Federal government announces new national strategy on homelessness

Jun 14 2018, 3:37 am

The Government of Canada has announced what it calls new strategy to reduce chronic homelessness by 50% over the next ten years.

The $40-billion strategy, known as “Reaching Home,” is part of Canada’s first National Housing Strategy and is meant to “double support for communities to address the needs of those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.”

The program, the government said, “will reinforce its community-based approach, delivering funding directly to municipalities and local service providers…. resulting in up to 100,000 new housing units and 300,000 repaired or renewed housing units.”

As part of the plan, the strategy’s reach will also expand to new communities. New communities will be added through an application process to be launched later this year. The expansion won’t affect the funding received by the existing 61 Designated Communities.

Communities participating in Reaching Home will work toward a 50% reduction in chronic homelessness over the next 10 years.

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“Everyone deserves a safe place to call home. That is why I’m proud to announce Reaching Home — the redesigned federal homelessness strategy,” said Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Jean-Yves Duclos.

“This is an exciting historic milestone towards achieving our ambitious goal of reducing chronic homelessness in Canada by 50%,” she added.

The government said the program will build on the adoption of Housing First as a best practice, and work with communities to develop and deliver data-driven system plans with clear outcomes.

This approach, the government said, “will give communities greater flexibility to identify, test, and apply innovative solutions and evidence-based practices that achieve results for vulnerable Canadians.”

Reaching Home funding will also provide communities with the tools they need to deliver systems plans, coordinated access to services, and better local data.

Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

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