Relations between Guelph and Wellington County continue to deteriorate when it comes to spending on social services.
County officials were upset Nov. 24 at council after each of them received at their homes letters from Guelph MPP Liz Sandals and Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge asking that new grant program funds be spend on affordable housing in the city.
The county is the provider for social services for Guelph and Wellington and it learned in August it would receive federal and provincial funding of $5.4 million under the Investment in Affordable Housing for Ontario. The social services committee instructed staff to provide options for using that cash.
Social services committee chairman Gord Tosh told county council the committee recommended it be used for rental subsidies for needy families, and the money be spread over ten years.
Guelph asked councillors to consider spending on 38 social housing units in the city, pointing out there is currently nine year waiting list for social housing.
Tosh said the Guelph suggestion went from not being on the list at all to the number two recommendation, but the committee decided, “Doing the math, it’s not the best way to use the money.” He said people who qualify for social housing need incomes ranging from $25,000 to $37,000, and the rental subsidy at about $250 a month that the committee prefers would help those with much lower incomes.
The city is opening social housing project near St. Joseph’s Hospital, but Tosh said, “Very few people from our list will be able to move to St. Joe’s – because they don’t have the income.”
He said the county’s first choice is “serving the most people on our list over a period of time and doing it efficiently.”
Most of the $5.4 million would be used for ten years of rent subsidies and help about 110 families, most of them living in Guelph.
Tosh said a deciding factor is if the province suddenly cuts the program and the county can no longer provide such subsidies.
“Providing assured housing for a longer period of time is the best way to go,” he said when he delivered the social services committee recommendations.
If the program is slashed, it would be the city’s residents suddenly left without rent support and that would lead to them losing their housing.
Warden Chris White said he talked with city officials and sent information to Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge and got Guelph’s feelings on the issue prior to the social services committee meeting.
The city suddenly left the joint social services committee it shared for years with the county at the start of 2010 after several years of disputes. White offered Farbridge an option to attend that meeting or to send a representative.
He said the big problem is social services needs help “across the board” leaving the committee with tough decisions. It decided the “best need was for the most vulnerable,” and 80 to 90 per cent of the families being helped are from Guelph.
White said if those families lose their homes and are forced to shelters, it would cost the county’s social services $4,257 more per month for a family of three to support them – much higher than subsidizing the rents, and there are other factors to consider, such as pulling children from school and possibly removing them from the family home.
“This decision was extremely tough,” he said. “I agree with the city and province there is a desperate need for housing.”
White said the county is willing to work with the city and province to ask for more money “for more social housing units, to help these people.”
Councillor Ken Chapman said if the county took the city’s advice to build 38 social housing units, it would actually lead to “more families out of a home.”
Sandals speechless
When asked why she would support having 110 city families lose their subsidy and home, Sandals said, “That’s News to me. I’m speechless is how I respond. We were actually suggesting that more people should get subsidies.”
She said, “The letter that we sent acknowledges that we wanted to see that people get rent subsidies.”
She said the provincial social housing initiative will be ending on Dec. 31, and she is asking the county to apply if there are left over funds – and use those for a project in Guelph. “We said if there is money left over … use it.”
Sandals, though, did question the county placing the money into an account for ten years instead of the preferred four – even though the county has that right. She suggested the county was simply “banking” that money, and that approach is not doing anything to get people off the waiting list for social housing.
Tom Lammer has proposed building 38 units of social housing in Guelph and attended the social services committee meeting in October to outline the project. The committee moved his proposal to second place on its list.
Sandals said in her letter, “Specifically, the four year funding should not be stretched over ten years but should be allocated for use in a much shorter time frame, thus:
– providing additional funds for rent supplements and housing allowances in each year of the program; and
– allowing for the allocation of additional funds for construction of a minimum of 10 to 12 new affordable housing units.”
She added, “In addition, in the event that funds become available at the provincial level as a result of the pooling the Year 1 balance, we ask that Option 2 – the Lammer project – be submitted to the [Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing] for consideration.”
Farbridge, too, in her letter, said city council favours building social housing ahead of rent subsidies, and suggested it give first priority to the project at 71 Wyndham St.
She said the city’s social services committee understands why it was not being recommended “given the need to address rent subsidies.
“However, we remain interested in the provision of affordable housing in Guelph and ask this project be considered for any funding that may result from the remaining Year 1 balance that will be pooled in January 2012 to construction ready projects.”
Sandals said she was simply telling the county to go after any subsidy money that might become available.
White said his interpretation of the letters is Sandals and Farbridge want social housing first, and rental subsidies could take second place. He fears after four years, that subsidy cash will dry up, leaving families without homes.
As for applying for the extra cash, White said the county already has an application prepared to seek that money, and it is willing and ready to submit it immediately, but it has to wait until after Dec. 31. He noted that a few years ago the city was offered 18 units of social housing and voted against building it.
Plus, he said, the city’s projects with private developers offer 20 years of social housing and then allow the private developer to turn the units into condos. He said when the county builds social housing, it is permanent. He said that cost the county $4 million, and it is a worthwhile expenditure to make such housing always available.
White said at the same time the county was doing that, the city deferred a tax increase and spent no cash on social housing units.
Farbridge supports decision
Farbridge said in an interview last week that once she learned why county was supporting rent subsidies, she could agree with that decision.
She added, though, it would have been nice if the county could have held that support to five years instead of “banking” the money for ten years.
“We understood why they couldn’t go with the Guelph application,” she said. She added that as “an extra, let’s try to pitch tor this Guelph project.” She added she is aware the county plans to apply for extra provincial funding to support the Lammer project if there are funds available.
“He did commit to taking that option should to opportunity arise,” she said of Warden White.
When asked if the city and county are ever going to resolve their differences over social service, Farbridge said there are some positive signs. The two are no cooperating more on land ambulance, and she said she and White are talking about a governance model.
She said she does not think it can return to the former joint committee model, but she said they are at least discussing possibilities.
