‘Surprised continually’: Repeated funding crises at local homeless agencies frustrates Coun. Stevenson

Coun. Susan Stevenson is pressing for answers following a $1 million shortfall for Ark Aid Street Mission. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe reports.

As Ark Aid Street Mission scales back its services for homeless Londoners at 696 Dundas St., Coun. Susan Stevenson is pressing for answers about a funding model that seems to lead to crisis after crisis.

On March 31, the Ark lost more than $1 million in core funding when a federal homelessness program distributed by city hall expired.

Immediately, 50 overnight beds that operated this winter were discontinued, and drop-in services that operate 20 to 24 hours, seven days a week, are gradually being reduced to just four hours a day by the end of April.

Executive Director Sarah Campbell says homeless Londoners are already responding to the service reductions.

“It’s not like we were telling them that we’re closing but you can go there, or there, or there. There isn’t another place to send people,” she said.

Stevenson, who opposes overnight shelter beds and additional frontline agencies on the main streets of business districts, is pressing for answers about why sudden funding gaps seem to occur again and again.

“Where is the oversight and leadership on this issue? Where is the appropriate place to provide service? And are we meeting that need? And are we prioritizing it? It seems very patchwork,” Stevenson asked rhetorically.

She says her recent motion that aimed to anticipate future funding gaps for local agencies failed to be supported by council.

Stevenson believed that the Whole of Community Response to Homelessness was supposed to help ensure system-wide coordination.

“As a governance body, [council] shouldn’t be surprised continually by these pleas about shortfalls,” she added. “It should be planned out well in advance. Agencies should know when their funding is temporary, when programs are expected to end, and when there’s expected to be continued funding.”

Campbell suggests a longer-term funding model would create stability in the sector.

“This crisis is going to keep happening if we don’t look to the longer-term solutions. I think what’s important to know is that over $38 million has been spent on this short-term kind of funding [during] the last number of years for things like winter response and the services that we provide here at the Ark. So maybe we could begin to anticipate as a community that those dollars do exist” she explained.

The Ark has 50 to 70 people through its doors at any given time, and averages 400 unique individuals on weekends when other services are closed.

For the foreseeable future, the Ark’s operations will depend on donations.

Among the other services lost or significantly reduced:

• 24/7 assessment and stabilization
• Encampment meal service
• Basic needs access reduced to five days/week
• Diversion and pathway-to-home supports

Campbell worries about what will happen when unsheltered Londoners lose the daytime spaces at the Ark.

“The distress our [homeless] community is feeling as they’re learning about [the service reductions] will only be mirrored by the business community and the public, who are then going to see that visible frustration on the streets of London,” she said.

Stevenson isn’t sure if there can be a last-minute solution, again.

“So, is there going to be a request for council to renew contracts coming at the April 13 meeting of [the] Community and Protective Services Committee? I don’t know,” she admitted.

Any recommendations made by that committee wouldn’t be considered by council for final approval until April 26.