Latest news with #Homelessness
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Very concerned': Peel Region's only supervised drug consumption site was forced to close in May, the promised HART Hub still isn't open
After Ontario's Bill 223 banned supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools, the province announced that Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs would replace them. But months after Peel Region's only SCS shut down, the promised Brampton HART Hub has yet to open. In a July 11 email, Peel Region confirmed they anticipate the site will launch in October. The Brampton site — Peel Urgent Public Health Need Site — wasn't located near a school, but it was forced to close under a separate provision of the law that bars municipalities from financially supporting or hosting supervised consumption services. In a June 24 email from Canadian Mental Health Association Peel Dufferin — who will be running the Brampton HART Hub — they commented on the site currently not being operational. 'At this time, we are finalizing our implementation plan while awaiting final funding details from the province, which are necessary to move forward with operations,' said CMHA Peel Dufferin in an email. When asked for more recent updates, as of July 15, they did not respond. In a July 11 email, Ema Popovic — spokesperson for the Minister of Health — mentioned that nine HART Hubs have been opened across the province and that they are 'continuing to work with the remaining HART Hubs', including the Peel-Dufferin hub, 'to finalize operational budgets as soon as possible.' Though Brampton Guardian asked the ministry, from their perspective, when the Peel-Dufferin HART Hub was expected to open, they did not answer the question and provided no timeline. Brampton Guardian also questioned why the final funding had not been approved yet, to which they did not respond. The ministry was also asked about what level of urgency the province was assigning to launching the Brampton site, given that no other regional alternative currently exists following the UPHNS closure, to which they also did not directly respond. Despite both the CMHA Peel Dufferin and the Ministry of Health — two key partners in its launch — not providing clear timelines for its opening, Peel Region, meanwhile, told the Brampton Guardian that renovations for an October opening are expected to be completed in early fall. 'In the meantime, CMHA and its partners are mobilizing parts of the HART Hub model that can be put in place before the site officially opens,' they added in an email. On June 26, regional council recently approved the three-year use of space at 10 Peel Centre Dr. — where the former SCS operated — to house the new HART Hub. If the HART Hub indeed opens in October, this would mean a four month gap between when the Brampton SCS site closed and the new HART Hub opens — leaving drug users in Peel without access to either service in the mean time. In their email, Peel Region mentioned Peel Public Health has been working with community partners to reduce substance related harms and overdoses by providing naloxone and expanding harm reduction outreach. 'This includes more service hours and an increased presence near the former supervised consumption site,' they note. Additionally, they mention the Harm Reduction Program mobile program which offers a range of harm reduction services, including distribution of naloxone and referrals to community services such as mental health, income supports, and housing services. Moyo Health and Community Services — who operated Brampton's SCS site — said in an email that they continue to offer support to people who use drugs through their harm reduction van, outreach program, and satellite distribution programs. 'We distribute safe drug-taking supplies, including sterile needles and syringes, as well as naloxone. We offer people who use drugs education about safer drug use, overdose response, and refer individuals to needed services such as housing, income support, food, mental health and addictions support among other services,' said Jillian Watkins, executive director of MHCS. They also provide support at shelters and encampments across the Region, and also provide education to service providers in the community about approaches to service provision using a harm reduction perspective. Despite this, MHCS said they 'remain very concerned that individuals who previously used substances' at the SCS site, under medical supervision, no longer have the option. 'They are therefore more likely to use drugs alone or in high risk situations where they are at increased risk of overdose,' Watkins said. 'They have also lost access to the other services that were available at the site from our community partners, including primary care, housing services, mental health and addictions services.' She added that MHCS outreach team has reported to them that people who had been using the SCS feel the loss. 'They miss getting the wraparound supports that were offered and just having a safe place to be. Folks have reported that they are now forced to use in public spaces again and we're getting reports of folks that have been overdosing since the site closed,' she added. She also emphasized that, while the HART Hub services are dearly needed in the region, they are not an adequate replacement to supervised consumption services — both are needed. In the meantime, they await the result of a charter challenge that seeks to overturn parts of Bill 223 — the provincial legislation that led to the shutdown of supervised consumption services across Ontario. The case, filed by harm reduction service providers earlier this year, argues that the ban violates Charter rights to life, liberty, and security. 'We are awaiting a final ruling on the charter challenge […] so we can understand what our options are to seek funding to offer supervised consumption services in the Region of Peel at a future time,' said Watkins. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Perth Now
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Reason housing crisis could get worse
More than 1000 homes have been left uninhabitable by devastating floods on the NSW Mid-North Coast, a report has found, amid fears the climate crisis could put millions more at risk. The report by the Housing, Homelessness, and Disasters National Symposium last week found 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods. Another 1831 homes were damaged. Some 23,000 Australians are displaced by floods, bushfires, and cyclones each year, with the report finding 5.6 million homes are at risk from bushfires as climate impacts accelerate. Homeless Australia CEO Kate Colvin said as climate disasters become more regular, there was a risk of a 'two-tiered society' in which housing security determined disaster survival. 'There is a gap between people who are best able to protect themselves and people who are least able to,' she said. Ms Colvin said renters were often limited to cheaper properties in more flood-prone areas and were less resilient to climate-related disasters, compared with higher-income earners. Renters also often had less access to government support and faced a 'superheated' rental market. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Taree following the 2025 floods. Dean Lewins/POOL/ NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia 'They can't compete because all those people who had insurance often also get a special payments system to afford rent during the time when their home is not available,' Ms Colvin said. 'They then can't get a rental because you've got this superheated market, so you have another wave of homelessness just because of the housing market impact'. Ms Colvin called on the federal government to make renters or people facing homelessness a priority in future disaster responses, and include disaster resilience in its 10-year housing plan. 'In the planning phase, include the homelessness sector, include strategies around housing resilience … (and) in the response phase, be inclusive of people who are facing homelessness.' The symposium brought together more than 100 professionals across the housing, emergency management, and governmental sectors to examine how 'secondary crises' affect NSW. Factors included the prevalence of construction workers who flood disaster zones in the wake of climate events, inadvertently driving up rents for already struggling locals. The symposium found that in Australia, some 953,000 homes were vulnerable to flooding and 17,500 were at threat from coastal erosion, with 169,000 people on the public housing list. HowWeSurvive UNSW Sydney academic and co-author of the symposium report, Dr Timothy Heffernan, said climate disasters were already hitting 'housing-vulnerable' communities. At least 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods on the Mid North Coast. NewsWire / Glenn Campbell Credit: News Corp Australia 'When you have 6.5 million homes at risk from bushfires, floods or coastal erosion, and a housing system that can't meet demand, every disaster becomes a humanitarian crisis,' he said. 'Hotels and motels fill up immediately, caravan parks are often in flood-prone areas … We're asking an already strained system to absorb sudden surges of thousands of displaced people.' Social Futures general manager Martelle Geurts said the Northern Rivers housing system was 'already fragile' when it was hit by the 2022 flood disaster, damaging more than 10,000 homes. Despite extensive recovery efforts, the Northern Rivers accounted for about a third of rough sleepers in NSW in 2025. The most recent NSW Street Count - an annual audit of people facing homelessness - found 346 people sleeping rough in the City of Sydney. In the Northern Rivers, there were 654 people. 'Climate events are becoming more frequent and severe, and they destroy homes. So, climate change and homelessness are inextricably linked,' Ms Geurts said. 'People can't recover without stable housing. 'Disasters displace people and can cause lasting trauma. Some people experience PTSD, and the impact of that can be lifelong. 'What we know is that people can't recover psychologically unless they have a secure place to live.'
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Sadiq Khan plans to end rough sleeping in London by 2030
The mayor of London has said he will end the "trauma" of people who have to be sleeping on the streets before they can access aims to ending rough sleeping by 2030, and has secured £17m in capital funding from central government for his Sadiq Khan said his new plan of action, would focus on "prevention and increasing the availability of rapid, sustainable routes away from the streets".But Lord Bailey, City Hall Conservatives' housing spokesman, said if the mayor wants to solve homelessness "that involves tackling the housing crisis, which he has failed to do - now Khan needs to force the government to do more". According to the Trust for London, the number of people sleeping rough in London was almost 12,000 in 2023/ charity's figures show a threefold increase in people sleeping on the streets last year than in 2008/ government funding will be used to open a new Ending Homelessness Hub, that provide 24/7 support to those most at risk of sleeping rough, and expand the Homes off the Streets programme by refurbishing up to 500 empty mayor said he will end the current requirement for Londoners to be seen sleeping on the streets before they can access support, and to ensure that those at greatest risk of rough sleeping are helped early, based on their specific Sadiq said: "During my election campaign, I promised to develop a plan to end rough sleeping for good by 2030. "I'm proud to be delivering on that promise. We know the best way to end rough sleeping is to stop it before it starts.""That's why we're putting prevention at the heart of our response."City Hall's rough sleeping budget is £44.8m in 2025/26, a fivefold increase on 2016 when the mayor took office. Lord Bailey said "press releases full of fake concern and small sums of money to window dress this issue are not enough".He added: "Londoners are suffering on the frontline of this, as are the councils who support them - because Khan and the Labour Party won't do enough."Dealing with rough sleeping is pushing council budgets into the red across the city as the issue becomes worse and worse."Emma Haddad, chief executive of homeless charity St Mungo's, said rough sleeping "is a crisis and should not be a prerequisite for help".She added: "Many of our clients face long-term mental and physical health needs, which can increase the risk of homelessness and make it that much harder for people to get the support they need. "We're also seeing more people locked out of an increasingly unaffordable private rental sector, exacerbated by poor supply of housing and intense demand for it."City Hall said the mayor's new strategy would include specialist services that recognise the needs of particular groups of Londoners, such as those who face additional barriers to accessing services due to high support needs or uncertain immigration status. 'Khan not the first mayor to pledge action' Analysis by Karl Mercer, BBC London political editorHe may be the latest mayor to promise to end rough sleeping, but Sir Sadiq Khan is not the first.A year after becoming mayor, as he launched his new London Delivery Board, Boris Johnson had declared: "It's scandalous in the 21st century that people have to resort to sleeping on the streets." He promised to end rough sleeping in the capital by the time the Olympics were coming in failed, even though he re-visited the issue in his winning 2019 manifesto on the national stage - promising to end rough sleeping by the end of the next parliament. He failed Sadiq's pledge is to end it by 2030 - promised during his election-winning campaign last year - but promised against statistics that show the problem is actually on the 2017/18 - a year after he took over at City Hall - there were around 7,500 rough sleepers annually, prompting the mayor to say a year later that he was "embarrassed and angry" that so many were on the rising to a then-high of 11,018 in 2020/21, numbers did they have been on the rise for the past two years - and last year reached an all-time high of 11, at a time when funding on rough sleepers initiatives has gone up from around £8m to around £ a deadline and targets will certainly focus minds on the issue, but rough sleeping is probably just the most visible sign of London's homelessness week, London's major housing associations told BBC London they're building 66% fewer affordable homes than they were two years ago - blaming high prices, tougher building regulations and the high cost of maintaining their current homes. A day later the government and the mayor agreed a 22% drop in the target for affordable home building in the mayor's focus will be on trying to prevent people ending up on the streets in the first place - but he will know delivering many more homes will also be a key part of any sustainable future plan.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Yahoo
Kern County ranks 1st in California for Prop 36 case filings, voter support: report
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A new report found Kern County ranked first in the state for the rate of cases filed under Proposition 36 as well as voter approval of the new law, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. According to the report, Kern County prosecutors file 24 cases per 100,000 residents, making Kern the county with the highest rate of felony filings using Proposition 36. The county with the next highest rate is Orange County with 18 cases filed per 100,000 residents. Sixty-eight percent of the felony cases filed under Proposition 36 in Kern County were for drug-related offenses, the report said. Kern County also had the highest percentage of voter support for the new law at 77%. PetSmart thief found guilty in first prop 36 trial conviction in Kern County The report says voter approval of Proposition 36 within each county doesn't necessarily correlate with the number of case filings. For instance, Fresno had the third highest share of voter approval for Proposition 36 at 75%, but only files about two cases per 100,000 residents. Kern County was highest both in the percentage of voter support and filing rate, according to the data. According to a survey by California's Judicial Council of the courts conducted in the second half of February and covering most counties, prosecutors have filed about 1,500 theft and 1,900 drug cases, the report said. Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said in a press release the District Attorney's office was able to prosecute repeat offenders more effectively due to Proposition 36. Prop 36 now in effect, stiffens penalties for 'smash and grab' crimes and drug offenses 'We were out there speaking with residents one-on-one, and their message was clear: they want their communities back,' Zimmer said. 'We will not let them down. This study reflects the results of our collective effort and the community's trust in our office.' Proposition 36, also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, is a state law that went into effect in December. The law aims to increase penalties for certain crimes by reclassifying them as a felony rather than a misdemeanor. It also added fentanyl to the list of controlled substances that would warrant stricter punishments. Under Proposition 36, California residents can be charged with a felony if they have two or more prior convictions related to retail theft or drug possession. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
27-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
London's HART Hub won't open April 1, operators awaiting provincial funding
The opening of a provincial Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub in London, initially slated for next week, has been delayed as its operators say they're still ironing out the final details with the Ontario government. Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced in London on Jan. 27, that 18 new HART Hubs would open across the province by Apr. 1, including a London location operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thames Valley. However, a CMHA Thames Valley spokesperson said the organization doesn't have a clear timeline for when the province will release funding for the hub and when the facility will open. "The Ontario Government did announce the intended open dates were Apr. 1, but with the [provincial] election having been called, there is no movement on that until they're sitting again, which is later in April," Jillian Driessen wrote in an email to CBC News. "We are hoping to get a more clear timeline on when funding will be released. For now, we are working on the preparations we can and will be opening as soon as possible, but we are waiting on direction from the Ministry." Premier Doug Ford called a snap election two days after the announcement on Jan. 29. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said the government is working with the 18 HART Hubs partners on their operational budgets, adding that funding that's already been earmarked for projects is not impacted by when the legislature resumes on Apr. 14. "Our government is continuing to work with the remaining HART Hubs to bring new, safe, and comprehensive mental health, social, and addiction services, as well as supportive housing units, to 18 communities across the province, as soon as possible," said Hannah Jensen. Jensen said the nine transitioning HART Hubs, which were former supervised drug injection sites, will open as planned on Apr. 1. The province ordered those sites to close by Mar. 31 as they were within 200 metres of schools and daycares. London's supervised injection sites did not fall within that perimeter, and CMHA Thames Valley was awarded approximately $6 million per year to open a new hub after applying for it in September. Last month, the organization's vice president, Dean Astolfi said the hub will operate out of the Salvation Army's Centre of Hope in downtown London, and 33 new beds will be available right away, with the goal of having 60 beds total. "We're getting the 33 off the ground right away and quickly turning over the other beds through the recovery centre that exists at Salvation Army," Astolfi said in February. An additional 60 supportive housing units will also be created in the first year, officials said. Existing facilities at the Centre of Hope, which already operates an emergency shelter, warm meals, withdrawal management and recovery support, will be used to help people who need help with their mental health and substance use disorders. The province is spending $529 million for the 27 HART Hubs across Ontario.
