Representatives from numerous community organizations and city councillors gathered at the Orillia Recreation Centre Tuesday to discuss homelessness in Orillia.
The meeting was organized by Mayor Don McIsaac, who expressed interest in working with the community to address local homelessness on the campaign trail last fall.
McIsaac was joined by more than 20 people, representing numerous social service organizations in Orillia, as well as city councillors Jay Fallis, Ralph Cipolla, and Tim Lauer.
“We're trying to get them all in the same room so they can meet each other, (although) several know each other, but we also want everyone rowing in the same direction,” McIsaac told OrilliaMatters. “I’ve said before, the solutions are within the community, and I think if we leverage everyone together, we can get good creative solutions.”
Led by Cam Davidson, chair of the city's affordable housing committee, participants split into three groups to discuss the causes, needs, and potential solutions for homelessness in Orillia, with a representative from each highlighting what their group brainstormed.
Speaking about causes, the Green Haven Shelter for Women’s Norma Alford highlighted the low inventory of affordable housing, mental health and addiction issues, stigma, barriers faced by people on ODSP or working minimum wage jobs, and other challenges.
“We also talked about homeless individuals not having a voice at the table, and not being able to participate in decision making,” Alford said.
Increasing financial support for low-income individuals, housing stock, educational opportunities, among other issues, were also mentioned as current needs for the homeless community.
Speaking on behalf of his group, Fallis highlighted numerous potential solutions for homelessness in the community.
To start, Fallis said “mapping” all of the city’s social services would help in beginning to address the issue, to make sure “we always know what those are and where people can go to access them,” he said.
“We can map it out really well, but if there's nowhere to put that person at the end of the line once they go through the service, then it's really for naught,” Fallis continued. “It needs to lead to services, especially to housing, which was the first point on our (list).”
Fallis also stressed the importance of increasing supportive and affordable housing options, noting the steep capital costs of doing so, and stressed the need to act ahead of spending more time determining the exact nature of issues surrounding homelessness before proceeding.
Fallis also said his group had a desire to see exactly how Simcoe County money is spent and allocated regarding housing and homelessness, and pointed out Orillia does not get to vote on county council matters.
“We can bring up an issue; we can even vote on it at committee of the whole, but when it goes to county council Orillia doesn't even get a vote on a lot of these matters,” he said. “It can feel very frustrating that there's a bit of a disconnect there.”
Several attendees expressed a desire to see "true action" on homelessness, as well, expressing that they do not want to come back together in a year to have the same discussion.
Moving forward, McIsaac said he hopes to bring county representatives to the table, as well as local residents experiencing homelessness.
“If there were silver bullets they would have already been fired. This is a continuing discussion,” McIsaac said. “I think we've got some ideas on the table, (but) we need more inclusion. We need someone from the county here; we need people who are currently experiencing homelessness to come and give us their input.”
Some of the organizations at Wednesday's meeting are as follows:
- St. James Church
- St. Paul’s Church
- Biminaawzogin Regional Aboriginal Women’s Circle
- Orillia Youth Centre
- Helping Hands Orillia
- Green Haven Shelter for Women
- The Lighthouse Emergency Shelter
- United Way Simcoe Muskoka
- Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Outreach, and more
