The City of Toronto is inviting all residents to share their views on the delivery of services that prevent homelessness and help some of Toronto's most vulnerable residents find and keep permanent housing.
The City encourages all Toronto residents to get involved in the housing services conversation and go online to complete a survey about what services they feel are important, what gaps in service may exist, and what ideas they have about how to better integrate services such as eviction prevention, assistance to find affordable housing, drop-in centres and emergency shelter access.
"Right now our services provide emergency responses to homelessness," says Anthony Perruzza, Chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee. "Our vision is to transform this into a seamless, client-focused, system that creates housing stability for those who cannot do this on their own. Public consultations will feed into the development of a roadmap to guide future decisions regarding funding priorities and how we approach service delivery."
The City will work with input from the public, service users, service providers and interested groups to develop a Housing Stability Service Plan. The plan, which will inform the City government's planning, management and delivery of housing services over the next five years, will be considered by City Council in the fall.
The City of Toronto will spend about $665 million this year on housing and homelessness services, with the majority of it going to social housing subsidies. About $164.5 million is invested through community agencies and City programs to provide housing and homelessness services such as emergency shelter, housing help and eviction prevention services, and other supports.
A website at www.toronto.ca/housing/housingservicesconsultations2013.htm has been created with background information, links to reports and a section called Housing Services at a Glance at www.toronto.ca/housing/housingservicesataglance.html. The web page also offers the content as a workbook that can be downloaded/printed.
The Housing Services at a Glance material provides a convenient summary and will be useful for an understanding of the complexities of housing and homelessness issues. The City will also use the website as a way to report back to the public on the ideas and direction that result from the consultations.
The survey is available at:
https://research.ipsosinteractive.com/surveys/?pid=S1022150&id=&Idtype=real