Additional $6.6M for homelessness initiatives recommended in Region budget proposal

Region of Waterloo staff are recommending an additional $6.6 million be dedicated to homelessness initiatives in next year’s budget.

Staff recommend it be paid through the property tax levy. The money would be used for the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, by helping with supplementing rent, rental assistance, Indigenous focused housing and stabilizing the economics of the sector.

The Region already has $60.9 million earmarked for homelessness initiatives in next year’s budget. This would be an additional $6,685,000.

The item was expected to be discussed during a Budget Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday, but the session ran out of time and will continue Thursday morning.

Currently the proposed budget includes several options.

One is only raising property taxes by eight per cent but giving up the effectiveness of some services.

A second option is a base budget with no service expansions, which would cost the average homeowner $2,774 a year in property taxes, a $230 increase from last year.

The proposed budget with expansions, which would include the extra $6.6 million for homelessness initiatives, would cost the average homeowner $2,821 in property taxes, a $276 increase from last year.

The recommendation comes after a new point-in-time report found 2,371 people are experiencing homelessness in the Region. That’s more than double the number reported in 2021 and a 28 per cent year-over-year growth since 2020.

Those working on the ground are not surprised with the new number.

“We’ve been seeing those numbers for the last three years. We see it every day at St. Johns kitchen, numbers of people that don’t have a place to go,” Joe Mancini, Director of The Working Centre said.

Mancini wouldn't say if he thinks raising taxes is the best approach but says additional housing of all types is needed in the community,

“We have to find a way to make facilities and housing available to people, otherwise the 2,800 individuals in our community don’t have a place to go. We have to find new ways of doing that. But it’s also a provincial responsibility and a federal responsibility - all need to step up,” Mancini said.

The Budget Planning Committee is expected to discuss the recommendation when it continues the meeting on Thursday.