Community Excellence Awards
2010 Application
Name ofLocal Government: Capital Regional District
Projector Program Title:Eliminating Homelessness in the Capital Region
Phone: 250-360-3081 Fax : 250-361-4970
Contact Person:Henry Kamphof,
Contact Title:Senior Manager, Housing Secretariat
Email:
Select your Category:
BEST PRACTICES, GENERAL
_ _ _ BEST PRACTICES, WEBSITE
_ _ _BEST PRACTICES, CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
_ _ _ LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION, Small Community
_ _ _ LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION, Mid-size Community
_ _ _ LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION, LargeCommunity
_ _ _ LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION, Regional District
By making this application, I understand that all materials will be kept by
UBCM and are available for viewing by others through the UBCM
Community Excellence Awards library.
Signature: ______Name: Henry Kamphof
Date: July 30, 2010
Project Summary
The purpose of the Capital Regional District's application for the UBCM Community Excellence Awards is to showcase the best practices utilized to address homelessness in the Capital Region.
In recent years surveys done by the City of Victoria and Cool Aid Society have indicated that our residents wish to have local government and community leaders focus their primary attention on resolving homelessness and affordable housing!An Ipsos Reid survey undertaken by the City in May 2010 put Social Issues, including Homelessness, at the top of the list. (City of Victoria – Johnson Street Bridge Residential Survey page 7 attached).
In recognition of the need to address homelessness and affordable housing the Capital Regional District (CRD) launched the Regional Housing Affordability Strategy (RHAS) in March 2007. The identified strategies encouraged many partners to come together to address the housing priorities on a regional basis.One of the strategies, “Expand the Scope of the Victoria Homeless Community Plan to the Region as a Whole” was given particular attention.In consideration of the recognized social determinants of health, addictions and mental health services were integrated into the homelessness initiatives at an early stage.
In May 2007 the Mayor of Victoria launched a Mayor's Task Force: Breaking the Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness. There was broad community stakeholder engagement in the process to identify potential solutions and the final report was made public in October 2007.
One of the primary community actions generated by this report was the creation of a society known as the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. The Coalition was launched in early 2008 and has wide regional participation by elected officials, community planning and health professionals and local housing stakeholders. This community coalition has a vision to collaborate, using innovative initiatives, to engage the entire community to provide homes for approximately 1,500 residents experiencing homelessness. A 10-year community plan to eliminate homelessness, with hard production targets, was established in March 2009.
To assist in the funding and mobilization of the Coalition housing procurement plan the Capital Region District Housing Secretariat was engaged on a number of levels:
1. Act as the Secretariat to the Coalition Working Group Committee to coordinate and carry out the housing procurement plan.
2. Coordinate and focus the funding generated under the Regional Housing Trust Fund to be given a primary target towards addressing homelessness.
3. Act as the Community Entity on behalf of the Region and Coalition to utilize the Federal Government Homelessness Partnering Strategy funding to address the Coalition Housing Procurement Plan.
This application will highlight how the CRD has engaged many stakeholders within the community, and encouraged public participation to tackle the number one identified issue to be addressed - HOMELESSNESS.
COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE AWARDS
BEST PRACTICES, GENERAL
______
1. How has the implementation of this program/project improved services in your
community?
The primary benefit and improved service generated from our project was the dramatic increased level of community participation in the vision of eliminating homelessness. A substantial number ofstakeholder, public consultations and community surveys were undertaken andall indicated that homelessness was the number one issue requiring an immediate and solid community action. Municipal, regional and community leaders came together to initiate a number of landmark projects, namely;
- Regional Housing Affordability Strategy-March 2007
- Creation of the Capital Region District Housing Secretariat - May 2007
- Regional Health Plan on Homelessness-June 2007
- Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness-October 2007
- Creation of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness-February 2008
- Coalition identified as Community Advisory Board (CAB)-February 2009
- Launching the Coalition Housing Procurement Action Plan-June 2009
- CRD/Federal Government/CAB, Community Entity Agreement-April 2010
Each of these developments was created through extensive consultations and partnership discussions with the general public, housing and community stakeholders.The resulting heightened level of community engagement is proving to be the driving force in moving forward with a number of community initiatives relating to housing procurement, research, services integration, prevention and communication outreach.
2. Is the program/project more efficient and/or effective than it was before?
It should be noted that the various regional and community actions of addressing homelessness is a first for our area. Previously such initiatives were carried out in conjunction with the general affordable housing program initiatives available from senior levels of government.Our present actions on homelessness have been initiated at the local and regional levelsandwere developed as a result of extensive consultation with all aspects of the community. The resulting vision suggested that the most successful method to address homelessness would be to carry out an action plan on a regional basis. Upon extensive research and review of the data it became clear to the general public that homelessness is a regional wide issue. Accordingly any proposed actionplan to address homelessness required a concerted and collaborative action plan from all elements of our community. Very early on, the homeless were also directly involved in providing input and direction.
A very clear action and procurement plan has been devised, noting that in the first two years, our housing production targets have been achieved! This is largely due to the strong participation of the community, non-profit and private housing sectors within our area. The next significant initiative within the plan is to engage all elements of the local community to collaborate and partner on gathering funding sources in order to achieve a more comprehensive and aggressively funded delivery plan in partnership with the senior levels of government. Therefore through collaborative and consultative actions there is a strong feeling that our initiatives will prove to be much more effective than previous isolated general community actions working independently with senior levels of government.
3. Has the program/project saved the community money and/or resources?
The primary initial goal of our initiatives was not to save money and resources but to fully engage all residents of the Capital Region to help resolve homelessness. Already a number of the 13 municipalities have undertaken significant actions and projects to address their individual or larger homeless issues. For example, the rural area of Salt Spring Island is working on a fourth housing project specifically targeted for the homeless. Three of these projects were initiated and assisted financially through the benefits of the Regional Housing Trust Fund, an initiative created by the Capital Region in 2005. (See attached RHTF Project Profile)
As we move forward into the procurement plan, one of the central features of our initiative is to identify the cost savings to the local, regional and senior levels of government. By addressing homelessness substantial cost savings should be achieved. Initial studies indicate that each homeless individual costs the local community approximately *$55,000, whereas providing housing and supports to the same individual carries a maximum cost of approximately $37,000. Special monitoring and research will be undertaken to identify the cost savings achieved through collaborative community action on homelessness.
4. Has the program/project created economic development in the community?
Addressing homelessness from a regional perspective is not initially viewed as economic development. However, community surveys indicate that homelessness is the number one negative impact on downtown Victoria tourism, retail and office operations. Recent evidence shows that homelessness is becoming more evident in other CRD member municipalities. Therefore addressing homelessness, through a clear plan of eliminating homelessness, will be viewed as a significant positive economic development action not only from a downtown perspective but also regionally.
*Simon Fraser University study-2007
5. Is this program/project transferable? (e.g. Would this model be applicable to
other municipalities?) How so?
One of the primary features of making our initiative transferable to all communities is the aspect of adopting a strong level of community engagement in our homeless initiatives.
The CRD/Coalition has been effective in increasing and maintaining the interest of the community in the issue of homelessness. Local print and TV media provide a high level of coverage of the various aspects and challenges of the homeless and the local community impacted by those residing on our streets. Of particular note is that the number one topic of "letters to the editor" or media blogs is the issue of homelessness. Establishing a strong "buy-in" from the total community will allow the CRD/Coalition to move forward positively with actions that will achieve an elimination of homelessness.
6. Has this program/project improved upon accountability to the community's
citizens?
Annually a report is produced outlining such indicators as; use of emergency shelters, economic factors, various housing environment conditions and progress made relative to our business plan.
Addressing the realities of homelessness has become a focus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). Through research gathered in a number of Canadian locations, it is now generally understood and agreed that there is a significant cost variance between holding status quo and addressing homelessness as outlined in question #3. The local community is increasingly demanding accountability from its leaders to address homelessness and therefore substantially improving downtown economic development, reducing policing and security costs and substantially reducing health funding costs. Our citizens are demanding positive results, that homelessness be eliminated, and therefore as local taxpayers cost savings will be achieved and the quality of life for all residents will improve.
7. Has this program/project created more awareness in the community about localgovernment actions?
The primary visions and directions within the CRD/Coalition partnership are to dramatically improve the level of regional public awareness and education about homelessness. The Coalition, in partnership with University of Victoria, is undertaking and coordinating research on a host of topics, including the root causes of homelessness, which will provide the cornerstone to create an effective community policy to address the needs of the homeless.
The Coalition has created a quality website
(cover webpage attached) to engage various community stakeholders and the general public in the projects and initiatives to address homelessness. In addition the Coalition has received a high level of public participation in a number of community education and information events; one such community event attracted over 800 persons. On June 30, 2010 the Coalition Annual General Meeting drew an attendance of over 110 individuals.
8. Tell us about the teamwork involved in making this program/project possible.
To facilitate an environment of teamwork the CRD Housing Secretariat developed a flowchart to map the different elements and organizations of the community which are engaged in the issue of homelessness. Please find attached a copy of this flowchart.
This flowchart has proved to be very helpful in describing the many teams and players in our regional community that are involved in homelessness and how we are all connected in working toward one vision……. The Elimination of Homelessness in the Capital Region!
The recent Coalition Annual General Meeting (June 30, 2010) provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the efforts of the regional team at play. Attendance at this event included members of almost every component of the flowchart organizations represented. There was a strong spirit of teamwork demonstrated at this event and it was reinforced that the faith communities, non-profit service providers, foundations, and various levels of government and community are part of the solution.
9. What makes this program/project innovative and creative?
The response of the Region and the Coalition to homelessness is unique and creative through our special efforts to engage all elements of the regional community. There is a high level of collaboration and partnership between the different levels of government, the region’s private and non-profit housing stakeholders, and the numerous community organizations including the local police and health officials. The opportunity to identify and remove systemic barriers and eliminate redundancies leads to cost savings that have been redistributed. To streamline the funding operations the CRD has stepped forward with the Regional Housing Trust Fund and is performing the role of Community Entity facilitating the transfer of Federal Government Homeless Partnership Strategy (HPS) funding to our community.
10. What else makes this program/project special? What sets it apart as a winningidea?
The special feature of our project and community initiative is the commitment to address homelessness through teamwork effort, involving all elements of the community. Of particular teamwork focus are the operational details, functions and agreements that have been achieved to facilitate a close partnership between municipal and regional governments in the Capital Region.
There is a constant reassessment of the partnerships and stakeholders involved, to determine the most effective teamwork structure to be engaged and to maximize the community resources in a response to eliminate homelessness. By providing housing with appropriate supports for the homeless people, we ultimately create stronger, safer, more inclusive communities, where social capital will thrive.
The community's commitment and will to take effective action is growing each day!