Simcoe-Grey federal election candidates respond to questions about what they would do about homelessness

Homelessness has become a growing concern in Collingwood and Simcoe County.

In 2019, the County of Simcoe released a homeless enumeration report, which counted 697 people in the county experiencing homelessness in April 2018 - a homelessness rate of approximately 14 people out of every 10,000 residents in Simcoe County.

The report counted 24 homeless people in Collingwood. Youth were over-represented in the homeless population.

Pam Hillier, executive director of 211 Community Connection, said it's hard to say how many people are living homeless as not everyone will admit to being homeless.

There's an effort by several agencies in the community to open an emergency homeless shelter under the Out of the Cold program in Collingwood for six months a year (November to April), with a long-term plan to build a permanent shelter in three years.

Collingwood Youth Centre's film club recently premiered a feature-length documentary on youth homelessness to a sold-out crowd. There was another showing this weekend. Filmmaker JJ Cardillo Jr. and youth centre manager Lea Pankhurst met several homeless youth during the making of the film. Since then, the Collingwood Youth Centre has established an emergency fund for homeless youth. Cardillo also said he believes there are more homeless than have been counted in the Simcoe County survey.

CollingwoodToday asked each of the Simcoe-Grey federal election candidates what they would do about homelessness in Simcoe-Grey.

Here are their responses:

Ilona Matthews, NDP

The Out of the Cold program is a great start.

A guaranteed income program would provide income security along with affordable housing based on income.

We will additionally implement better support systems such as universal pharmacare, dental care, vision and hearing loss care and easily accessible mental health care - in other words, head-to-toe health care which will be accessible with the health card. Providing free education and training is crucial to assist them in turning their lives around.

Sherri Jackson, Green

This is a tragedy that is simply unacceptable in a country as prosperous as Canada.

I would legislate safe shelter and affordable housing as a fundamental human right for all Canadian citizens and residents.

Greens will work to eradicate homelessness by building 25,000 new units and retrofitting 15,000 more each year over the next 10 years, to create sustainable, affordable and safe housing for people.

We will appoint a National Minister of Housing to work with provinces to address their unique situations. We will increase the national co-housing development fund by $750 million, and an additional $750 million for the Canada Housing Benefit for rent assistance for 125,000 rental households.

We will provide funding to community co-op housing and not for profit organizations to build/restore efficient, affordable housing for seniors, low-income families and people with special needs.

We will also restore tax incentives for building rental units, and give tax credits for gifts of land/buildings for that purpose. And we will refocus the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporate back to supporting the development of affordable, non-market and cooperative housing units.

Lorne Kenney, Liberal

I am very familiar with the Out of the Cold Program as it involves people from All Saints’ Anglican Church.

Also, I was included in the recent film about teen homelessness, which is a particularly troublesome dimension to the problem. Nobody in Canada should lack a roof over his or her head and this gets really concerning for me as the weather turns toward winter.

My immediate reaction, once elected, will be to cooperate with those involved to find whatever additional sources of funding are available for temporary measures such as the Out of the Cold program and bring them to bear.

Beyond that, the resources of the federal Liberal government’s National Housing Strategy need to be brought into the picture to identify ways to build short-term accommodation for people facing evictions and short-term homelessness.

Then, of course, we have to get to the longer-term measures that involve building many more additional housing units for people with limited incomes. This, too, will require cooperation and collaboration between all orders of government, developers and others to get new units built that are affordable for people on low incomes.

Richard Sommer, People's Party of Canada

The Out of the Cold program is excellent. We have personally been involved in supporting the program.

We would work with all levels of government to help facilitate all Canadians receive as many services as needed.

We will work to remove fees and red tape that are hindering full use of the great professionals and facilities–new and existing.

Tony D'Angelo, Veteran's Coalition Party

Out of the Cold programs are invaluable to a community and should be fully supported by the three levels of government.

Simcoe-Grey is a large riding consisting of many communities leaving a lot of the responsibility directly on the community.

I also believe that some sort of regional co-ordination of support will also provide more effective solutions at the local level.

Terry Dowdall, Conservative

Homelessness is an unfortunate reality that we need to address here in Simcoe-Grey.

I applaud Collingwood in its efforts in working toward a temporary homeless shelter. We need to keep moving in this direction because homelessness is all around us, even in some of our smaller communities.

Last year, the County of Simcoe undertook a Homeless Enumeration Project as a part of our Simcoe County Alliance initiative to develop a strategic plan to end homelessness. This project was carried out to increase awareness, to track progress and to build on a more coordinated approach.

I am proud of my involvement as Deputy Warden and Interim Warden of the County of Simcoe. I learned a great deal about these all-important issues which are a challenge across the country.

I believe that we need to create an integrated approach by learning and understanding the reasons for homelessness, and strive to work together through partnerships to address the underlying reasons as well.

For example, there could be mental health issues at play with some people. An integrated approach could help.

If elected, I would do everything I could to ensure continued funding for studies such as this. And as well, as always, I am all about partnerships. A great deal of progress on homelessness has been made due to partnerships, and thanks to staff and volunteers who have contributed.

Finally, I would be remiss not to add, efforts made by the Conservatives to ensure affordability can assist by helping those at risk of becoming homeless.