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The City of Greater Sudbury wants to end homelessness by 2030.
City council in the northern Ontario city voted unanimously on a motion Tuesday night to meet that ambitious goal.
The motion directs staff to adopt a “housing first” approach to addressing homelessness in the city.
It puts the focus on providing housing to people experiencing homelessness in addition to offering support and services for those individuals.
Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent sponsored the motion, and noted there are 140 organizations delivering 733 programs to support people experiencing homelessness.
“Yet we continue to see a rise in homelessness,” he said.
“Not to say some of these programs haven’t had some level of effect.”
Parent said it’s time for Sudbury to pivot to a housing first approach so those programs can have a greater, and lasting impact.
The greater danger is not setting the bar high and not reaching it. The danger is setting the bar low, and only reaching that.– Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent
Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin co-sponsored the motion.
“Some will ask what is this going to cost? How can we afford it?” she said. “I simply say, how can we afford not to?”
Parent said that while ending homelessness in seven years would be a challenge, it’s important to have an ambitious goal to meet.
“The greater danger is not setting the bar high and not reaching it,” he said. “The danger is setting the bar low, and only reaching that.”
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh supported the motion, but noted Sudbury could not achieve the goal of ending homelessness by 2030 alone.
“What we need is a response to homelessness that includes cooperation with other cities, towns, district social service boards, the province and the federal government,” McIntosh said.
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