One key to solving homelessness in our area is what the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville calls “supportive housing.”
Alison Tutak, the Director of Community and Social Services for the Counties, says supportive housing provides people with both a place to live, and programs to help keep them there.
“Becoming housed and being able to sustain that housing requires more than just a unit, or an apartment, or a room,” Tutak says. “It actually requires some supports, meaning, support services from individuals who can be able to check on them, maybe help ensure medications are being taken. If they’re having struggles living with other people, or even financial management in terms of paying rent. Whatever supports it is they might need.”
Tutak says the United Counties has partnered with Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health to provide services like that to people that need them.
“What we were finding is that a number of individuals we may have helped to find housing, they were back into homelessness within three to four months, and we believe that the reason was directly related to a lack of supports,” she says. “So, we think that investing some of our funding into those direct supports will help sustain their housing success.”
The Community and Social Services division of the United Counties is working on a three-year plan to try and reduce homelessness further, and Tutak says supportive housing is an important part of it.
Details on the initiative still aren’t available, but Tutak says she hopes to present it to the Counties’ Joint Services Committee in March.