechanism to promote integration. In the former municipalities, housing, shelter and support services were separate.

Two formal mechanisms encouraged linkages between city committees and the broader community. An Advisory Committee on Homelessness and Socially Isolated Persons, co-chaired by a municipal politician and a representative from the community, met monthly,  providing the community with an opportunity to raise concerns and have a voice in the City’s process. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee were forwarded to Council. Second, a reference group, the Alternative Housing and Services committee, assisted staff to develop grants and service planning policies. This Committeee held monthly information-sharing forums, which focused on the City’s responses to homelessness.

The City’s Agreement with the Ontario government specified the dedication of funds to new, innovative community-based programs which would achieve one or more of the following outcomes: assisting people to move from the streets to emergency accommodation; assisting people to move from emergency to permanent accommodation; and/or preventing homelessness by supporting the retention of stable accommodation.

In addition, priority was given to developing strategies which result in longer term solutions to homelessness; funding projects which create efficiencies elsewhere in the “system” of services to homeless people; providing direct services to homeless people or those at risk of homelessness; including homeless people in projects through employment and in the planning, implementation and evaluation stages; and including qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods to ensure that the program meets its goals and objectives and that individual projects are effective.

Activities funded by the CT-HIF included drop-in centres, street outreach, harm reduction, housing help, Rent Bank, homelessness prevention, housing, and community development. More than 100 projects had been funded since January 1999. Projects after that date focused on filling gaps in service including under-served neighbourhoods, ethno-cultural communities, and innovative initiatives.

The City of Toronto Homeless Initiatives Fund was almost $7 million annually.

Approach

An interdepartmental working group on homelessness co-ordinated activities related to homelessness. The City developed a Housing First Policy that gave priority to the development of affordable housing.

Key Changes

The Toronto Homeless Community Economic Development Program initiative, announced in January 2000, involved four funders: the City, the United Way of Greater Toronto, the Ministry of Community and Social Services, and Human Resources Development Canada. It was to support community economic development projects for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness in Toronto. The program was to fund locally run projects that involved this population in ventures designed to build life and work skills, develop self-esteem and link them with available community services. Funds for the initiative were available from the CT-HIF.

Key Strengths/Challenges

The greatest strength of this fund was the coordinated approach to address homelessness across Toronto it encouraged. Its major challenge, however, resulted from municipal amalgamation, changing the environment in which homelessness was being understood and addressed. Other challenges included developing a common organizational culture, managing competing priorities within a context of limited resources, and managing a complex set of programs and services.

Lessons Learned

Those responsible for the operation of this fund offered the following advice to others considering a similar venture: Take a streamlined approach to getting clients into the system. And, greater integration makes it easier to coordinate the allocation of resources.

Contact Information

Simon Liston, Agency Review Officer
Homeless Initiatives Fund
City of Toronto Shelter, Housing & Support Division
55 John St., Metro Hall, 7th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6
Tel: (416) 392- 0602

References:

Ministry of Community and Social Services. Integration of Human Services Volume 2, Case Studies. Toronto: Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2000.

Photo credits: Metro Non-Profit Housing Association, Stuart Mair.