Councillor wants accounting of COVID-19 relief funding before granting more money to BIAs for homelessness impacts

The funding would help to offset costs related to homelessness and crime.

A pair of east end Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) have been told to provide a detailed accounting of how previous municipal funding was spent before a council committee will consider granting more.

On Monday, the Community and Protective Services (CAPS) Committee considered a motion by Coun. Hadleigh McAlister to provide $62,500 to the Hamilton Road BIA and $34,180 to the Old East Village BIA.

The Hamilton Road BIA would use the funding to continue a private security service contract in partnership with the Argyle BIA until the end of 2026.

“We are proud of the resilience and determination shown by Hamilton Road’s business owners, but we cannot do this alone,” explained Carolyn Luistro, Executive Director of the Hamilton Road BIA.

The funding request from the Old East Village BIA would reimburse expenses already incurred for private property clean-ups, graffiti removal and window replacements at non-profits that do not pay a financial levy to the BIA including Banting House National Historic Site, the Palace Theatre and Aeolian Hall.

“Those services that we are implementing absolutely have shown a significant positive change,” Kevin Morrison, G.M. of the OEV BIA.

Coun. McAlister suggested the funding come from a council reserve fund.

However, Coun. David Ferreira told the committee that he wants to know how COVID Relief Funding provided to the two BIAs in late 2023 was spent before awarding more money to address the impacts of homelessness.

In November 2023, council awarded $1.16 million to Downtown London BIA, $500,000 to the OEV BIA, and $250,000 to the Hamilton Road BIA and Argyle BIA.

“Has the money been spent? Or has the money not been spent?” Ferreira asked. “We allocated that money in 2023. The Downtown London BIA had it fully expensed by the end of last year. I would just like to make sure that those moneys are expensed before we hand out additional funds.”

Luistro responded that the Hamilton Road BIA will have spent all of its share of the funding by the end of this year.

Morrison said the OEV BIA was given until the end of 2026 to spend the money on direct business supports and can provide a full accounting of how it has been utilized.

However, the committee recommended referring the funding requests to its next meeting on August 11 so that the two BIAs can provide documentation of how the COVID Relief funding was spent.

Council will make a final decision July 22.